Paul Feig Calls out Sony for Excluding Ghostbusters 2016 From “Ultimate Collection”

Recently Sony Pictures confirmed the home media release for their recent film Ghostbusters: Afterlife and alongside it they confirmed plans for a Ghostbusters: Ultimate Collection, a 4K box set that will include Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Notice anything missing? Ghostbusters (2016), or Ghostbusters: Answer the Call as it was later titled, is nowhere to be found, and considering how integral that film was to getting Afterlife made, as director Jason Reitman himself admitted, it’s quite surprising. SlashFilm was the first to notice that the 2016 reboot wouldn’t be included in the set and after they made a note of it, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call director Paul Feig noticed too.

In a tweet, Feig wrote: “Um …@SonyPictures, 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. So, I guess this was just an oversight? #weareallghostbusters 👻❤️” Some fans may claim that the exclusion of Ghostbusters 2016 from the box set is because it’s in a different universe as the other three film, all of which share a continuity; but the reboot features all of the same stars from the original movies that appear in Afterlife and was produced by Ivan Reitman.

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The exclusion of Ghostbusters 2016 is especially surprising considering the levels of mutual respect that Feig and Afterlife director Jason Reitman shared for each other before and after the most recent movie was released. 

Prior to the release of the film, Reitman revealed that development on his movie had begun even before Feig’s film had been released, telling Insider:  “I think only three people at Sony knew of its existence….When Paul made his movie, he kind of broke the doors open. Suddenly a Ghostbusters film did not have to be about those four original guys in Manhattan. That was a big moment….I want to see all kinds of Ghostbusters movies. I want to see Ghostbusters movies from all my favorite filmmakers, coming from all kinds of different cultures and different countries.”

Once it became clear that Afterlife was headed for a big opening weekend, Feig tweeted a congrats to Reitman, saying: “Huge congrats to ⁦@JasonReitman and the whole #GhostbustersAfterlife cast and crew on this amazing opening weekend. The film is brilliant. So exciting to have a whole new generation bustin’! Here’s to many more ecto adventures! #weareallghostbusters.”

Reitman responded in kind, “You are a class act, a great friend, and a brilliant director. My heart is filled with gratitude for @paulfeig, the brilliant ATC cast and crew. Thank you for expanding the GB universe and giving me the courage to attempt a 👻 movie. #weareallghostbusters.”

All of this begs the question, why does the box set not include all four movies?