[Chicken, He Clucked]

I think it would take a lot of work to get Slimer to the point where Ray is just talking to him and understanding him. He’d have to start off already tamed to a significant degree in the research centre. And I’m sure plenty of fans and casual audiences would also have a problem with that.

[timeware]

I would have been fine with Trevor and Slimer co-existing in his lair like old college buddies shooting the shit and playing video games. Trevor getting Slimer drunk would have been funny as hell. Slimer driving the Ecto One and even picking up the team would have been a fun cameo and nod to GBII. He probably drives better then Rudd anyhow.

A fun RGB nod would have been Trevor training Slimer to show Phoebe his food.

[Kingpin]

I would have been fine with Trevor and Slimer co-existing in his lair like old college buddies shooting the shit and playing video games. Trevor getting Slimer drunk would have been funny as hell. Slimer driving the Ecto One and even picking up the team would have been a fun cameo and nod to GBII. He probably drives better then Rudd anyhow.

A fun RGB nod would have been Trevor training Slimer to show Phoebe his food.

[timeware]

That may be...But you can't say Rudd's driving skills are better then Slimers. Lol.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

Slimer already drove the Ecto in one of the movies and fans were… united in how much they loved it!

The amount of guys on the fan pages whining about Melody really bums me out. At this point there is no pleasing everyone with a Ghostbusters movie, it’s impossible.


Moving on, I hear about “Hollywood accounting” and it does make me wonder… do you think Afterlife and Frozen Empire REALLY cost their advertised budgets?

There are many CGI and effects heavy movies with large casts and fairly modest budgets. Eg. Abigail cost just $28million.
I understand FE featured the legacy cast and some shooting in NYC, Paul Rudd… so a bump is expected… but Afterlife I could see coming in under $75mill. And then you factor in eg. Walmart placement, the use of puppets and brief ghost appearances, tax breaks, the influence and pull of the production (favours etc). The point being I wonder if FE really did cost $100mill… not out of denial as to it’s box office performance, it was a disappointment, but if these are actually very thrifty productions making more of a profit than we might think.

[13th Floor]

There's a part or me that really wished Melody was actually the villain and not a pawn of Garraka.But that would be waaay to heavy on the drama for a ghostbusters movie.
I've seen FE three times now and it just cemented my feelings that this should've been a mini series.
Too many things in FE that needed more time in the oven to really land.Ray's arc,Melody and Phoebe.Gary's EXTREMELY rushed stepfather arc.Give poor Carrie Coon something to do and Trevor an actual character.
If there's a third one and his character still amounts to "get to drive the Ecto-1"
Matt Reeves Batman is getting a tv spin off with Colin Farrell so why not a GB show?

Slimer already drove the Ecto in one of the movies and fans were… united in how much they loved it!
Reply:I completely forgot about that,i do remember the awful cg slimer ugh
The amount of guys on the fan pages whining about Melody really bums me out. At this point there is no pleasing everyone with a Ghostbusters movie, it’s impossible.
Reply:Count me as a Melody truther..believer?I thought the arc was a bit...messy but overrall kinda fascinating

Moving on, I hear about “Hollywood accounting” and it does make me wonder… do you think Afterlife and Frozen Empire REALLY cost their advertised budgets?

There are many CGI and effects heavy movies with large casts and fairly modest budgets. Eg. Abigail cost just $28million.
I understand FE featured the legacy cast and some shooting in NYC, Paul Rudd… so a bump is expected… but Afterlife I could see coming in under $75mill. And then you factor in eg. Walmart placement, the use of puppets and brief ghost appearances, tax breaks, the influence and pull of the production (favours etc). The point being I wonder if FE really did cost $100mill… not out of denial as to it’s box office performance, it was a disappointment, but if these are actually very thrifty productions making more of a profit than we might think.

