Ghostbusters 2016 director Paul Feig, who notoriously attacked fans for criticizing the film and has blamed everyone, but himself for the film’s box office failure, is now wondering why his film is not included in a newly announced Ghostbusters Ultimate Collection.
If you recall Feig responded to criticism of his gender-swapping the Ghostbusters back in 2015, where he labeled critics as misogynists.
The director told E!, “The Internet is really funny—I love it, but I hate it at the same time. The first wave when you make an announcement like that is overwhelmingly positive. Everyone’s so happy and you’re like, ‘This is great.’”
He continued, “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.”
The film would end up bombing at the box office only grossing $229 million worldwide.
According to The-Numbers, the film’s production budget was $144 million meaning it would have needed to earn around $360 million to break even.
RELATED: Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig Blames 2016 Election For Film’s Failure
Following the film’s box office disaster, Feig would blame the 2016 election for its poor grosses telling The Telegraph, “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 continued, “It was shocking. I still think about it a lot, honestly – sometimes I’m like, ‘OK, stop thinking about it.’ Because I’m really proud of the movie, and while people still send me mean things, overwhelmingly more people tell me they love it.”
“Parents and their children, women in their 20s and 30s who were inspired to go into science, or are in love with Kate McKinnon. But I definitely felt like we were the icebreaker going through the Arctic. People weren’t yet used to the idea that this could happen,” he stated.
The director further elaborated, “It ignited these passions that were already around because Trump was stirring them up. I think these guys felt they were losing control.”
Feig would go on to add, “Because the misogyny out there was in everybody’s face. It was this boiling cauldron of so many contributing factors that made women go ‘Enough,’ thank God.”
RELATED: Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig Insinuates Racism Was Cause For Film’s Box Office Failure
Not only did he blame the 2016 election for the film’s failure, but in an interview with SiriusXM in 2020 he insinuated that racism was to blame for the film bombing at the box office.
First, he would double down on his assertion that the 2016 election was to blame saying, “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…”
The director then went on to insinuate it had something to do with 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.”
Feig then laid the blame on 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.
RELATED: Dan Aykroyd Rips Ghostbusters’ Director Paul Feig A New One
While Feig blamed everyone, but himself, Dan Aykroyd, the co-writer and star of the original Ghostbusters film put a lot of blame on Feig.
He told Britain’s Sunday Brunch, “The director, he spent too much on it and he didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him. Several scenes that were going to be needed, he said, ‘No, we don’t need them.’”
“And then we tested the movie and they needed them, and he had to go back — about $30 to $40 million in reshoots,” he added.
“It cost too much, and Sony does not like to lose money. It made a lot of money around the world, but it just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one,” Aykroyd asserted.
On Facebook, Aykroyd wrote, “Paul Feig made a good movie and had a superb cast and plenty of money to do it. We just wish he had been more inclusive to the originators.”
“It cost everyone as it is unlikely Kristen, Leslie, Melissa and Kate will ever reprise their roles as Ghostbusters which is sad,” he added.
Now, in response to Sony not including his Ghostbusters film in their upcoming Ghostbusters Ultimate Collection, an 8-disc set that includes Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife available on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra H, Feig is wondering why his film isn’t included.
He posted on Twitter, “Um … Sony Pictures, I know this must be a mistake. We do have a lot of fans and Bill, Dan and Ernie were in it and it won the Kids Choice Award for Best Feature Film the year it came out.”
He then questioned, “So, I guess this was just an oversight?”
Why do you think Sony decided to not include Feig’s Ghostbusters film in their Ghostbusters Ultimate Collection?