Ghostbusters: Dan Aykroyd Blames Director for Reboot's Failure

Aykroyd asserted Feig spent too much money on the film.

By Lucy O'Brien

Original Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd has blamed director Paul Feig for the 2016's reboot's underwhelming performance at the box office.

Speaking to the UK's Channel 4 (via Deadline), Aykroyd said that although he enjoyed the film - as did many critics - Feig was to blame for its inflated budget.

“The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig – what wonderful, wonderful players they are – and Leslie Jones,” began Aykroyd. “I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much. And Sony does not like to lose money, they don’t. 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 blame, according to Aykroyd, has to be laid at Feig's feet for spending too much money on production.

“The director, he spent too much on it,” Aykroyd said. “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.”

The Ghostbusters reboot grossed $299.1 worldwide on a production and marketing budget of approximately $144 million, which put any potential sequels on ice.

Lucy O'Brien is an editor at IGN’s Sydney office. Follow her ramblings on Twitter.

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