The Ghostbusters logo is displayed on the door of the Ecto-1 Cadillac station wagon (Photo : Getty Images / Gabriel Olsen)
The American fantasy comedy Ghostbusters will not likely be shown in China. One major reason for this is that the country's film board, China Film Co., typically does not approve of films that "promote cults or superstitious beliefs." The film, which was originally released in 1984, is centered on four women trying to battle with over 1,000 wayward ghosts in New York City.
An insider told Variety, even if the movie has yet to be screened for Chinese executives, the board is likely to censor the film given its subject matter. Previous movies with a similar subject matter were likewise disallowed from being released in the country. One such example is the Disney hit Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest.
The comedy, which has an estimated budget of $144 million, could certainly use help from global markets, especially from China which is currently the world's second-largest film market. Warcraft, a movie based on the computer game and shown just last month, took home $221 million in the China market alone. The Disney movie Zootopia earned $235.5 million, the largest amount of the year by a Hollywood movie.
Sources close to China Film Co. however, indicate a different reason for the banning of Ghostbusters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a Chinese executive said that the reason is "because they think it's not really that attractive to Chinese audiences." He went on to say that most Chinese didn't see the previous adaptation of the film so they believe that the interest is simply not there.
Sony Pictures, which is the film's parent studio, tried to avoid the possible censorship problem by changing the Chinese title. Originally, the film's Chinese translation was "Ghost Catcher Dare Die Team," but has been revised as "Super Power Dare Die Team." The original Ghostbusters, starring Bill Murray, was not released in China. However, Sony maintains that there is still no official decision on the ban since they have not formally submitted the movie to the board.
The reboot, starring Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wig and Leslie Jones is slated to open in the United States this weekend.
The official trailer can be viewed in the link below.