I wonder if the pandemic inflated Afterlife's costs.Post production was mid pandemic if i remember correctly.
FE's 100 million budget actually feels lower than i expected.But it is obvious the shortcuts the team took.This movie is VERY set heavy and they really made their money's worth with the firehouse set since it shows up so much.
Overall the CG work and blending sets/exterior/cg extension is very impressive and the only thing that makes me doubt the 100 million number.I would have said 130 as the floor

[Bison256]

Is Winston paying the Spenglers and Mr Grooberson a stipend? They're not directly getting paid for the busts, but they clearly have money for food and personal items.

[13th Floor]

Is Winston paying the Spenglers and Mr Grooberson a stipend? They're not directly getting paid for the busts, but they clearly have money for food and personal items.

Winston pays for the firehouse and equipement but i guess Ecto 1 expenses and their living expenses come from their busts.And yes they do get paid,why would they not be?Except for the Sewer Dragon which seems like them going after a ghost

[Bison256]

Is Winston paying the Spenglers and Mr Grooberson a stipend? They're not directly getting paid for the busts, but they clearly have money for food and personal items.

Winston pays for the firehouse and equipement but i guess Ecto 1 expenses and their living expenses come from their busts.And yes they do get paid,why would they not be?Except for the Sewer Dragon which seems like them going after a ghost

They have to be getting paid, during Adam Savage's set visit he shows some invoices among the set dressing. But I was thinking Winston's company gets the money and then he passes some on to the team. You know like most businesses. Thought most people would refer that as getting paid, unless Grooberson was only refering to the dragon being pro bono.

[13th Floor]

My headcanon is that Winston wants GB to be a self sustaining business and don't want to babysit the expenses too much. So at some point he cuts off his funding

[Chicken, He Clucked]

FE's 100 million budget actually feels lower than i expected.But it is obvious the shortcuts the team took.This movie is VERY set heavy and they really made their money's worth with the firehouse set since it shows up so much.
Overall the CG work and blending sets/exterior/cg extension is very impressive and the only thing that makes me doubt the 100 million number.I would have said 130 as the floor

I have absolutely no solid basis for this, other than the restrained use of FX in this movie. The library ghost and slimer are puppets limited to 4x short sequences. That can’t have cost a great deal, relatively. Melody’s effects again are fairly modest.
Garraka, Pukey, Possessor, the proton streams and city backdrops were all CG, but… when you consider an ep of House of the Dragon or Stranger Things cost $20-30mill an episode with extensive comparable CGI sequences - these things aren’t as expensive as they once were. And given they’re mostly done in-house. I personally don’t think it cost more than $100million.

(Of course I might be way off, and creating authentic looking effects and sets is actually more costly)

[Alphagaia]

It must not be easy to make cinema and always end up with round, easy to remember numbers.

[GuyX]

FE's 100 million budget actually feels lower than i expected.But it is obvious the shortcuts the team took.This movie is VERY set heavy and they really made their money's worth with the firehouse set since it shows up so much.
Overall the CG work and blending sets/exterior/cg extension is very impressive and the only thing that makes me doubt the 100 million number.I would have said 130 as the floor

I have absolutely no solid basis for this, other than the restrained use of FX in this movie. The library ghost and slimer are puppets limited to 4x short sequences. That can’t have cost a great deal, relatively. Melody’s effects again are fairly modest.
Garraka, Pukey, Possessor, the proton streams and city backdrops were all CG, but… when you consider an ep of House of the Dragon or Stranger Things cost $20-30mill an episode with extensive comparable CGI sequences - these things aren’t as expensive as they once were. And given they’re mostly done in-house. I personally don’t think it cost more than $100million.

(Of course I might be way off, and creating authentic looking effects and sets is actually more costly)

U can’t really compare a TV show to a movie from a budget perspective. TV shows can amortize costs over SEASONS. So it’s a different game entirely. Assets and sets get built and reused, VFX characters and assets get built and reused.

Didn’t I read somewhere Frozen Empire had over 1000 visual effect shots? Well over 1000? It doesn’t seem like the film has that many but I guess with all the city stuff since they didn’t film with the actors in NYC it adds up.

