Melissa McCarthy looks back on Ghostbusters reboot backlash

Last Updated on September 27, 2021

It has been over five years since the release of 2016’s female-led reboot of Ghostbusters and it’s safe to say that the film still feels the visceral heat from hardcore Ghostbusters fans who just don’t want to acknowledge its existence. The upcoming release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife looks like the legacy sequel that the fans have been asking for but one of the stars of the 2016 film, Melissa McCarthy, is looking back on the backlash that her film took upon its release.

During a chat with ET Canada, McCarthy has come out in defense of her 2016 film and she continues to express confusion as to why it was received so negatively. Here is what she had to say:

“There’s no end to stories we can tell, and there’s so many reboots and relaunches and different interpretations, and to say any of them are wrong, I just don’t get it, I don’t get the fight to see who can be the most negative and the most hate-filled. Everybody should be able to tell the story they want to tell. If you don’t want to see it, you don’t have to see it.”

I personally never understood the backlash, especially since it started when the film was announced and no one saw a single frame of film. The official trailer on Sony’s YouTube channel has 1.1 million dislikes and subsequent trailers received a similar response. The comments got downright mean when it came to the film’s casting which was insanely misogynistic and personal. It went beyond commenting on the talent of the female cast. It broke into talking about their looks and, in the case of co-star Leslie Jones, it turned into racist attacks on social media. This went far over the line of just not wanting a reboot. In fact, the fan response to the 2016 film just showed how nasty the internet can be.

The 2016 Ghostbusters actually received decent reviews from critics with a 74% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes but given the film’s staggering budget, the movie ended up being a financial loss for Sony. Made for $144 million, the film grossed $229.1 million worldwide with insiders saying Sony took a $70 million loss on the movie. Directed by Paul Feig, the film also stars Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Chris Hemsworth.

What are YOUR thoughts on Melissa McCarthy’s defense of Ghostbusters five years later?