Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig Insinuates Racism Was Cause For Film’s Box Office Failure
Ghostbusters director Paul Feig is back at trying to explain why the film bombed at the box office.
Back in 2015 before the film even hit theaters, Feig attacked critics of his film saying, “The Internet is really funny—I love it, but I hate it at the same time.”
He added, “The first wave when you make an announcement like that is overwhelmingly positive. Everyone’s so happy and you’re like, ‘This is great.’ Then comes the second wave and you’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ Some of the most vile, misogynistic s–t I’ve ever seen in my life.”
As for why he declared critics of the film misogynistic Feig stated, “The biggest thing I’ve heard for the last four months is, ‘Thanks for ruining my childhood.'”
“It’s so dramatic. Honestly, the only way I could ruin your childhood is if I got into a time machine and went back and made you an orphan,” Feig explained.
Related: Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig Blames 2016 Election For Film’s Failure
Back in 2018, Feig compared the film to Hillary Clinton’s election claiming they both were caught in a misogynistic “vortext.”
He spoke to The Telegraph at the time saying, “I have been dying for somebody to look at Hillary Clinton’s campaign and us, because we were caught in the exact same vortex.”
Feig would then place the blame on then candidate Donald Trump, “It ignited these passions that were already around because Trump was stirring them up. I think these guys felt they were losing control.”
Now, in a recent interview with SiriusXM, Feig is doubling down on his comments from 2016.
When asked about his Ghostbusters experience and to reflect on it Feig stated, “I think some really brilliant author or research or sociologist needs to write a book about 2016 and how intertwined we were with Hillary and the anti-Hillary movement and it was like just this year…”
He then insinuated the cause for the film’s failure was racism, “Everyone went to a boiling point. I don’t know if it was having an African American president for 8 years teed them up or something, but they were just ready to explode.”
He then blames President Donald Trump, “In 2014 or 2015 when I announced I was going to do it, it started. There’s tape of Donald Trump going like, ‘And now the Ghostbusters are women, what is going on?'”
“It’s crazy how people got nuts about women trying to be in power or being in positions they weren’t normally in. It was an ugly, ugly year,” Feig concluded.
Ghostbusters was released in July 2016. The film earned $128.3 million at the domestic box office and $100.6 million at the international box office for a worldwide gross of $229 million. The film had an abysmal opening weekend of $46 million.
The-Numbers details the film had $38.8 million domestic video sales.
They also report the film had a production budget of $144 million and Variety indicates Sony Pictures lost at least $50 million on the film.
The film received a 60 Metascore from critics on Metacritic and a 2.8 User Score.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film received a 74% from critics and a 50% Audience Score.
What do you make of Feig’s comments?
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