Frozen Empire Box Office Last Minute Surge Beats Afterlife’s Opening (But Just Barely)

Summary

• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
  exceeds expectations by landing a $45.2 million opening weekend.
• This surpasses its predecessor
  Afterlife
  ‘s opening weekend by $1.2 million.
• Both movies have still fallen below the $46 million opening weekend of the 2016 reboot.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has exceeded expectations and pulled ahead of its predecessor, but only slightly. The movie is a direct follow-up to the franchise’s 2021 legacy sequel Afterlife, which brought back major characters and plot points from the original 1980s horror comedies. That was a course correction from the 2016 reboot, which featured cameos from several original stars playing different roles but otherwise centered on an all-female team of Ghostbusters.

Per Variety, the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire box office has received a boost as its opening weekend progresses. Although it was originally only projected to close out the weekend with a 3-day total between $42 and $44 million, projections now show it closing out Sunday with $45.2 million. This surpasses the opening weekend of Afterlife, though only by a margin of roughly $1.2 million, as that movie opened to the tune of $44 million back in 2021.

How Does Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Compare To The Franchise Overall?

Although Frozen Empire has bested Afterlife, both movies nevertheless fell below the $46 million opening of the 2016 reboot, which went on to earn $229.1 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing movie in the franchise. However, the margin between those movies’ openings is somewhat negligible, and all three fall below the openings of the original movies when adjusted for inflation. Below, see how the opening weekend of the new sequel compares to all five of the previous Ghostbusters movies, adjusted for inflation:

Although the changes in the domestic economy between 2021 and 2024 were considerably smaller than in the period between 1984 and 2024, adjusting for inflation still changes the chart considerably. In fact, it lands the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire release at the exact bottom of the chart. However, the new movie still comes close to the total earned by Afterlife, which went on to earn $204.3 million worldwide.

Ultimately, this still doesn’t spell good news for the commercial prospects of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Despite its opening weekend surge, it will have to continue pulling ahead of Afterlife if it is going to make up for its bigger budget, which was increased from the 2021 movie’s $75 million to a whopping $100 million. This means that the movie will likely have to earn $200 million or more simply to break even, something that currently seems within its power if it maintains that lead, but just barely.

Source: Variety