I assume you’ve all heard about the people who were and probably still are pretty upset with this new “Ghostbusters” reboot. Two years ago when the project was first announced, a lot guys (and I mean male) had major fits about the all-woman casting, because *some studio had the audacity to make their beloved childhood favorite with a bunch of lousy girls for Christ’s sake.* This political correctness stuff has gone just too far, they argued.
Just imagine what they would have said if the studio decided to make an all black “Ghostbusters”.
Even one online/Youtube film critic named James Rolfe of Cinemassacre, who is also known as the “Angry Video Game Nerd” (you can just imagine what this loser looks like), went as far as to post a video saying that he was not going to review the film, because of some vague principle. Pretty unprofessional, don’t you think? He has no problems reviewing some of the worst films ever made, but he just can’t bring himself to review “Ghostbusters”. Some have even gone farther, and posted one star reviews for the film on the IMDB.com review ratings section. The problem is that they started posting the negative reviews before the film was released. Needless to say, there are a whole lot of misogynistic nerds out there who desperately need to get lives… or get laid.
And though the film got some negative reviews – most especially from Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave it one-star; though his review definitely does smell of the “my childhood is ruined” type of thing – most reviews have been positive, and there have even been a few raves.
Amid all that noise, how did the film perform this weekend? The answer is, not bad.
“Ghostbusters” came in second with $46 million, which makes it the fifth biggest weekend opening this summer. However, it still has a way to go, considering the film’s reported $158 million budget. But positive word-of-mouth, especially among women, will help it enormously. In addition, Sony launched a major PR push for the film in Europe and in the UK and Ireland, where the film opened a week before its US release, to guarantee some huge overseas box office, pushing the film into the black.
Also this weekend, once again, Universal/Illumination’s animated film “The Secret Lives of Pets” was No.1 at the box office. Though the film saw a 51% drop-off from last week, it has already passed the $200 million mark domestically in just ten days.
“The Legend of Tarzan” is holding steady at No.3 with over $103 million domestically to date, proving that white colonialist fantasies still have some appeal… unfortunately.
And “The Purge: Election Year” continues to be one of the most successful films of 2016, with a worldwide gross to date of almost $150 million, for a film that cost just less than $10 million to make.
This weekend’s top 12 follow below:
1) The Secret Life of Pets Uni. $50,560,000 Total: $203,147,865
2) Ghostbusters Sony $46,000,000
3) The Legend of Tarzan WB $11,120,000 Total: $103,050,257
4) Finding Dory BV $11,040,000 Total: $445,504,450
5) Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates Fox $7,500,000 Total: $31,323,716
6) The Purge: Election Year Uni. $6,080,000 Total: $71,001,660
7) Central Intelligence WB (NL) $5,300,000 Total: $117,508,303
8) The Infiltrator BG $5,287,124 Total: $6,749,973
9) The BFG BV $3,747,000 Total: $47,336,611
10) Independence Day: Resurgence Fox $3,450,000 Total: $98,516,443
11) The Shallows Sony $3,000,000 Total: $51,395,089
12) Sultan Yash $985,000 Total: $5,258,990
