Initial release date: June 16, 1989
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Tagline: Be ready to believe us
Plot: After saving NYC from a ghost attack, the Ghostbusters - a team of spirit exterminators - is disbanded for demolishing parts of the city during the ghost attack. But when it's revealed that spirits have taken an interest in Dana's son, the men launch a ghost-chasing mission.
Cast
Bill Murray - Peter Venkman
Dan Aykroyd - Ray Stanz
Sigourney Weaver - Dana Barrett
Harold Ramis - Egon Spengler
Rick Moranis - Louis Tully
Ernie Hudson - Winston Zeddemore
Annie Potts - Janine Melnitz
Peter MacNicol - Dr. Janosz Poha
Harris Yulin - The Judge
David Margulies - The Mayor of NY
Kurt Fuller - Hardemeyer
Wilhelm van Hamburg - Vigo
Writer(s): Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd
Director: Ivan Reitman
Rated PG (108 min)
The 1984 Ghostbusters movie will always be one of my favorites. While I don't really remember the 2016 remake/reboot/whatever it is, the 2021 sequel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, is a great addition to the OG series.
So, now after not watching it for some time, I gave the 1989 sequel Ghostbusters 2 another shot.
After seeing the first two movies back to back, the sequel definitely can't beat the original. Now, this sequel can be rather entertaining and humorous at times just like the first movie. The 1984 movie did have some really good scares while the 1989 movie kind of lacked the scares a bit.
Ghostbusters 2 still has some memorable bits such as the ghost form of the Titanic arriving and the Statue of Liberty sequence where the spirit magic of the slime made the historical landmark come alive.
So, this sequel is still a fairly entertaining follow up to the original. There are still some fun moments that you will really enjoy. But, it's just not as memorable as the first movie!
Here are some interesting fun tidbits for Ghostbusters 2:
In the years between the 1984 film and this sequel, the 1986 cartoon The Real Ghostbusters introduced the idea that Slimer was living at the firehouse as the Ghostbusters' pet. Because the original film and cartoon were so popular with children, they put Slimer in this sequel.
While the role of Vigo was played by Wilhelm van Homburg, all his lines were dubbed by Max von Sydow. Wilhelm left the premiere in anger when he found out.
Janine's appearance significantly changed from the 1984 movie to conform to her animated counterpart in The Real Ghostbusters.
Vigo was based on Vlad III The Impaler and Grigory Rasputin.
At the start of the movie, the Ecto-1 was on the verge of breaking down. The car really broke down while shooting some scenes for the montage.
Originally, the producers planned to have the crashed Hindenberg appear as a ghostly airship. They dumped it in favor of the apparitions coming off the Titanic.
After the success of Ghostbusters, a sequel was considered inevitable even though the film had been developed as a stand-alone project. The development of this sequel was arduous, and the behind the scenes conflicts were given as much coverage in the press as the movie.
When David Puttnam became chairman of Columbia Pictures in June 1986, he wasn't interested in developing an expensive sequel and favored smaller films over big-budget blockbusters.
Reitman later said the delay in development wasn't all Puttnam's fault; he said that executives about Puttnam at Columbia's NY branch had attempted to work around him, but couldn't get the production moving even after sidelining him.
Also according to Reitman, the delayed occurred because the main actors didn't want to make a sequel for nearly three years; by the time they decided to go ahead, Murray was committed to starring in the Christmas comedy Scrooged.
Puttnam was eventually replaced at Columbia by Dawn Steel. When she took the job, her corporate bosses made it clear that getting the sequel into production was a priority. Columbia had experienced a long series of box office failures since Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 was seen as the best way to reverse their fortunes.
Aykroyd described the first draft as "really too far out ... too inaccessible." He wanted to avoid using NYC, set the movie overseas, and provide a contrast to the first film's climax atop a skyscraper by including a subterranean threat.
This draft followed Dana Barrett, who is kidnapped and taken to Scotland, where she discovers a fairy ring - a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms sometimes linked to folklore to fairies or witches - and an underground civilization. The Ghostbusters would have to travel through an underground pneumatic tube over 2,000 miles long that would've taken three days to traverse.
Aykroyd eventually decided that retaining the NY setting would allow for continuity and would better fit the story he wanted to tell while allowing them to explore underground.
Following test screenings, the principal crew realized there were numerous issues with the movie. Reitman said that upon watching the rest version he realized the final 25 minutes of the version "just died a terrible death," so he spent four days filming a new ending.
The test screenings identified that audiences liked the film but felt the villain Vigo didn't present a real challenge to the Ghostbusters and that their victory was too easy.
In the late 1980s, film sequels were still quite rare, but the concept of the media franchise had quickly developed following the success of the original Star Wars trilogy. In 1989, more sequels were released than in any previous year, including The Last Crusade, The Karate Kid Part III, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Lethal Weapon 2.
Also released that year were original hits that would become popular classics like Uncle Buck, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, When Harry Met Sally and Dead Poets Society. That year's most anticipated film was Batman, which was scheduled for release a week after this sequel, and whose logo had become ubiquitous through a significant marketing campaign sided by its mega-conglomerate owner Time Warner.
Shortly before its release, a "major theater chain" executive said they expected Ghostbusters II to make approximately $150 million during its run, behind The Last Crusade ($225 million) and Batman ($175 million), and ahead of Lethal Weapon 2 ($100 million). The sequel was originally scheduled for release in July 1989 but less than three months before release, it was brought forward to June to avoid direct competition with Batman.
Ghostbusters II opened to $29.5 million during its first weekend. In total, the sequel earned $112.5 million during its domestic run, which is less than half of the original's income.
The sequel was negatively received from critics, but audiences responded more positively.
Financially Ghostbusters II was a relative success but it failed to meet studio expectations as a sequel to the highest-grossing comedy of all time (at that point). Despite being predicted to outperform its rival films before its release it failed to do so.
Reitman blamed changes in what audiences wanted from films. He felt contemporaneous society was more negative and cynical, and noted the popularity of Batman, which had a darker tone whereas Ghostbusters II is more positive, particularly its upbeat, optimistic ending.
Since its release, this sequel has been labeled as the movie that "killed" the franchise because it made less money from a larger budget than the first movie and because the filming experience and resulting reception dissuaded Murray from involvement in a potential third movie.
While some modern critics continue to criticize it as a bad movie or inferior to its predecessor, others argue that it suffers from being compared with the first movie and its otherwise above average.
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