Hollywood's attempts to determine if one of their productions is successful enough to receive a follow-up is often met with mixed results. And I'm not talking about when a studio plans ahead on sequels they could make if their movies are successful, like with Marvel's line-up or with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies; I'm talking about looking at the numbers after the film is released and deciding if a sequel is warranted. Deadpool was such a massive, humongous hit at the box office that Fox greenlit a sequel after the first weekend. On the other hand, a follow-up to Pacific Rim wasn't on Warner Bros.'s agenda until two or three months after its release. Pushing numbers aside, though, the other thing to look at is whether or not a film needs a follow-up, because not raising this question can lead to very forced, unentertaining results (LOOKING AT YOU, HANGOVER "TRILOGY"!) I bring all this up to set up the presentation of my thoughts on a topic that's been circulating a lot of news sites as well as a few discussion boards, that being whether or not Paul Feig's recent Ghostbusters remake should become a series.
BTW, none of this is intended to be a review of the film. Here's my spoiler-free review of the film, and here's my spoiler review, if that's what you're looking for.
I figured the best way to express my thoughts on this matter was to break down this matter into several questions.
Is Ghostbusters going to make enough money at the box office to warrant a sequel?
As of August 5th, 2016, the film currently holds a box office gross of over $162 million, according to Box Office Mojo, barely surpassing its $144 million production budget. The domestic gross, which I figured would be the highest number that this movie would ever see, is over $110 million. The film still has yet to be released in several parts of the world, so the international gross still has a fighting chance to rack in some extra dough, but the film was also banned from release in China, so chances are the numbers will still look pretty slim. Also, the film still has a chance to gain a lot of momentum on DVD, Blu-Ray, and streaming, pretty much the same way that Austin Powers became a big Hollywood capitalization.
Should Ghostbusters be a franchise/series to begin with?
However, just because no movie can recapture its magic doesn't mean there shouldn't be follow-ups. Take The Dark Knight Rises, for instance; obviously, no superhero movie, let alone Batman movie, is going to recapture the awe-inspiring power of The Dark Knight, but that's not why a follow-up was made. A follow-up was made because there were still story elements that needed to be tied up, and there were still villains from the series that fans wanted to see. On that same note, there are still a lot of potential for creative ideas within this one lightning in a bottle 80s comedy that could be uncovered. What if the Ghostbusters were to time travel? What if the Ghostbusters dealt with psychics or magicians? Hell, that's just naming the ideas off the top of my head; there's probably artists and writers out there that would kill for this opportunity for creativity!
Should THIS Ghostbusters team get another go-around as opposed to the original?
If they do make a sequel, what needs to happen?
This section might be a little shorter than my other ones, because Grace Randolph on BeyondTheTrailer covered quite a bit of ground on this matter in her video from a few weeks ago.
Let me just list a few things off to make things organized:
-As I mentioned earlier, I would only want to see a Ghostbusters sequel if I knew it was going to have that big-budget action that the first film had; that was one of the few things that the remake did better than the original.

-I agree with Grace about a male equivalent of Sigourney Weaver's character from the original. Chris Hemsworth is great in his role, but Erin's crush on Kevin can't really be anything more than a comedic routine. We need a more serious romantic interest. However, I'm thinking more like an Aaron Eckhart or maybe Jason Bateman for the role. Benedict Cumberbatch, I think, would be better for another role....
-Benedict Cumberbatch should play a male version of Gozer. They already teased Zuul in the post-credits scene, they've already gender-reversed the rest of the characters... THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN! As far as Vince Clortho and Zuul go, though, since they're already opposite genders, reversing their genders, I think, would be pretty pointless.
-More professional behavior at the PA department. Seriously, it felt like a five-year-old started speaking on Paul Feig's behalf.
To wrap things up, let's answer the question in the friggin title.
Should Ghostbusters (2016) get a sequel?
My ultimate answer to this question is no.

Keep in mind, this isn't just an iconic name we're talking about; this is a bankable, timeless premise of four funny comedians using zany gadgets to battle ghosts. On top of that, it's obvious that Ghostbusters has a lot of attention; if the movie itself was viewed as much as the trailer on Youtube, the film would have made over $380 million at the box office already. So, it's not like people don't want to see another Ghostbusters; it's that they didn't want to see THIS Ghostbusters. This just felt like a forced out attempt to bank on something that deserved a more timeless approach, and until the studio is ready to take that approach, I don't think a sequel is either needed or wanted.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
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