Current Events > Paul Feig blames Trump movement for Ghostbusters failure!

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Paul Feig says Trump and anti-Hillary movement helped fuel Ghostbusters reboot backlash

Paul Feig's 2016 Ghostbusters reboot boasted a stellar cast featuring the likes of Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, but it petered out at the box office and was embroiled in controversy before it even premiered.

Now, nearly four years later, the director is reflecting on why his Ghostbusters failed to impress, pointing the finger at the cultural and political upheaval surrounding the contentious 2016 presidential election.

I think some really brilliant author needs to write a book about 2016 and how intertwined we were with Hillary [Clinton] and the anti-Hillary movement, Feig said on Jess Cagle's SiriusXM show Friday in reference to the film's release. Everyone was at a boiling point. I dont know if it was having an African American president for eight years that teed them up, they were just ready to explode.

The filmmaker also referenced Donald Trump's 2015 tirade against Ghostbusters on Instagram, during which the now-president slammed the movie for having "only women."

"By the time I announced I was going to do it, it started," Feig explained, referring to the internet backlash. The first trailer became one of the most hated film trailers in YouTube history, with dislikes overwhelmingly outnumbering the likes.

Some fans of Ivan Reitman's original Ghostbusters film series, including the director himself, attributed the backlash to nostalgia, while others pointed to sexism. "The fact there was so much controversy because we were women was surprising to me," Wiig later told the Los Angeles Times.

Leslie Jones, who also starred in the movie, quit Twitter for a period to escape the racist and sexist attacks she was getting on the platform following Ghostbusters' release.

Feig referenced the sexist critiques in his interview with SiriusXM, saying, "Its crazy how people got nuts about women trying to be in power or be in positions they werent normally in." He added of the film's release, "It was an ugly, ugly year."

The reboot won't be the last of Ghostbusters, however, as Reitman is updating the franchise with another film. The upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife debuted its first trailer in December and has received mostly positive reactions.

It stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, and Mckenna Grace, with the surviving OG Ghostbusters like Bill Murray's Peter Venkman returning as well.

Is it really just so hard to admit that you made a bad movie?

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Gosh dammit.

Admit when you've lost.

No, I'm not talking about the election. I'm talking about the stupid idea of a reboot. An all-female sequel would've made money. A reboot, male, female, or sexless amorphous blobs was a bad idea.

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It wasn't even making it all female, it just plain sucked.

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They're still trying to push this narrative...

Maybe the movie was just bad Paul, move on with your life.

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Meanwhile the new Ghostbusters movie will be awesome and he'll be more salty.

Your movie sucked dude, just admit it and move on to your next project and quit acting like your movies are the greatest thing in the world.

Bad movies have existed since the beginning of the movie industry & theyll still happen.

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Can't they just let this movie go already?

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the music sucked. get over it.

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Paul Feig has handled this situation like a clown from the very beginning. He deserves way more blame than any other individual involved by a long shot. That being said, this film had failure coming at it from everywhere.

The idea of rebooting Ghostbusters with an all female cast that only gave non consequential cameos to the old cast was definitely a flawed concept though.

Still, he could've helped the situation a lot by not engaging with trolls so hard in his own trollish way. No director should ever be personally responding to troll tweets with expletives directed at the tweeter. The professional thing is to ignore that stuff.

He also could have not had the cast rely so heavily on improvisation. Writing jokes that reflected the characters and their relationships would've helped.

Really though, the budget was a huge issue as well. This movie would have done just fine with a much more modest budget. It's BO numbers would have been great for your average comedy, but this had a massively inflated budget

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Why can't the guy just recognize that it was a shitty movie and move on.

Like, I don't give a shit that the cast was all women and the antagonist was a guy.
I care that in the trailers it looked like a bunch of dumb immature "jokes" that weren't funny, combined with "OMG SCREAMIng LOL IT"S FUNNY I"M SCREAMING" shit. seriously.

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MC_BatCommander posted...

They're still trying to push this narrative...

Maybe the movie was just bad Paul, move on with your life.

Maybe?

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What is it with directors having such inflated egos that they seem physically unable to admit they just made something shitty and always have to deflect? Like this, Rian Johnson and TLJ, Game of Thrones S8 (though that's really other people involved blaming fans for hating it, since the showrunners have barely shown their faces since it aired, lol.)

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TommyG663513 posted...

He also could have not had the cast rely so heavily on improvisation. Writing jokes that reflected the characters and their relationships would've helped.

Really though, the budget was a huge issue as well. This movie would have done just fine with a much more modest budget. It's BO numbers would have been great for your average comedy, but this had a massively inflated budget

Yeah I can't imagine how much time they wasted filming bad improv considering that budget. 144 million sunk on 4 people just spouting random garbage at each other in front of a camera.

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Paul Feig took four funny women and somehow made them not funny at all. That's almost impressive failure on his part.

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I mean regardless of whether it was good or terrible, there definitely was a huge and weird backlash long before anybody could properly assess whether it was either.

Another victim of innovating too much?

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Remember that time Melissa McCarthy punched a ghost?

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It was another shitty Sony vehicle.

