Dan Aykroyd Complains the ’Ghostbusters’ Remake Was Way Too Expensive; Blames Feig
Aykroyd says Ghostbusters director Paul Feig will not be working with Sony again soon.
While 2016’s Ghostbusters remake was generally well received, the movie didn’t make waves where it counted: at the box office. The movie made $229 million on a $144 million budget, putting it woefully below the threshold that would warrant a sequel. There are a number of factors that contributed to this, the campaign of negativity surrounding the film prior to release not withstanding, but original Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd recently pointed out that director Paul Feig’s directorial choices didn’t do the film many favors.
Speaking with Sunday Brunch hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer in an interview this weekend, Aykroyd (who wrote and starred in the original and wrote and executive produced the remake), was very clear about his feelings on the film. The actor/writer said that he was a fan of the final product, and thought that all four of the film’s stars did a fantastic job. His main problem with the movie, he said, was that it cost way too much money, and he placed the blame squarely on director Paul Feig, who he says decided to ignore the recommendations of his producers and the studio when he opted not to shoot certain (unnamed) scenes. According to Aykroyd, this cost “about $30 to $40 million in reshoots.” You can see a clip of Aykroyd’s appearance, as well as the full quote text, below:
Don't hold back, Dan. #Ghostbusters pic.twitter.com/WtZ0MbRsmk
— Ross Maclean (@ross_maclean) June 4, 2017
“The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig – what a wonderful, wonderful players they are – and Leslie Jones. I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much. And Sony does not like to lose money. It made a lot of money around the world but just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one. So that’s too bad – the director, he spent too much on it. He didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him and several scenes that were going to be needed and he said “nah, we don’t need them”. Then we tested the movie and they needed them and he had to go back. About $30 to $40 million in reshoots. So he will not be back on the Sony lot any time soon.”
