Sony and Columbia Pictures’ Ghostbusters franchise has one of the most puzzling places in American pop culture. Following the highly successful original movie from 1984, the Ghostbusting team of Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) became cinema icons. Director Ivan Reitman (Stripes, Twins) released a sequel in 1989, Ghostbusters II, that did well financially but not as well with the critics. After decades of being stuck in development hell, going through multiple screenplay drafts, a proper Ghostbusters 3 starring the original cast was canceled. All that fans were clinging to besides the two films were The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters animated series and 2009’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which Aykroyd himself described as being “essentially the third movie.”
Everything changed in 2016 when Sony and its new Ghost Corps production division opted to bring back the IP with a reboot led by a fresh group of female Ghostbusters. Before a frame was even shown, this remake was ridiculed by a toxic contingent online, a group that sadly tanked the movie’s chances at the box office. In 2021, the original timeline was revived for the legacy sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife, leading to 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which brought the classic and modern casts together for the biggest New York City adventure the series has seen yet. Considering that Frozen Empire‘s global box office surprisingly came in above expectations, it seems like this franchise might be here to stay for now.
Ghostbusters has been a strange microcosm of pop culture, with the films coming out suggesting audience tastes and, in the case of the reboot and the rebooting of the reboot, tracking how certain fandoms have begun to have control in shaping modern cinema. There can be entire essays written discussing what gets people so riled up about this franchise, which was once considered a harmless comedy! This won’t be one of those articles. Instead, this just might be another piece that riles up people for no good reason. We’re going to rank all 5 films in the Ghostbusters franchise from worst to best. Where did your favorite land here? The answer might surprise you.
All 5 Films in the Ghostbusters Franchise Ranked Worst to Best
5. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Directed by Gil Kenan.
Written by Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman.
Based on Ghostbusters by Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis.
Produced by Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, & Jason Blumenfeld.
Main Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson Annie Potts, & William Atherton.
Cinematographer: Eric Steelberg.
Composer: Dario Marianelli.
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Ghost Corps, Bron Creative, & Right of Way Films.
Release Date: March 22, 2024.
There’s a version of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire that works. That version centers firmly around Phoebe Spengler (McKenna Grace) and the coming-of-age elements that worked so well in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Unfortunately, writer-director Gil Kenan (2015’s Poltergeist remake, Monster House) overloads Frozen Empire with way too many moving parts. Kumail Nanjiani’s pyrokinetic slacker character, Nadeem Razmaadi, and Patton Oswalt’s historian, Dr. Hubert Wartzkithe, are great additions to the ensemble. The lore behind the icey villain Garraka and the somber subplot following ghost teenager Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) are also some interesting directions for the franchise to take. This latest installment, though, isn’t nearly as interested in exploring these concepts as it is cashing in on easy nostalgia points.
The way Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trots out the original Ghostbusters team completely sinks the film. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz (now in a Ghostbusters uniform) are all committed at varying levels in service of a script that gives them nothing to do. That is, except strike action figure poses and make callbacks to the two ’80s movies that older audiences loved as kids. It’s transparent nostalgia bait that never raises so much as a smile. Even when the original cast isn’t on-screen, Frozen Empire is so indebted to the past that these references still dominate. Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire is indicative of the sad state of the modern blockbuster, where fresh ideas come second to trying to make a quick buck off reminding moviegoers of the good ol’ days. It’s not working anymore.
4. Ghostbusters II
Directed by Ivan Reitman.
Written by Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis.
Produced by Ivan Reitman.
Main Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, & William Atherton.
Cinematographer: Michael Chapman.
Composer: Randy Edelman.
Production Company: Columbia Pictures.
Release Date: June 16, 1989.
