The Ghostbusters reboot was one of the most controversial films in recent memory and now Melissa McCarthy has spoken out about it. The actress co-starred alongside Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones in a version of the 80s comedy that saw women take over all the lead roles. This change was met with a pretty serious backlash, but McCarthy doesn't really understand it. When asked, the actress recently said...
I just don't know why people are so afraid of women. It's fascinating to me.
The negative response to the movie was nearly instantaneous. The movie didn't need to be released in theaters or even go into production. Simply the announcement that the movie was happening resulted in a vocal negative reaction. This lasted all the way until the movie came out. Rather than being a simple comedy, Ghostbusters became a cause and many people took one side or the other.
The initial negative response was focused around the fact that the new film gender-swapped the cast, which does go to Melissa McCarthy's point that many people had a problem simply with the fact that the film starred four women instead of four men.
Of course, that wasn't the only specific criticism of the movie. Some simply had a problem with the fact that Ghostbusters was being rebooted at all, regardless of the gender of those in the lead, feeling that doing so in some way did damage to the original Ivan Reitman film that so many had grown up with. To that argument, Melissa Mcarthy also gives Yahoo a response.
If a movie 35 years later is 'ruining your childhood,' don't blame us --- you've got your own issues.
Clearly, Melissa McCarthy doesn't believe that her movie actually did any damage to the original Ghostbusters. To be fair, the movie still exists in its original format and is available for anybody to watch whenever they like. It's unclear what damage could have been done. Lots of franchises have made bad sequels and the well-loved originals have stood the test of time. And while the new Ghostbusters met with a mixed response from fans and critics, it doesn't seem like all that many actually thought it was that terrible.
In the end, the new Ghostbusters was something of a disappointment. While it's box office gross wasn't awful, it was an expensive movie to make and so almost certainly lost money. We'll never really know how much the backlash actually contributed to the theatrical response, though, director Paul Feig has said that after the heat on the film has died down more people seem to have caught the film on DVD and the response he's been getting has been much more positive.
Based on the mediocre box office it seems highly unlikely we'll see this team of Ghostbusters on the big screen again. What that means for the franchise as a whole is unclear, though there are certainly plans to do more with the brand in the future. Perhaps it will be met with a warmer welcome.
