8 Movies That Inspired Online Protests
5. Ghostbusters
What They Said: “F*** OFF WE DON’T WANT WOMAN [sic] GHOSTBUSTERS.” “Another Hollywood movie ruined by PC.” “Feminist propaganda.”
In 2014, that was how social media reacted to the revelation that the new Ghostbusters would be female-led, so when the first trailer dropped two years later, you didn’t need a degree in Film Studies to predict the backlash.
With over 500,000 dislikes in a few weeks, Ghostbusters became the most disliked trailer in YouTube’s history, the ratio of views to dislikes suggesting a campaign to vote down the video. In May 2016, US critic James Rolfe refused to watch the movie based on what he’d already seen, and many seemed to be full agreement with him.
What Happened: All publicity is supposed to be good publicity, but it didn’t translate into good box office. After opening at #2 behind The Secret Life Of Pets, the movie saw its audience shrink by over fifty percent each week until it left the Top Ten with a paltry $128 million gross, less than its reported $144 million budget.
Banned in China, the movie made only another $100 overseas, so it looks like any future Ghostbusters movies will follow a very different path.