Plot
After uncovering their family legacy in Summerville, Oklahoma, Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon) and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) relocate to the old firehouse in Manhattan that once served as the headquarters of the Ghostbusters. With Callie's partner Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), the family takes over the ghostbusting operation full time, working out of the firehouse as a household under one roof. Their return to active duty draws the disapproval of Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton), a longtime adversary of the original team who is unhappy to see the Ghostbusters back in business and tearing up the city in pursuit of spirits.
Family friend "Podcast" (Logan Kim) and original Ghostbuster Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) run an internet program called "Repossessed" out of Ray's bookstore, examining secondhand objects for signs of paranormal possession. The idea behind the show is that objects can hold spirits and energy, a property the film calls psychometric value. Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) arrives with a brass orb inherited from his family, and Dr. Hubert Wartzki (Patton Oswalt) helps establish that the orb holds an ancient evil named Garraka, an entity said to be able to command an army of ghosts, including those confined in the containment unit in the firehouse basement.
The Spengler household is strained by ordinary growing pains. Fifteen-year-old Phoebe and eighteen-year-old Trevor both push to be treated as adults, and the friction within the family drives each of them outward in search of connection. Phoebe strikes up a friendship with a girl named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind), while Trevor contends with Slimer, the gluttonous green spirit that has taken up residence in the firehouse attic.
As Garraka's threat grows, the new operation is backed by a far larger infrastructure than the original team ever had. Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), now a wealthy businessman, has funded a paranormal research center where engineers develop next-generation gear. The Engineer Corps is led by Lars Pinfield (James Acaster), with Lucky Domingo (Celeste O'Connor) serving as an intern. When Garraka moves to use his Death Chill to fulfill a prophecy of a new ice age, the extended group, the Spenglers, Gary, Podcast, Nadeem, Ray, the research team, and the returning veterans Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Winston, and Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), unites to stop him and protect the city.
Development
Talk of a follow-up to Afterlife began almost as soon as that film reached theaters. In October 2021 Ernie Hudson said he had heard rumors that a new entry was being written, and that December Gil Kenan described himself and Jason Reitman as being in "very active detailed conversations" about where the franchise might go next. Sony's Tom Rothman confirmed in April 2022 that an Afterlife sequel was in the works.
On Ghostbusters Day, June 8, 2022, Reitman and Kenan announced that they were writing the film, gave it the codename "Firehouse," and framed it as the next chapter of the Spengler family story. The pair said they had worked out the broad shape of the story before Afterlife was even finished, and that they had shared their plans, both for the Spenglers and for the wider world of the series, with Reitman's father Ivan Reitman before his death. They also confirmed that Hudson would return as Winston Zeddemore and that his company, Zeddemore Industries, would figure heavily in the franchise's future. Later in June, Sony set a theatrical release date of December 20, 2023.
Casting and crew details accumulated through the second half of 2022. Trade listings in Production Weekly named Helen Estabrook and Eric Reich among the producers, with Michael Beugg as line producer and John Papsidera as casting director, and circulated an early logline describing Ecto-1 driving back into Manhattan as the place where the story begins. Mckenna Grace confirmed her return as Phoebe Spengler in October. In December 2022 it was announced that Kenan would direct, with the principal Afterlife cast, including Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon, set to reprise their roles and Reitman serving as writer and producer. Finn Wolfhard confirmed around the same time that he had read an early draft, and noted that the production did not yet have a title.
In March 2023 the supporting cast was filled out with the additions of Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Emily Alyn Lind, and James Acaster. Nanjiani called the script "unbelievably good" and hinted his role would move the world of the series forward. In a string of interviews through the spring, Aykroyd described the film's central conceit, the notion that objects can hold spirits and energy, and confirmed that he would make a full appearance and that Acaster's character was one of the developers of new ghostbusting equipment. Aykroyd singled out the production design for praise, recounting that the crew had built "an entire replica of the firehouse on stage inside," including the corner of Varick and North Moore Street. Hudson repeatedly emphasized that Winston's wealth would let the team take its work "to the next level," funding a research operation that broadens the scope of the franchise, and described working again with Murray, Aykroyd, and Potts as a homecoming. Sigourney Weaver confirmed in May 2023 that she had not been asked to appear.
The film passed through several working and reported titles. "Firehouse" remained the codename, while "Hell's Kitchen" surfaced as an internal label that leaked online and was later disowned by the production. A title resembling "The New Ice Age" was inferred from a German promotional note in October 2023, and reports briefly floated "Frozen Kingdom," before "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" was confirmed as the final title late that month.
Filming
Pre-production
Pre-production was underway at studios in southern England by early 2023, where the firehouse was rebuilt as a full standing set. One of the Ecto-1 cars from Afterlife, previously displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, was shipped to the United Kingdom in February 2023. Construction crews undertook substantial set work, including roughly sixty meters of tiling for the firehouse interior. Jason Reitman documented the build on social media, posting photographs of himself and Kenan inside the firehouse set as it took shape.
