Box Office Preview: ‘Ghostbusters’ Headed For $45 Million+ Debut

Paul Feig’s highly anticipated Ghostbusters is expected to finish in second place (behind holdover The Secret Life of Pets) with a solid $45 million-$48 million from 3,963 locations for the weekend, according to analysts.

The reboot – which cost $144 million to produce – features Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as the main characters. The female ghoul chasers replace the original Ghostbusters played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson in Ivan Reitman’s1984 original film.

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“For Sony, this had to be a huge hit, and it looks like it’s only going to be a moderate one,” said Jeff Bock, box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “It’ll be lucky to beat ‘Pets’ this weekend.”

Sony is estimating a more modest domestic debut with a range between $38 million and $40 million. Thus far, critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes have been generally strong, currently at a 73 percent “fresh” score.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore, made note of the negative reactions towards the film. “It’s interesting that in a world loaded with re-boots, remakes and sequels that the release of this particular title has generated ‘tempest in a teapot’ level controversy,” he said. “Much discussion has been devoted to the use of an all female cast in the lead roles made famous by Akroyd, Murray and co. as representing some sort of watershed and defining moment in film when clearly it’s a more pragmatic result of director Paul Feig’s innate ability to work comedy magic with female stars on film.”

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Dergarabedian added, “At the end of the day, audiences wanting to see something new and yet familiar in the theater this weekend will check out the new ‘Ghostbusters’ and no matter how much it makes or where it lands on the chart at least people are talking about the movies.”