Ghostbusters II is completely fine. Ivan Reitman’s 1989 sequel to the 1984 instant classic Ghostbusters was born out of necessity rather than inspiration, and it shows. Ghostbusters II goes bigger with everything. More ghosts, more visual effects, and more gags. A lot of it is charming enough. Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman and Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett still have great chemistry. Rick Moranis’ breakout doofus Louis Tully gets plenty of more screen time. Vigo the Carpathian, a 16th-century medieval spirit trapped in a painting voiced by Max von Sydow, works as a follow-up villain to the original’s Gozer. The idea of the Ghostbusters now being has-beens following the events of the first movie works great. And, of course, the image of the Ghostbusters controlling the Statue of Liberty like an RC robot is iconic in its own right.
The feeling of 1989’s Ghostbusters II being more of an obligation than anything slows it down. The pacing is awkward. The story often comes across like a bunch of disparate ideas that weren’t quite lined up correctly by screenwriters/stars Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. The constant stream of classic gags that permeated the original are still here, only they feel more half-hearted. Laugh-out-loud jokes are replaced with light chuckles. Attempts to maintain the wacky nature of the first Ghostbusters — as seen in Peter MacNicol’s slithery secondary villain Janosz Poha and the introduction of pink mood-changing slime — don’t carry the same level of wicked inspiration. It’s merely another Ghostbusters film and not much else.
3. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Directed by Jason Reitman.
Written by Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman.
Based on Ghostbusters by Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis.
Produced by Ivan Reitman.
Main Cast: Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, Bokeem Woodbine, Celeste O’Connor, J.K. Simmons, & Olivia Wilde.
Cinematographer: Eric Steelberg.
Composer: Rob Simonsen.
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Bron Creative, & Ghost Corps.
Release Date: November 19, 2021.
After the financial failure of the 2016 reboot, the Ghostbusters franchise returned to the original timeline. Whether or not this could be seen as buckling to toxic fandom is a conversation very much worth having. Regardless, however, writer-director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) inherited the IP from his father Ivan to do whatever he pleased with. The results are shockingly great. Ghostbuster: Afterlife completely changes the tone of the series into a coming-of-age, Spielberg/Amblin riff. The plot centers on Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), the daughter of the deceased Egon Spengler, and her two children Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor Spengler (Finn Wolfhard), moving to Egon’s Oklahoma farm and taking up the family’s old tech to fight local spirits. Oh, and Callie’s boyfriend Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) and the kids’ loveable friend Podcast (Logan Kim) get to join in on the paranormal hijinks too.
Sure, it’s odd to see Ghostbusters: Afterlife treat the history of a silly ’80s comedy with the same kind of deep reverence that director J.J. Abrams paid to George Lucas in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Nevertheless, this legacy sequel is so earnest and full of wonder that it’s hard not to get sucked into the magic. Filmmaker Jason Reitman takes the series into entirely new territory, where fighting the ghosts feels more tactile than ever. Moments like when Phoebe and the young Ghostbusters test out her grandfather’s old proton pack or chase down the hungry spirit Muncher across a small town in the repaired Cadillac Ecto-1 are when Afterlife reaches its peak, capturing genuine levels of wholesome charm and astonishment.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a true family adventure, where the odds are stacked against the struggling Spenglers and their internal drama is just as gripping as the actual Ghostbusting. The cast is outstanding, especially McKenna Grace (Young Sheldon) as the precocious Phoebe. It’s a huge shame, then, that in its third act, Afterlife plays embarrassingly hard to the nostalgia crowd. Jason Reitman makes the ill-advised decision to not only bring back the original Ghostbusters gang at the last minute but also to revive Harold Ramis via ghostly digital effects. Resurrecting dead actors with glossy CGI is an indefensible habit that Hollywood needs to drop. While the Ramis family did give their blessing for this occasion, its usage is admittedly still cheap. When you put all of its third-act problems aside, as difficult as that can be, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is still a heartfelt legacy sequel that works better than it should.
2. Ghostbusters (2016)
Directed by Paul Feig.
Written by Katie Dippold & Paul Feig.
Based on Ghostbusters by Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis.
Produced by Ivan Reitman & Amy Pascal.
Main Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Charles Dance, Michael K. Williams, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey, Andy García, Cecily Strong, Matt Walsh, & Ed Begley Jr.