I think the true budget will get revealed sooner or later

Before he left 1 one of last PM’s Richardless sent me was talking about tax stuff in England. Since Frozen Empire shot in England they have to do an audit or something of all the films costs for tax purposes. That’s how we know how much Disney spent on all the Star Wars movies and some of the marvel movies. This info is public info. It could even be available now I’m not sure, I wouldn’t even know where to look.

On a different note. I know this isn’t scientific but FE score on IMDb really surprises me. 6.1. I don’t think this movie was review bombed to any serious degree. Those thing usually correct themselves anyways. But 6.1?

I liked the movie but I’m just not sure this is the direction regular folk get excited about. Is it possible even to get regular folk excited for Ghostbusters anymore? A sad thought.

[mrmichaelt]

Didn’t I read somewhere Frozen Empire had over 1000 visual effect shots? Well over 1000?

About 1400 (https://beforesandafters.com/2024/04/29 ... en-empire/).

[Chicken, He Clucked]

I guess if the majority of those external shots and building the set in England, even - was considered cheaper than more location shooting, an exterior substitute set in the US… it must’ve been cost effective. Gil living in London maybe also a factor.

A shame they couldn't partner with Amazon or Netflix while the set was built and film a limited series using some of the cast.

[13th Floor]

Didn’t I read somewhere Frozen Empire had over 1000 visual effect shots? Well over 1000?

About 1400 (https://beforesandafters.com/2024/04/29 ... en-empire/).

I guess it's easy to settle this,we find how many VFX shots Afterlife had and compare.Afterlife cost 75 million

Edit:Watched the deleted scenes and the reveal that Nadeem is a firemaster while clunky feels way more dynamic since most of the team is there instead of(the .clear reshoot with Ray,Podcast,Pinfield and Nadeem in the basement,there's also some nice banter with Janine and Gary,it's where his line "literally scared to death?" comes from.
It also makes the Garraka invasion longer which in my opinion is better.The team gets to watch news reports of extreme weather changes,Venkman and Gary gets to talk about the ice spikes in the basement.
Helps with the theme that the firehouse is a wild west prison that has to deal with attempted sieges from time to time.

[GuyX]

I guess if the majority of those external shots and building the set in England, even - was considered cheaper than more location shooting, an exterior substitute set in the US… it must’ve been cost effective. Gil living in London maybe also a factor.

A shame they couldn't partner with Amazon or Netflix while the set was built and film a limited series using some of the cast.

That’s gotta be the future right? Ghostbusters could be terrific as a TV show. Have the “ghost of the week” then a serialized element.

When Afterlife came out it seemed like Reitman knew there was going to be a sequel while promoting it. He seemed confident @ least. But its been radio silence since FE.

It still feels weird that we now have these sequels. For so long we had the 2 movies & the animated shows. And then talk and talk and talk of a 3rd movie.

To think it’s been almost 8 years since the reboot? Freaky.

[GuyX]

About 1400 (https://beforesandafters.com/2024/04/29 ... en-empire/).

I guess it's easy to settle this,we find how many VFX shots Afterlife had and compare.Afterlife cost 75 million

I don’t know if that will settle much of anything. There a lot more to a budget than visual effects. Different companies also did the VFX. The two films also were done in two different countries.

When I watched Afterlife I never really thought about the budget too much.i never thought the money got in the way of the storytelling. Frozen Empire I definitely did.

One of the flaws of the movie is how low stakes it feels. The trailers sold us on a movie where a city would be under siege by ghosts. But we don’t see any of that.

Afterlife to me was almost perfect, I wouldn’t change much. But Frozen Empire felt a little small for how big the idea is. Does that make sense? We are back in New York. Big bad world ending threat. But we don’t get much of a sense of the scale of anything.

