wait a minute?! what happened?! did i miss something?!
Aren't we
not supposed to talk about Fight Club? I thought that was a rule...
Anyway, as for there being no sequel...I can't say I'm surprised. Mostly, though, that's due to two things: (1) preproduction information that made me suspect this thing was always gonna do poorly, and (2) the fact that audiences generally just...aren't as hyped about a lot of retreads these days as they were before.
The pre-production journey from development hell to finished film is well documented, thanks to the Sony email hacks. And from my point of view, those emails suggested a production that was always designed as a "franchise relaunch" first, and a story a very, very distant second. Maybe third. The financial considerations for "Hey, how do we launch a brand that we can spin off into videogames, comic books, toys, etc.?" always seemed to come first. Sony selected what they perceived to be a "successful" director, who -- let's be abundantly clear --
wasn't really that interested in the project to begin with. To get him on board, they gave him
carte blanche to turn the film into whatever he wanted, and he basically did the same thing he always does. Which, to be clear, is fine for original projects, but just seemed like it was thrown together for this project, and solely to bring a reluctant and unenthusiastic "box office draw" on board. That's not a great start to creating a good story. To the contrary, it sounds like nobody involved in this really gave a crap about the story at the outset. Feig just wanted to make a "Paul Feig movie" and not a Ghostbusters movie, and Sony just wanted to relaunch a brand name in association with another brand name. If you're gonna relaunch a franchise, it helps if you have people at the helm who actually care about the history of that franchise and are invested in it. It may not be a
requirement, but it sure helps (e.g., compare JJ Trek to JJ Wars -- I would argue that JJ's own fandom and enthusiasm for the projects comes through loud and clear in TFA, whereas Trek feels like a wannabe Star Wars film).
I think Sony's marketing campaign was kinda dumb too, both initially, and then as it developed over time. And everyone's involvement on Twitter didn't help either.
