‘Ghobusters: Frozen Empire’ Scares up $4.7 Million at Thursday Box Office

It took decades, but we got a mostly delightful sequel (not remake) to 'Ghostbusters'

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire earned $4.7 million in Thursday previews, netting slightly higher pre-show grosses than the $4.5 million nabbed by Ghostbusters: Afterlife in November of 2021. That Jason Reitman-directed legacy sequel opened with $44 million and legged out to $129 million domestically while earning $204 million worldwide. That was lower globally than Ghostbusters: Answer the Call ($229 million in 2016), but that remake cost around $144 million while Afterlife cost $75 million. This follow-up cost around $100 million, so Sony is hoping to stay the course domestically and/or finally get a halfway decent overseas boost for the domestic-skewing IP.

It’s plausible that Frozen Empire, which takes the Spengler family (and Paul Rudd as mom’s boyfriend/the family’s kinda-sorta stepdad) to New York where they restart the business, opens smaller than its predecessor even with better Thursday figures. It is a follow-up, and it’s possible that Frozen Empire is a case where general audiences were just curious the first time around and didn’t necessarily crave a modern-day Ghostbusters franchise. Moreover, if the 2021 relaunch was seen as a four-quadrants flick, the danger is that this offering would be seen as a just-for-kids attraction. Think, offhand, The Smurfs 2 in 2013, The LEGO Movie 2 in 2019 or kinda-sorta Shazam: Fury of the Gods in 2023.

To be fair, there have been painfully few kids’ flicks in the marketplace since Christmas and few parents will mind tagging along if their kids are interested. If only by default, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire may be the best Ghostbusters sequel ever. Granted, I like the extended home video cut of Paul Feig and Katie Dippold’s Ghostbusters: Answer the Call quite a bit more than the theatrical version, sharing a fate that ironically also befell 2016’s other “pop culture discourse-destroying tentpole” Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But Answer the Call is not a sequel, so… Frozen Empire wins the no-prize.

Frozen Empire is the first installment that just lets the cast, the newbies and the fogies, go on a Ghostbusters adventure without pomp or circumstance. There are plenty of callbacks and fan-bait moments, some more annoying than others. However, there’s far less reverence this time out, refreshingly *not* treating the Ghostbusters “lore” like an Arthurian myth where every recognizable prop is the equivalent of Excalibur. For all the talk about how Sony has tried to turn what was a singular 1980s star-plus-concept comedy into a Marvel-style franchise, Frozen Empire shows the value of instead using the 007 template.

In that sense, the Gil Kenan-directed offering is the first where our heroes aren’t beginning their careers, coming out of retirement, or going on one last mission. And yes, even if the plot is a mess in terms of structure and there’s probably a deluge of deleted scenes (there are several major trailer beats that aren’t in the film), it works because the cast and the characters are so damn charming that we enjoy the time spent in their company. That includes Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe Spengler, who (despite marketing suggesting otherwise) is still the protagonist this time out too.

Honestly, the kid — both the veteran child actress and the character (quirky and tortured by her own excessive intelligence neurodivergent) is again the main attraction. She’s not as funny this time out only because she’s going through some stuff (she gets arbitrarily benched after the terrific “team on a random mission” 007-style curtain raiser) and carries what drama the film offers. That includes a same-sex romance with a ghost. No, it’s not sledgehammer obvious or explicit. Alas, Phoebe gets less paranormal action than Ray got in the original. However, no spoilers, nor is it remotely subtle considering the choices made at crucial junctures.

Beyond that, Frozen Empire remembers to be a comedy first and a fantasy adventure second, offering up Kumail Nanjiani in a scene-stealing supporting turn alongside Patton Oswalt and James Acaster doing their thing accordingly. There are too many characters, even if Bill Murray is refreshingly kept in short supply, but Rudd and Carrie Coon have lovely chemistry and the film often plays like a “case of the week” episode of the surprisingly good (especially for an 80’s cartoon spin-off) animated series complete with genuine life-or-death stakes.

It’s no spectacular artistic triumph but amid a slew of “legacy sequels” positioning themselves as the most important biblical text ever and do-or-die commercial propositions, there was something refreshing about the “let’s just do our thing and have fun” shaggy dog approach to this Ghostbusters comedy adventure. Whether “just a fun Ghostbusters romp” will be enough in an “event movie or bust” theatrical era is an open question. Offhand, obviously identical Thursday-to-weekend legs like Afterlife gets Frozen Empire to $46 million.

Legs closer to Dune Part Two ($82.5 million/$12.2 million) would give Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire a $32 million debut, while legs closer to Wonka ($39 million/$3.5 million) put it at $52 million for the weekend. I’d wager it’ll end up somewhere in the middle, with an opening essentially tied with Wonka but without the guaranteed boost of holiday legs. Still, it may play better with younger audiences who have no particular connection to the IP, just as Afterlife mostly played fine to kids who took it as a more comedic and less violent Stranger Things-type kid-centric fantasy. As always, we’ll see.