Cinematographer: Robert Yeoman.
Composer: Theodore Shapiro.
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, & Ghost Corps.
Release Date: July 15, 2016.
Here we are. The film that caused a million bad-faith internet wars. The 2016 predominantly female reboot that had the gall to… be a Ghostbusters movie? Writer-director Paul Feig’s (Bridesmaids, A Simple Favor) much-discussed, women-led reimagining of Ghostbusters starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones is just as irreverent and goofy as the original film. It has the same conceit of washed-up academics banding together to fight the paranormal. The jokes still come out at a steady pace, albeit with a necessarily modernized sense of humor. There’s still tons of ghost carnage too.
The new characters, Dr. Abigail L. “Abby” Yates (McCarthy), Dr. Erin Gilbert (Wiig), Dr. Jillian “Holtz” Holtzmann (McKinnon), Patricia “Patty” Tolan (Jones), and their male receptionist Kevin Beckman( Chris Hemsworth), all have excellent chemistry together. So what’s the big idea? Sure, it’s not perfect. The visual effects can be wonky in places, especially in the third act. Certain jokes simply don’t land (like, “The power of patty compels you”). But it’s got the right spirit. Moreover, it’s got a real beating heart. The story of scrappy losers finally getting to show everyone they’re not crazy in their aim of ridding the world of the supernatural is endearing, certainly more than others in this franchise.
Director Paul Feig conjures up some great ghost designs and set pieces, such as a dragon spirit at a rock concert or the Ghostbusters logo itself coming to life. Ghostbusters (2016) is reverent to the original as well, having cameos for all the legacy cast members and bringing back iconography like the Staypuft Marshmallow Man and Slimer. If you’re going to remake Ghostbusters, this is probably the best way to do it. Let go of your nostalgia goggles and there’s a lot of fun to be had in Paul Feig’s reboot, especially the Extended Edition.
1. Ghostbusters (1984)
Directed by Ivan Reitman.
Written by Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis.
Produced by Ivan Reitman.
Main Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, Peter MacNicol, Kurt Fuller, David Margulies, Harris Yulin, Janet Margolin, Wilhelm von Homburg, & Max von Sydow.
Cinematographer: László Kovács.
Composer: Elmer Bernstein.
Production Companies: Columbia-Delphi Productions & Black Rhino.
Release Date: June 8, 1984.
After all the debate surrounding the franchise, it’s quite sobering to watch the first film in the modern day. By that, I mean realizing how much 1984’s Ghostbusters still holds up. Filmmaker Ivan Reitman’s original horror-comedy is a bonafide classic. It was a true lightning-in-a-bottle moment in pop culture; so much had to go right for this to work. Getting a bunch of extremely talented comedians to lead the charge was a stroke of genius. Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman is charmingly smarmy, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis kill as motor-mouth science obsessives, and a woefully underused Ernie Hudson brings an everyman grit to the group.
These comedians riffing on each other is enough to center a whole movie around, so pairing that chemistry with a script by Aykroyd and Ramis that dives headfirst into the weird world of the supernatural sets us up for a hell of a ride. Ghostbusters keeps showcasing one great comic idea after the other. The big set piece with Slimer has fantastically gross visual effects. Hilarious lines are found everywhere (like, “This man has no dick”). Supporting characters such as the witty receptionist Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), snarky EPA inspector William Atherton (Walter Peck), straight-edge NYC Mayor Lenny (David Margulies), and the outwardly annoying but, as we found later, surprisingly popular Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) all shine.
1986’s Ghostbusters is surprisingly raunchy, as well. It’s incredibly funny to remember that the movie that spawned what is now a decades-long franchise features a ghost blowjob joke. Most of all, though, Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters takes its horror elements seriously. The beasts Zuul and Vinz Clortho, combining to summon the androgynous deity Gozer, make for some genuinely out-of-this-world iconography. Ghostbusters (1984) throws a bunch of misfits into a world they can barely comprehend and it works at every corner. Undeniably, it’s in a league of its own as the very best of the franchise.