Trivia / Ghostbusters (2016)

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• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Kate McKinnon designed her character Holtzmann's hairstyle. Contrary to some internet speculation it is not based on Egon's hair in the cartoon.
  • The equipment test in the alley was added in re-shoots. It was suggested by Melissa McCarthy. The alley was infested with rats.
• Approval of God: Dan Aykroyd gave the film his whole-hearted endorsement after an early screening.
• Banned in China: The film was denied permission to be screened in China, with it generally being assumed that the country's cultural opposition to depicting ghosts as malevolent entities likely keeping it from seeing the light of day over there.
• Box Office Bomb: $144 million budget, $128 million domestic gross, $229 million worldwide gross. While the movie did make back its budget in the international box office, it struggled to recoup the money spent on advertising, resulting in a $70M loss for Sony. The studio reported that it would have to take revenue from merchandise sales and home media rentals/purchases (for both the 1984 and 2016 films) to reduce the loss.
• California Doubling: Takes place in New York City like the original, but was filmed in and around Boston.
• Cameo Prop: During the exorcism scene, Patty can be seen swinging a metal tube directed towards Abby. This metal tube is actually one of the exterior pieces seen on the back side of the DeLorean in Back to the Future.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • The role of Patty Tolan was originally written for Melissa McCarthy. Paul Feig realized that McCarthy had already played similar characters in his previous films, explaining "I wanted to unleash Leslie on the public in the same way we unleashed Melissa on the public in Bridesmaids, with a very showy role".
  • Cecily Strong was considered for one of the lead roles. She was cast as Jennifer Lynch.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • The Brazilian Portuguese dub has comedian Roberto Guilherme dubbing Ozzy Osbourne.
  • The Japanese dub has many stars in the dub: Abby is voiced by comedian and fashion model Naomi Watanabe, Erin is voiced by also comedian Yukiko Tomochika, the real state agent is voiced by Asahi TV announcer Mami Saito and the hotel recepcionist is voiced by comedian Masayo "Tsubaki Oniyakko" Sato.
• Contractual Obligation Project: According to the Sony leaks, Bill Murray was legally forced to be in this movie.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Dan Aykroyd was immensely positive of the movie itself and its cast, but expressed annoyance with Paul Feig, claiming he ignored recommendations on filming key scenes. Those exact scenes instead had to be done in reshoots, adding far more to the budget and harming the end result.
  • Ernie Hudson described the idea of a reboot as "bad".
• The Danza: Ed Mulgrave Jr., the Aldridge House historian who asks for Erin's help, is played by Ed Begley Jr.
• Dear Negative Reader:
  • Paul Feig is prone to attacking any critique of the film.
  • Melissa McCarthy likewise accuses the failure of this version on some fans who wouldn't accept an all female cast.
• Defictionalization: A real and 'updated' version of Abby and Erin's book, Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal, was published prior to the movie's release.
• Deleted Scene:
  • A deleted subplot had Erin breaking up with her boyfriend Phil after he ignored her when she was being fired from the university. Phil also would've confronted Erin shortly before the team's first bust, only to be rebuked by her.
  • Rowan's possessing Abby was going to be shown in more disgusting detail, as slime oozed from her body after he got inside her, and he gloated about how she couldn't fight back.
  • After the team is discredited following Rowan's death, Erin would've had an altercation with an annoying blogger who mocked her with the "Ghost Girl" insult. The ensuing media fallout and scandal would've had her separate from the team for a while to cool down. Another scene from an earlier version of the subplot would've had Erin attempt to be rehired at her university, only for the Dean to cruelly get her hopes up then have her escorted from the premises. Erin would've had a fight with Abby over trying to leave again.
  • The dance scene with Rowan/Kevin in the credits is actually from a cut dance number where he makes the army and cops dance to "You Should Be Dancing".
  • An alternate version of Erin and Abby meeting Dr. Gorin would've had Holtzmann declare that she and Erin are dating, only for Erin to hastily respond that she's dating Kevin, much to Holtzmann's dismay.
• Gay Panic: Paul Feig has heavily implied that the studios refused to allow him to depict Holtzmann as explicitly gay, even being played by lesbian McKinnon.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: According to Chris Hemsworth, a lot of the movie's dialogue scenes were improvised, with Paul Feig throwing in lines and ideas for the actors to work and ad-lib with. The Blu-Ray has extended reels showing the lines the actors were making up.
• In Memoriam:
  • The movie is dedicated to Harold Ramis, as mentioned in the final credits.
  • In the end credits, special thanks are given to "GB Superfan" Ryan E. Kemp who died in October 2015. Kemp had met with Paul Feig on two occasions and was positive about the prospect of this reboot.
