New Ghostbusters box set omits 2016 movie, and the director wants answers

The question “what is Ghostbusters?” is one that would seemingly have a direct, straightforward answer. A new box set, however, has made the question more difficult. This is the Ghostbusters Ultimate Collection, a new collection of Blu-rays that recently became available for pre-order on Walmart, has stirred controversy for what it doesn’t include: Paul Feig’s 2016 reboot, Ghostbusters Answer the Call.

With no details included in the listing yet, here’s what the box appears to include: the 1984 Ghostbusters Movie, Reprinting the 1985 Book Making Ghostbusters by Don Shay, which details the production of that original movie right down to notes accompanying the script (and is described by the Patreon Ghostbusters News as a “highly rare, holy grail” for collectors), the 1989 sequel Ghostbusters 2, 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, There are two bonus discs, which appear to contain the content.

Take the discs thought to have been included in each film and combine them into a package that looks very much like a proton box. The Ultimate Collection makes a pretty comprehensive Ghostbusters collection. Package for someone who is willing to spend $145 per month (or $14 on layaway) on comprehensive Ghostbusters. package. But can it be the “Ultimate” listing without Feig’s movie, which starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Chris Hemsworth?

Feig doesn’t think so. “I know this must be a mistake,” he tweeted at Sony Pictures, after reading the news on SlashFilm. He notes in the tweet that the movie has its own fans, boasts cameos from the original crew, and won the Kids’ Choice Award for Best Picture in 2017. “So, I guess this was just an oversight?” (Polygon has reached out to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for clarification and will update this story when comment is available.)

Responding to Feig’s tweet are both fans and detractors of his movie, which is now often referred to as Ghostbusters: Respond to the Call. “This is why I don’t participate in GhostbustersFandom is no longer acceptable. The total disregard for women I know where I’m not wanted…,” reads one tweetThis is met with many responses, pointing out the fact that, in reality, Afterlife A female protagonist was present.

Some argue that Answer the call’s absence is due to it taking place in a different universe than the other three Ghostbusters movies, the battle lines on Feig’s films have been set since January 27, 2015 when the all-female Ghostbusters crew was announced.

Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

It was a fierce backlash. “In the weeks after the announcement about the movie, I was so inundated with hate, that I almost went, ‘Maybe I should just not do this, maybe this is a bad idea’,” Feig told Yahoo! The movie was released a few more months later. Wiig told the Los Angeles Times that “it didn’t make me mad, it just really bummed me out.”

2016 was the year of vitriol. Answer the call’s trailer was flooded with dislikes, quickly becoming what appeared to be the most disliked movie trailer in YouTube history.

Alissa Wikinson from Vox pointed out that there was a lot of backlash towards her. Answer the call was reminiscent of “Gamergate, which began with the bizarre and misogynistic harassment of a number of women in the gaming world, grew into a full-blown online troll onslaught, and eventually became a blueprint for recruiting mostly young men to the burgeoning alt-right. There are many other examples. Ghostbusters backlash was also perpetuated largely by a violently vocal minority and took some of the same shape as Gamergate, particularly in the ways it targeted women and people of color.”

The culture war dominated the hype cycle for a movie. Answer the call he was without natural allies, and many vocal enemies. It was seen by some as the end of their childhoods while others see it as a fast cash-in restart. But that didn’t stop it from making money — it ultimately made over $200 million worldwide.

Of course, it’s unexpected for a movie to have “allies” and “enemies” in the first place. Feig regrets that statement, speaking at 2017’s Vulture Festival. Answer the call “became so much of a cause. I think for some of our audience, they were like, ‘What the fuck? We don’t wanna go to a cause. We just wanna watch a fuckin’ movie.’”

However, for those looking to watch 2016 Ghostbusters for what it is, Sony’s new box set, as it stands from the listing, won’t be answering the call.