[13th Floor]

No,i get what you mean,it might feel a bit claustrophobic of a movie.Watch Gb 84,they shot outside the library,at the Lincoln Center,closed down the street close to Central Park West,walking on the sidewalk.
Sure they shot on LA but having at least a few moments of the cast in the flash walking on NY helps your brain to think "oh they're in Manhattan"
FE has some really well done exterior VFX shots(podcast/Phoebe arriving at the Melody dinner is the best i think)
But they're few and far between,didn't bother me but i can see why it bothered you

[Chicken, He Clucked]

For some reason those exterior shots in FE have empty sidewalks and no extras populating the city - that and no montage and no exploring a frozen city make the movie feel smaller than it could have.

After the making of book, I’d say Afterlife also felt compromised with cut ghosts (eg. Lollipop lady) that would’ve improved the montage. Doesn’t seem like we’re getting a book for FE.

[Bison256]

For some reason those exterior shots in FE have empty sidewalks and no extras populating the city - that and no montage and no exploring a frozen city make the movie feel smaller than it could have.

After the making of book, I’d say Afterlife also felt compromised with cut ghosts (eg. Lollipop lady) that would’ve improved the montage. Doesn’t seem like we’re getting a book for FE.

There was a huge miss opportunity when the containment unit broke open. They could of had referenced countless ghosts from the toy line and cartoons. Instead we got generic, simple looking ghosts.

[gerard55]

No,i get what you mean,it might feel a bit claustrophobic of a movie.Watch Gb 84,they shot outside the library,at the Lincoln Center,closed down the street close to Central Park West,walking on the sidewalk.
Sure they shot on LA but having at least a few moments of the cast in the flash walking on NY helps your brain to think "oh they're in Manhattan"
FE has some really well done exterior VFX shots(podcast/Phoebe arriving at the Melody dinner is the best i think)
But they're few and far between,didn't bother me but i can see why it bothered you

Yeah, I mean how much of the movie was shot inside the firehouse? 70-80% or thereabouts? I know the codename was firehouse but they really took that to insane degrees with how much we were in it. It felt like a really low budget movie, I suppose 100 million these days is quite small compared to some movies, but even afterlife felt more opened up despite costing less. FE just felt like everything was happening in a box.

[Kingpin]

70-80% or thereabouts? I know the codename was firehouse but they really took that to insane degrees with how much we were in it.

The Firehouse wasn't just the residence of the Ghostbusters this time around, it was a supernatural dam with the Containment Unit serving as the metaphorical widening crack in the metaphorical concrete. The setup for Frozen Empire may not've been entirely successful, but in using the Firehouse to frame a good chunk of the story, it gave us something a bit different to the other films we'd seen.

Not to mention, it served as a wonderful love letter to both Hook & Ladder №8 and Fire Station №23.

[mrmichaelt]

In an instagram story, prop modeller Nico Monterosso revealed, "Never seen in the film... but I made a new interior piece/dashboard/glovebox door/air vent for the Ecto-1 and you can just about see it here!"

https://www.instagram.com/stories/nico_ ... 856825954/

This Post Contains Spoilers

More Sewer Dragon chase storyboards by Heiko von Drengenberg.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8tla8UuM92/

[BatDan]

https://popculture.com/streaming/news/ ... rt-claims/


If this is true.

I suppose my dream for a 4-pack box set might not fruition. Thats a Shame.

[mrmichaelt]

https://popculture.com/streaming/news/ ... rt-claims/


If this is true.

I suppose my dream for a 4-pack box set might not fruition. Thats a Shame.

That's bizarre considering that Disney just made a licensing deal with Sony to handle all Disney's physical media production.

[timeware]

It wouldn't surprise me when both DVD and Blu-ray end up going bye-bye over the next three years though.

[deadderek]

People have been misinterpreting things. No need to panic about physical media releases juat yet:

[BatDan]

People have been misinterpreting things. No need to panic about physical media releases juat yet:

Well thats a relief.

[mrmichaelt]

Adam Savage/Tested video about the Orb of Garraka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ9cjYieULM