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Why Sony Needs to Stop Freaking Out About the Trolls Attacking“Ghostbusters”

The New York Times published a piece yesterday detailing how Sony was excited that the “Ghostbusters” cast was going to be on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” this week to promote the film, which opens July 15, until they realized that the women (and for those who have been living under a rock for the last year, the cast of this “Ghostbusters” reboot stars women) would be on the same day as Hillary Clinton.

In my book this is a win. Many people are interested in seeing what Clinton will say in this type of environment, so the studio will no doubt benefit from having lots of eyeballs tune in to see Clinton and as a result see the movie’s cast. But instead, Sony is basically freaking out, because the film has been beset with sexist trolls, and they are concerned that men won’t show up for the movie.

We’ve been here before with “Sex and the City,” “Twilight,” “The Hunger Games,” and countless other movies with female protagonists that make money. Executives freak out about spending money on women because they just don’t understand how women think and spend. Boys are so much more damn predictable. Well too bad! The world is shifting, my friends, and in case you haven’t heard me say it, the future is female.

The thing about “Ghostbusters” is that it is not cheap. The budget is about $150 million. That’s special effects. That’s shit blowing up. That’s CGI. That’s boy territory. Movies about men get these kinds of budgets, but not movies about women.

They also have a tested, successful, male director, Paul Feig, who knows a lot about how to make funny, successful movies about women. He’s been getting so much shit you’d think he was a girl. And yes, Sony has a lot riding on it. But they need to trust their director, their stars, and women.

And let’s not forget that Melissa McCarthy is a star. She has proven that people will come and see her movies. It’s now five years after “Bridesmaids” and McCarthy is pretty much the sole cast member that benefited from the so-called “Bridesmaids effect.” She has made relatively inexpensive studio comedies that have all been successful. My colleague Mark Harris remarked on her success in a recent story on Vulture, which bears repeating:

“This is not just a remarkable run; it is literally a singular one. No other woman or man unaided by a franchise in the last five years has emerged from nowhere to become such a completely dependable movie star, appearing in one successful film after another and regularly creating product that turns a profit, while maintaining a successful foothold in TV as well.”

I want to caution all of us from believing this narrative that gender politics is going to effect the box office of “Ghostbusters.” Now is time to double down on women (because they are the ones who make the decisions on where to spend family money) and make sure that women and their kids get in the doors on opening weekend.

There are a lot of nut bags and trolls out their bemoaning the end of the earth because women dared to put on proton packs, or dared to ask for equal pay, or dared to run for president. This is where we are now. It’s the fight for a sane future. But what the Sony folks need to keep in mind is that women are half of the movie ticket buyers, they talk to each other way more about what is good and bad, and will spend their money and time on something that is worth it. And they will take their kids.

The trolls on the internet are a loud, small club. They suck. They have made the lives of all of us who write about women — some way more than others — miserable. Sony is freaking out because studio films of this type just don’t get trolled — because usually the trolls are their targeted audience. If I was Sony I would crush their influence with all my might, and, more importantly, I would fan the flames of the female side of fandom and the many, many dudes out there who are not trolls.

As a person who writes about movies, I find it immensely sad when a movie that looks so special and comes at a time when there are so many people still continuing to try and hold back the progress of women, gets slammed even before a single frame has been seen, just because the cast is made up of women. I thought that we were past this.


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