Before the containment unit holding the first reviews is opened, industry experts are projecting Sony Pictures spooky-sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire to debut somewhere between $35-$49 million at the North American box-office this weekend.
That might seem like quite a wide spectrum when it comes to a projection, but there are a lot of mitigating factors when looking at Gil Keenan’s sequel to 2021’s Afterlife.
The figures quoted by long range box-office specialists Box Office Pro take into account a real sense of the unknown with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
Ghosbusters: Afterlife opened to $44 million back in November 2021, at a time when theatres were still recovering from the global pandemic. That film finished up grossing $204 million worldwide, which included $129 million at the domestic box-office. It was viewed as a win, largely based on the relatively small budget of $75 million, and the unstable nature of the movie-going business.
Fast forward three years (Afterlife was filmed in 2019 and delayed by almost a year) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is all set to test the pulling power of the franchise.
The budget looks a lot bigger (no figure has been reported), and the salaries will have exponentially increased, so the domestic numbers will need to be on the high end of projections in order to prevent Sony crossing the streams on future Ghosbusters movies.
Sony will be hoping that the favourable response to Afterlife will have generated more international appeal for the franchise, which is one that has never really performed that well outside of North America.
SEE ALSO: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire gets a final trailer, posters and featurette
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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire finds the Spengler family returning to where it all started, the iconic New York City firehouse, to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters, new and old, must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire sees McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Celeste O’Connor, and Logan Kim reprise their Afterlife roles alongside series veterans Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd with franchise newcomers Kumail Nanjiani, James Acaster and Patton Oswalt.