Principal photography
Principal photography ran from late March to mid-June 2023, based at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden with additional stage work at facilities around southern England, including Shinfield Studios in Reading and Winnersh Film Studios in Wokingham. The first day of shooting took place on March 20, 2023, with Kenan and Reitman photographed outside the firehouse set holding the clapperboard for the opening scene. A separate logo was even commissioned to mark the film's United Kingdom production.
Location work in and around London doubled for New York for much of the shoot. Exterior sequences were filmed at sites such as the St. James's Park Underground station and the adjacent 55 Broadway building in April 2023, and a street dressed with references to the fictional Manhattan City Bank was shot at Canary Wharf in early June. A second unit also worked in the United States. Ecto-1 stunt-driving rehearsals, including bicycle-ramming gags, were staged in a parking lot at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in late May 2023, around the time of a scheduling conflict with concerts at the venue.
The New York second-unit shoot took place over the first half of June 2023, much of it focused on Ecto-1 driving footage. Crews captured the car traveling along Fifth Avenue between roughly 17th and 23rd Streets, around City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan, and through the Canal Street and Broome Street area of SoHo and the Lower East Side, with stunt sequences that included a car-crash gag on Church Street. A beach sequence involving special effects was filmed at Coney Island. Some of the United States location filming used the production cover name "Blaze Films, Ltd." on neighborhood notices. Eric Reich reported that principal photography in London wrapped on June 23, 2023, after which the firehouse set was dismantled. Hudson confirmed in early July that the shoot was complete.
Post-production
Editing began over the summer of 2023; Kenan noted in August that he had assembled a first cut under the "Firehouse" codename. The 2023 Hollywood labor disputes pushed the release back from December 2023 to March 29, 2024, and a round of additional photography was scheduled once the strikes ended. Those reshoots took place in and around Atlanta, Georgia, in early December 2023, with Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Celeste O'Connor, Annie Potts, Dan Aykroyd, Kumail Nanjiani, and others taking part across closed-set work in the city and in nearby Newnan. Grace later described finishing the final reshoots in Atlanta around midnight before flying out the same morning for a convention appearance.
Scoring and sound work continued into early 2024 at Sony's studios in Los Angeles. Dario Marianelli composed the score, with Peter Bernstein, son of original Ghostbusters composer Elmer Bernstein, consulting on the music; sessions made use of period electronic instruments including the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. Editor Nathan Orloff declared post-production wrapped on March 3, 2024. Orloff characterized the editorial approach as a return toward the tone of the 1984 film, in contrast to Afterlife's effort to do something distinct from the original.
Release
Sony moved the release forward in January 2024, settling on March 22, 2024, for the United States. The world premiere was held in New York on March 14, 2024, drawing the returning original cast and the Afterlife ensemble; a London premiere followed the week of March 18, with a screening at the Vue cinema in Leicester Square on March 20. A range of special screenings accompanied the rollout, including a 35mm presentation at the Vista Theater in Hollywood and fan-organized events in the New York metropolitan area and in Toronto.
The original motion picture soundtrack of Marianelli's score was released digitally on the film's opening day, with a CD edition following in early April 2024. The film arrived on digital platforms on May 7, 2024, and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on June 25, 2024, in several editions, including retailer-exclusive packages and a two-film gift set pairing it with Afterlife. It began streaming on Netflix on July 22, 2024, and started airing on FX on February 1, 2026.
Box office
The film carried a reported production budget of about $100 million. It earned $4.7 million from preview screenings and around $16 million on its opening Friday, building to a domestic opening weekend of $45.2 million, the top result of that weekend. Combined with an estimated $16.4 million from international markets, where the United Kingdom led with about $5.3 million, its global opening stood at roughly $61.6 million.
Domestic business continued through the spring. The film took in about $15.7 million in its second weekend for a domestic total of $73.4 million, and crossed $100 million worldwide by the end of March 2024. It reached roughly $138 million globally in its third weekend, surpassed $175 million by late April, and crossed $188 million by the end of that month. By late May 2024 the domestic total stood just under $113 million, with a worldwide gross reported at $200,279,314.
Reception and accolades
In December 2024 the film received four Saturn Award nominations: Best Fantasy Film, Best Younger Performer in a Film for Mckenna Grace, Best Film Music, and Best Film Costume Design. In June 2025 Dario Marianelli was honored at ASCAP London, where the score won Top Box Office Film of the Year.
Legacy
Frozen Empire reunites the surviving members of the original 1984 team with the Afterlife generation and formally returns the franchise to its New York roots and the original firehouse after Afterlife's rural Oklahoma setting. It also reframes the Ghostbusters as a larger, better-funded organization: Winston Zeddemore's success underwrites a dedicated paranormal research center and engineering corps, expanding the series beyond the small family business at the heart of the previous film. Returning hardware such as the Ecto-1, the Proton Pack, the PKE Meter, and the containment unit appears alongside new equipment built for the expanded team, and the film positions Zeddemore Industries and the next generation of Spenglers as the engine for the franchise going forward.
