Following the muted response to the female-led Ghostbusters film that dropped back in 2016, the release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which aimed to tap into the success of the original films whilst breathing new life into the franchise, was always going to be an interesting one.
Now that the movie is available in cinemas, critics and audiences have been having their say and, as expected, it’s a bit of a mixed bag!
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times for example, says that "a good story is key, and this sequel doesn't have it", whilst Independent writer Clarisse Loughrey says it is "the things you already knew and liked, but repeated with unearned gravitas.”
Thelma Adams, from AARP Movies for Grownups however, describes the feature as "all gooey fun, with garrulous ghosts and anarchic mini Stay Puft marshmallow men", which honestly sounds like one of the most joyous releases of the year.
With 211 scores at the time of writing on reviews aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it sits with a mediocre score of 62% on the Tomatometer.
Those who aren't paid to give their opinions though, are probably whose opinion matters the most. When we look at the audience score, it's a whopping 96% - almost perfect - from over 2,500 verified ratings.
Over on Twitter, the mixed response is once again emulated. Check out some of the verdicts below:
As for the box office? Afterlife has enjoyed an opening weekend of $44 million which sounds good but, is actually $2 million less than the 2016 reboot across the same time period. With a budget of $75 million, filmmakers will be looking for a big boost in the weeks to come and from the eventual home release.
The film dominated in the UK and Ireland, taking home £4.3 million with a tasty £3.7 million opening weekend. All in all, the movie enjoyed a $60 million global debut.
Now that the world is slowly opening back up thanks to coronavirus vaccine rollouts, people are beginning to feel more comfortable in taking trips out to places like the cinema but, the box office numbers from this past weekend do prove that we’re not quite back to where we once were.
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