Ghostbusters: Afterlife previews deposit $4.5M into its containment unit

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is off to a great start at the box office after trapping $4.5M in Thursday night previews. The film recently arrived in 3,450 locations, including Imax and Premium Large Format screens. The studio is banking on at least $27-28M in returns over a three-day window, but analysts say the Ghostbusters: Afterlife previews could reach as high as $30M.

Written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, Ghostbusters: Afterlife stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and McKenna Grace as “a family with single mom Callie and her two kids, Trevor and Phoebe, who move into a beaten-down farmhouse in Oklahoma only to discover that there’s something strange in the neighborhood. Unexplained quakes shake the town. There’s an old mine nearby that bears the name of Ivo Shandor, who built the Manhattan high-rise in the 1984 film that channeled the forces of evil.”

Paul Rudd plays “a local teacher who’s been documenting the unexplained phenomena, befriending Callie and her kids, and helping make the connection between the current weirdness and the events of three decades before”. Also starring in the film are Bokeem Woodbine, Tracy Letts, and Oliver Cooper, with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts reprising their roles from the first two Ghostbusters movies. Josh Gad recorded the sounds made by a ghost called Muncher.

Jason Reitman’s father, Ivan Reitman (who directed the first two movies), produced Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with Aykroyd serving as executive producer alongside Jason Blumenfeld, Michael Beugg, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth, and Kenan.

Chris Bumbray wrote our review Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and in it, he said the film is “ridiculously entertaining from start to finish.” He describes the next chapter in the Ghostbusters franchise as a love letter to Ivan Reitman’s original film with plenty of Easter eggs and surprises for hardcore fans.

Good grief, I’ve been spending so much money at the cinema lately now that I feel like it’s safe to return. That said, I’ll be damned if Ghostbusters: Afterlife doesn’t haunt my wallet this weekend. Will you be contributing to the Ghostbusters: Afterlife box office totals over the next three days? Let us know in the comments section below.