Should Ghostbusters get a Sequel?

As of today, August 3rd, the new Ghostbusters has made just over 160 million worldwide. To put that in perspective the movie cost 144mil to make and the movie likely had a marketing budget around 50-70million dollars (we'll just stay with 50 to be safe) so Ghostbusters is still in the red. If the movie keeps going strong on the domestic front Sony might make just enough to break even (especialally considering theaters keep a chunk of the profits) and that's not what this movie was meant to do. Ghostbusters is a family friendly, multigenerational property that has been ripe for a reboot for years. The movie wasn't awful either, I mentioned in my review that I though it was pretty funny only held back by its generic tendencies.

So all this got me thinking, Does Ghostbusters deserve a sequel? Sony has been promising a sequel despite the mediocre preformance so we still might get one. If it were up to me I would say sure; there is just enough good in Ghostbusters to warrant seeing these characters again. A sequel is also a great chance to fix what was wrong the first time around, next time we may get more laughs and less forced cameos.

Unfortunately I don't really think a sequel is worth it for Sony. The marketing for this movie turned into a war zone of tragic misrepresentations. The trailers were awful and the fan reception was even uglier. If you hated this movie you were sexist, if you were looking forward to this movie then you were betraying the original classic. There really is no middle ground on the internet sometimes, and Ghostbusters brought that polarization to light.

Ultimately I think this issue resolves into two camps with vastly different answers. Does Ghostbusters deserve a sequel? I would say yes because I think this is a franchise with plenty of potential to go up (especially now that the internet shit storm that it stirred is behind us). But is Ghostbusters worth a sequel? To that and to Sony as well I think it's a no. When all is said and done this movie will preform marginally over minimum sucess. The hell that Sony suffered in large part to their marketing and the nature of the property was adapting is reason enough to call a shut down. Who really knows though, maybe Ghostbusters 2 is still in the cards. Maybe Sony has a plan to make the sequel twice as good, maybe they'll really nail the marketing next time around. Only time will tell but I think we can all safely, and promptly, lay this Ghostbusters to a well earned rest.