Frozen Empire Box Office Opening Weekend Continues Negative Franchise Trend

Summary

• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
  follows a negative box office trend for the franchise.
• The movie is projected to earn between $42-44 million in its opening weekend.
• This is roughly the same as 2021’s
  Afterlife
  , which opened lower than the divisive 2016
  Ghostbusters
  .

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is continuing a negative franchise trend at the box office. The movie, which is the fifth theatrical installment in the franchise, is the second legacy sequel after 2021’s Afterlife, which returned the surviving original characters to the fold after the 2016 reboot introduced an all-female ghostbuster team in a separate universe. In addition to featuring returning original stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts, the movie features Afterlife cast members including Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace alongside newcomers such as Patton Oswalt and Kumail Nanjiani.

Per Deadline, the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire box office is currently projected to close out its opening weekend in domestic theaters with a 3-day total between $42 and $44 million. This is roughly the same as the opening weekend for 2021’s Afterlife, which earned $44.01 million. However, both movies failed to gross above the opening weekend of the divisive 2016 reboot, which earned $46 million.

The Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Opening Weekend Explained

While it is true there is only a thin margin separating the opening weekend totals for the three most recent Ghostbusters movies, this result isn’t necessarily good news for Frozen Empire. For one thing, the fact that it is seemingly unable to surpass the total of Afterlifedoes not inspire confidence in its financial prospects. The 2021 movie was released into a severely pandemic-depressed box office during a time that many audience members were skittish about returning to theaters, so the new movie’s inability to even match that deflated total is a more grim sign than it may initially seem.

Another huge issue with the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire release is the movie’s estimated $100 million production budget, a significant increase from Afterlife‘s $75 million. That price tag likely means that it will need to make $200 million or more worldwide in order to break even, something that seems unlikely if it continues holding a position slightly below Afterlife, which only earned $204.3 million. Below, see how the budgets of all the previous movies in the franchise have compared to their opening weekends and overall box office totals:

Budget is the same problem that plagued the 2016 reboot, which was the second highest-grossing installment in the franchise but couldn’t make up for its massive $144 million cost, thus making it a financial flop. While there is still a chance Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire can pull ahead of Afterlife and scrape together a profit, it will be difficult for it to avoid the same fate. The sequel’s path forward is currently looking dark, especially because the following weekend sees the release of the blockbuster Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which could provide significant competition.

Source: Deadline