I don't know why some people just can't accept that. It had nothing to do with them being women or Trump.

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Malfunction posted...

I mean regardless of whether it was good or terrible, there definitely was a huge and weird backlash long before anybody could properly assess whether it was either.

Because nobody wanted a reboot.

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please ignore this alt too

This dude needs to move on.

As the lead writer or whatever hes shown hes pretty awful while when hes got a different title hes shown he can help with comedy gold. I guess hes still taking the bad writing pretty hard.

Also, fun fact, the ex fat turned skinny camp counselor from Heavyweights is him.

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I tried to give that abortion a chance and it was so bad I couldnt get through it.

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He failed because he made a reboot instead of a sequel. Also it should have been a combo team of men and women like that one cartoon Ghostbusters Extreme or whatever

The new movie has males and females on the team. Though they are kids or teens. I think the main character is the granddaughter of one of the OG Ghostbusters

What a cuck.

Malfunction posted...

I mean regardless of whether it was good or terrible, there definitely was a huge and weird backlash long before anybody could properly assess whether it was either.

It's a remake. Basically the shovelware of the movie industry. People knew what to expect.

Malfunction posted...

I mean regardless of whether it was good or terrible, there definitely was a huge and weird backlash long before anybody could properly assess whether it was either.

I disagree. The large backlash only kicked in after that initial trailer dropped and people saw how shitty the movie looks. Sure when the film was announced you'd get the occasional "hurr all women?!" person here and there, but for the most part people didn't really care until they saw the trailer.

Zikten posted...

Also it should have been a combo team of men and women like that one cartoon Ghostbusters Extreme or whatever

honestly I think the casting decisions were fine. If it had an actual script and none of that awful improv it could have been a great movie

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I kind of liked that one melee ghost weapon.

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it's kinda funny how the new film lured everybody in with promises of the old cast and then the main trailer was basically stranger things cast does ghostbusterss

My wife and I saw it, as my wife was sick and tired of the incel crowd pre-bashing it to infinity, and we both thought it was wholly mediocre at best. I honestly think we collectively chuckled maybe ten times during the course of the comedy. Just full of obvious swings and misses and padding moments.

Sorry, it was really nothing more than a cash grab attempt at lashing onto a popular dormant IP with a marketing twist but then bringing nothing new to the table.

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Also the only reason it *actually* failed was because it had an over inflated budget because Sony are morons who thought the franchise about Schlubby Ghost Exterminators should try to be The Avengers.

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Reminder that he made a ghostbusters movie where they catch no ghosts.
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Everything negative is because of sexism, racism, bigotism, politicism, russianism, fetishism, and blantant dimensionism.

If you disagree, it's because of your stupidism.

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M_Live posted...

Yes, the misogynistic responses to the movie were and still are absolutely disgusting,

It did sort of give people a reason to write off any legit criticism. I still think that was intentional on the film maker's part.

That's just dumb. Accept that your movie just wasn't that good. Make your next movie better.

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Malfunction posted...

please ignore this alt too

thanks @ChuckSDeuces , enjoy the echochamber

I'm sure he's wiping his eyes with the money and accolades he's earned from the rest of his successful career as he says this.

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trump movement is pretty much to blame for literally everything but I don't care about that movie and I have no intention to ever watch it.
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Trump might be guilty for a lot of shit...

this isnt it tho.

Collat posted...

It did sort of give people a reason to write off any legit criticism. I still think that was intentional on the film maker's part.

Absolutely. They tried their hardest to create a consciousness that all criticism of the film (or its pre-release material) was based in sexism.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

Absolutely. They tried their hardest to create a consciousness that all criticism of the film (or its pre-release material) was based in sexism.

It worked because the fake feminism keeps being brought up. As long as they bait people with low hanging fruit, people will take it, and they'll get what they want out of it and do it again when its convenient.

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More like ghostbutthurt

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Its ok to call out when something just sucks without being demonized for it, because ya know, its actually trash.

doesnt need to have any kind of -ism attached to it. Sometimes something is just you know, really lame. Lol

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I dont agree, but a lot of the pre hate WAS based purely in misogyny. The movie turned out pretty mediocre at the end of the day.

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IShall_Run_Amok posted...

It worked because the fake feminism keeps being brought up. As long as they bait people with low hanging fruit, people will take it, and they'll get what they want out of it and do it again when its convenient.

Movie still bombed. They can try to use it to deflect criticism, but it didn't stop them from losing a ton of money.

Everybody knows angry video games nerd is the reason this movie failed

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ledbowman posted...

Everybody knows angry video games nerd is the reason this movie failed

If only he hadn't refused to review it! This movie would have made millions!

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Pus_N_Pecans posted...

I dont agree, but a lot of the pre hate WAS based purely in misogyny. The movie turned out pretty mediocre at the end of the day.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ugHP-yZXw

I think it was the combination of the cringe trailers and all the actresses just being really unfunny. They deserve the hate they got.

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Ghostbusters 2016 was not a very good movie.

That being said a lot of the public reaction to it was wildly over the top and it certainly wasn't over the movie's lack of quality.

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Ugh why is the anti-trump crowd so dishonest and desperate? Ugh