• Playing Against Type: Paul Feig, director of R-rated subversive comedies, helms a PG-13 summer tentpole. The Extended Version, which didn't receive an MPAA rating, fits at least a little more smoothly with his previous hits, by adding some raunchier gags and more profanity.
• Promoted Fangirl: The four main cast members all joined the movie because they themselves were fans of the original movie (and in Melissa McCarthy's case, The Real Ghostbusters).
• Real-Life Relative: Andy García's daughter Dominik plays Mayor Bradley's daughter.
• The Red Stapler: Jillian wears a necklace throughout the film in the shape of a U with a screw going through it. The Ghostbusters-inspired "Holtzman's Screw U" necklace pendant has since been created and is sold online.
• Short Run in Peru: The movie was released in the U.K. on July 11, 2016, four days before its American release date.
• Spoiled by the Merchandise: Some spoileriffic toys made for the movie include a figure of Rowan as the Icon Ghost, and a Kevin minifigure with a possessed-looking alternate expression.
• Stillborn Franchise: Paul Feig and the cast signed on for two more films, and the film was reportedly planned to kickstart a Ghostbusters cinematic universe, but the film's mediocre box office results put an end to those plans. Rather tellingly, Ghostbusters: Afterlife ignores this film in favor of being an Un-Reboot, being a Distant Sequel to Ghostbusters II instead.
• Throw It In!:
  • Chris Hemsworth was concerned having to face off against three funny women for the interview scene as he doesn't consider himself much of an improviser, but when the time came he improvised the bit with the lens-free glasses and the Mike Hat line among others.
  • Kate McKinnon ad-libbed the taunt "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
  • At the end of the rock concert scene, Holtzmann grabs a guitar and smashes it on the stage in her excitement. This was improvised by McKinnon on set. Feig had to quickly stop her from smashing the real guitar, but liked the idea enough to allow more set-ups with a fake prop guitar.
• Troubled Production:
  • More than 20 years of false starts, rejected pitches, and casting announcements went nowhere after the release of the second film, with attempts by Columbia (and later, Sony Pictures) to push development forward stalling out due to Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis having long-standing veto contracts, which were put in place during the meeting with Michael Ovitz in Los Angeles in 1989. As chronicled by Midnight's Edge, Ramis' death caused the power balance between the original trio of himself, Reitman and Murray to shift completely, and as detailed in leaked emails from the Sony hack, the studio film chief Amy Pascal essentially pushed Reitman out of the production process by courting Paul Feig in secret. Feig gave Pascal a pitch focusing on an all-female Ghostbusters team in a new "founding the Ghostbusters" story, and Pascal agreed to start development.
  • Pre-production was officially announced in October 2014, and Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon were announced as the main stars, alongside a production slate that was intended to jumpstart a cinematic universe called Ghost Corps, similar to what Marvel had done with their comic properties. It was revealed soon after that Tom Rothman (who took over from Amy Pascal in the wake of the Sony hack) had cut the film's budget by $15 million just before the start of production. Further e-mail leaks showed that the original film's surviving cast were being aggressively courted by Sony, to the point of threatening to sue Murray if he didn't appear in a cameo role.
  • Although the progress of production was seemingly peaceful for a few months and filming was held through the summer of 2015, a series of leaks followed that shed light on the frustrations of both the studio and its stars. In February 2016, an anonymous production assistant (posting on forums) wrote a post alleging that there were significant production problems occurring behind the scenes. The poster alleged that McCarthy was getting into fights on-set with Feig, largely because she was a huge fan of the source material and wanted something that was in-line with The Real Ghostbusters animated series. In turn, one of the (unnamed) lead actresses was getting into arguments with McCarthy, and the production crew had to pacify them by giving them equal screentime and lines. The anonymous poster also alleged that the script was reportedly terrible, that the cast and crew were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements to avoid a repeat of the Fantastic Four (2015) situation, and that Wiig and Feig were lamenting the situation they found themselves in.
  • All of this was a prelude to the release of the first trailer, which... didn't go over well, causing it to become the most downvoted movie trailer in YouTube's history. As a back-and-forth battle began in the press between representatives from the production and fans, Feig (who was prone to encouraging the cast members to ad-lib their lines) went back for reshoots. According to Aykroyd in an interview after the film's release, Feig didn't shoot connecting scenes that were suggested to him and was forced to go back and shoot said scenes once principal photography was complete, adding an additional $30-40 million in reshoots to the budget.
  • The resulting product was a Box Office Bomb, making $229 million worldwide against a $144 million budget. While the movie did make back its budget in the international box office, it struggled to recoup the money spent on advertising, resulting in a $70 million loss for Sony.
• What Could Have Been: See here
• Working Title: The movie was filmed under the codename "Flapjack", which is the very last word before the credits start. (the Hilarious Outtakes include scenes where the cast start shoehorning such a Inherently Funny Word into dialogue)

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