This section of the GBFans.com wiki collects the theatrical Ghostbusters films and the pages tied to each one, including their cast and crew listings. The series runs across two separate continuities. The original continuity began with Ghostbusters (1984) and continued with Ghostbusters II (1989), then resumed decades later with Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). The 2016 film, also marketed as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, is a stand-alone reboot with its own characters and does not continue the earlier story.[^1]
Ivan Reitman directed the first two films, both released by Columbia Pictures.[^2] The later original-continuity entries passed to a new creative team, with Jason Reitman directing Afterlife and Gil Kenan directing Frozen Empire.
Browse the entries below for individual films and the people who made them.
Primary Universe
Ghostbusters (1984)
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson star as a quartet of Manhattan-based "paranormal investigators". When their university grants run out, the former three go into business as the Ghostbusters, later hiring Hudson on. Armed with electronic paraphernalia, the team is spectacularly successful, ridding The Big Apple of dozens of ghoulies, ghosties and long-legged beasties. Tight-lipped bureaucrat William Atherton regards the Ghostbusters as a bunch of charlatans, but is forced to eat his words when New York is besieged by an army of unfriendly spirits, conjured up by a long-dead Babylonian demon and "channelled" through beautiful cellist Sigourney Weaver and her nerd-ish neighbor Rick Moranis. The climax is a glorious send-up of every Godzilla movie ever made and we daresay it cost more than a year's worth of Japanese monster flicks combined. Who'd ever dream that the chubby, cheery Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would turn out to be the most malevolent threat ever faced by New York City?
View the Ghostbusters (1984) section for more information.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Ivan Reitman's sequel to the phenomenally successful Ghostbusters is looser and more self-assured than the original. The film opens with a title reading "Five Years Later" and finds the ghostbusters living in hard times. A restraining order has forbidden the boys to partake in paranormal "warfare", and as a result they were forced to seek other lines of work. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) spend their time performing at childrens' birthday parties, and Egon (Harold Ramis) is busy conducting experiments investigating the effect of human emotions on the environment, leaving ghost-busting behind. Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana (Sigourney Weaver) have split up. Venkman now hosts a local cable show called "The World of the Psychic." Dana married someone else and had a little baby named Oscar, but is now divorced and works as an art restorer in a museum and this is where the plot kicks in. While Dana is restoring a portrait of a 16th-century tyrant by the name of Vigo the Carpathian, the portrait becomes hexed. The evil Vigo wants to return to life by taking over the body of Dana's little child. Vigo has enlisted Dana's boss, Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to compel Dana to cooperate. Soon dirty sludge and slime flow through the streets of Manhattan, and the Ghostbusters have to reunite to save the city from a funky paranormal evil.
View the Ghostbusters II (1989) section for more information.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
A 2021 sequel connected directly to Ivan Reitman's original duology, Ghostbusters: Afterlife continues 30 or so years after the events of Ghostbusters (1984). Starring Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, and Finn Wolfhard. When a single mom (Coon) and her two kids (Grace, Wolfhard) arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind. Also starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts.
Visit the Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) section for more information.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
The fourth film in the original continuity and a direct sequel to Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire returns the Spengler family to New York City and the original firehouse on Hook & Ladder 8. Directed by Gil Kenan and written by Kenan and Jason Reitman, it reunites the Afterlife cast, including Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim, and Celeste O'Connor, alongside returning original Ghostbusters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts. Released in 2024 by Sony Pictures, the film pits the original and new teams against an ancient force that threatens to bury the city in a second ice age.
Visit the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) section for more information.