Dan Aykroyd blames Paul Feig for $40 million Ghostbusters reshoots

June 4th 2017, 1:34pm

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

There was a lot of negativity surrounding the GHOSTBUSTERS remake when it first came out, and it’s not wrong to come to the conclusion that negativity impacted the movie. Though receiving solid reviews the movie failed to recoup its otherworldly production costs. According to former Ghostbuster, Dan Aykroyd, a big reason for that is director Paul Feig and needless to say the actor had choice words towards the man behind the camera.

The actor recently spoke on Sunday Brunch about the movie, and though he did go on to praise the movie’s cast he didn't speak as highly of Feig, saying some of the decisions he made ended up costing the studio tens of millions in reshoots:

The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig – what a wonderful, wonderful players they are – and Leslie Jones. I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much. And Sony does not like to lose money. It made a lot of money around the world but just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one. So that’s too bad – the director, he spent too much on it. He didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him and several scenes that were going to be needed and he said “nah, we don’t need them”. Then we tested the movie and they needed them and he had to go back. About $30 to $40 million in reshoots. So he will not be back on the Sony lot any time soon.

Right, but tell us how you really feel, Dan.

Aykroyd has defended the movie as a whole before, and given his passion for the series it’s obvious why he would have unfavorable opinions against anyone who he feels jeopardized the film and any sequel potential. Total the movie’s production budget ran up $144 million production cost (excluding marketing) and made about $229 million globally, with estimates of a loss around $70 million. Feig still has hopes for a sequel, but back in November said that no one from Sony has called him.

Sony has gone on record to clarify the reshoot costs that Aykroyd is claiming and show support for director Paul Feig, saying: “Sony has a strong relationship with Paul Feig, and we have incredible respect for his work. The cost of reshoots were 3-4 million.”

Every movie goes through reshoots, but, yeah, that chunk of change doesn't seem like the normally allocated amount. I liked GHOSTBUSTERS, and where it succeeds is in the cast and how they work together, which getting to play well is Feig’s greatest strength. But chances are the more expensive-looking scenes are where they had to reshoot, given the cost. Now, who knows if this is how it all really went down, but if so I think Aykroyd is right in that Sony probably won’t let him touch another one of their big budget movies (when really they should just not make $150 million comedies), but hopefully Feig learned from the experience and can apply the knowledge to his future films…one of which won't be GHOSTBUSTERS 2, it seems.