How Sony Pictures has sold the supernatural sequel
Three years ago writer/director Jason Reitman brought us Ghostbusters: Afterlife, bringing the franchise up to date and pandering more than a little to the angry individuals who felt that 2016’s Ghostbusters: Answer The Call was a desecration of the only personality trait they’d cultivated over the last three decades. They were wrong, but they were also loud.
Now the story continues in Ghosbusters: Frozen Empire, hitting theaters now. The movie finds Callie, Trevor and Phoebe Spengler (Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace) along with former science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) moving from Oklahoma to New York City to fully embrace their ghostbusting responsibilities. Once there they connect with the original team of Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and Ray Stantz (Dan Ackroyd) along with erstwhile support Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) as a new supernatural threat emerges to plague the city.
Whereas the campaign for the first movie pretended that the original cast wasn’t participating, this time around they’re a major component of the marketing effort. Not only that but William Atherton returns as the infamous Walter Peck, now mayor of New York City. Patton Oswalt, Celeste O’Conner and Kumail Nanjiani are also along for the ride.
Reitman is still credited as a cowriter on this film along with Gil Kenan, who wrote the first installment and steps into the director’s chair this time around. So with all that setup, let’s look at how it’s been sold.
announcement and casting
Sony announced the movie had been greenlit for production in April 2022 during that year’s CinemaCon.
At a special fan event on Ghostbusters Day in early June of that year, Reitman updated fans that the next movie, codenamed “Firehouse”, was currently being written and would continue the story of the Spengler family. There were also lots of other announcements, including that an animated feature was in development along with a new cartoon series, comic title and more. A December 2023 release was also announced at this time.
Most of the cast from Afterlife confirmed they were returning in late 2022, the same period in which it was revealed Kenan was taking on directorial responsibilities, with Reitman remaining as writer and producers.
The first day of filming was marked in mid-March 2023. A month later more details – including the New York City setting of the story – were shared when some of the cast appeared via video message at CinemaCon.
The return of the original series’ cast was slowly revealed both unofficially and officially in mid-2023. Sony also moved the release date to March 2024 because of the dual strikes impacting not only production but also publicity efforts.
the marketing campaign
Sony kicked off the campaign in earnest in November of last year with the release of the first teaser trailer (2.6mm YouTube plays). It opens with beachgoers being overtaken by a mysterious and deadly cold snap, an event that gets the Ghostbusters both new and old back into action .
Later in November Dark Horse Comics shared more about the tie-in comics series and Sony launched an AR experience for the various social media platforms that cast a ghostly chill over people’s videos.
Toward the end of last year there was a major push involving local Ghostbusters clubs, the people who create their own costumes, proton packs and such. Part of that included toy and food drives around the holidays, part was just about getting them on film doing goofy things involving theater standees for the film. It was a fun effort and nice to see the studio embracing these hardcore fans.
Murray’s involvement was finally double-confirmed for real this time in an Empire interview with Kenan where he talked about what the story was going to be and how much fun it was working with everyone.
The first real teaser poster came out in mid-December and shows the team exiting Ecto-1 onto a New York street that’s completely iced over, with some very intimidating demons and ghouls – and Slimer – coming at them. The design has the new members clearly visible, albeit from behind, while shadowy figures that are of course the old team further away from the camera.
More new images were shared by Empire in January along with comments from Reitman, Hudson, Kenan and others.
The official trailer (3m YouTube plays) came out in late January and opens in the greatest way: With Walter Peck berating the assembled Ghostbusters for once again causing havoc in New York and this time endangering minors while engaging in shenanigans. After that a strange item is delivered to Ray at his occult shop, one that may be part of a major evil that’s about to rise and scare everyone in the world to death.
Fandango shared four new posters in late February, some of which show different groupings of the cast and some of which focus on the monsters that the heroes will be fighting.
TV spots also began running at this time, presumably also being used on other platforms. Most don’t show much that’s new, just recutting some of the bigger fan service moments from the trailer.
Another group of new posters came from Collider, including solo one-sheets for one of the mini Marshmallow guys and Slimer.
An exclusive featurette came from Fandango that focused on the connections between the old and the new generations as well as what’s brand new here.
At the beginning of March the final trailer (446k YouTube plays) was released. This one is slightly less interested in nostalgia and is more focused on the threat the heroes have to assemble to fight back against.
Wolfhard had already appeared on “First We Feast” at this point, as more publicity efforts began emerging. That included some collaborations with Adam Savage as he examined, built and tested various props and effects from the movie on his Tested YouTube channel. Later on Rudd appeared on both “Late Night” and “The Late Show” while Murray and Hudson showed up together on “The Tonight Show”. Coon also appeared on “Tonight” while nearly the whole cast came together on “CBS Mornings”.
The first clip came out in early March showing the new Ghostbusters chasing a specter down the streets of New York.
A TV spot with Peyton and Eli Manning donning quarter-zip outfits to fight ghosts was meant to appeal to…I’m honestly not even sure.
Everyone involved hit the red carpet for the New York City premiere a little over a week before release, talking about why they returned, what a good time audiences could expect and how much fun it was to play Ghostbuster again. Some of them also traveled to London for the premiere event there.
Coon was interviewed about the role her character plays in the story while an interview with Kenan had him talking about the pressure of stepping into the shoes of the late Ivan Reitman.
overall
Reviews have been fairly good so far, which is a positive sign given the main criticism of Afterlife is that it was a comedy sequel that showed little to no interest in being funny. And interest seems relatively high, with an opening weekend box-office take of about $45mm projected.
It does feel a bit refreshing that this time around everyone has dropped the pretense of the original cast not being part of the movie. Not only does that allow them to be more actively involved in promoting this one but it also creates a major selling point to communicate to the audience, one that is hammered home repeatedly.
While there is a lot more fun on display here than was seen in the marketing of Afterlife, it also still feels oddly serious. At least it feels like the movie is taking itself very seriously. But I guess that what the groups who were the most vocal about girls being let into the clubhouse wanted and continue to look for, so it’s what is being sold here.
Personally I want more of William Atherton scolding everyone for acting childish. More to the point, I want everyone acting kind of childish, thumbing their nose at the authorities and going out on limbs just because it seems like a cool thing to do.
Cinematic Slant 