I wanted to make some remarks about the new movie Oceans 8 and why I think it will succeed where the Ghostbusters reboot failed.
1. Blasphemy
The old Rat Pack Oceans 11 is beloved to some but it never had the sort of cult following that the original Ghostbusters did. Remaking Ghostbusters with a female cast was seen as a sort of blasphemy by the fans of the original and they mobilized against it. That didn’t happen with Oceans 8.
2. Proven boxoffice
The primary cast of Oceans 8—Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway—are all proven boxoffice draws. I’m sure Melissa McCarthy has her fans but not nearly as many of them as the bona fide stars in O8. And then there’s Rihanna.
3. Talent
The top-billed cast members of O8 are all Oscar winners. The cast members of the Ghostbusters reboot, well, aren’t. And it would probably take a truck to haul around all of the awards of the O8 cast—Rihanna’s alone are formidable.
4. Glamor
It’s not just looks but glamor. The cast of O8 is glamorous and the the cast of the Ghostbusters reboot isn’t. And O8 has cameos by a significant number of top models to boot. In a way it reminds me of one of the old 1930s women’s movies that had a fashion show embedded in it. Not to put too fine a point on it but glamor in the movies is still important. Movies are entertainment, for goodness sake.
And then there are all the factors I mentioned when the Ghostbusters reboot came out. Action comedy is a tough genre and doesn’t do great international boxoffice. It was too expensive to make. Who its producers thought its audience would be is puzzling. Certainly not fans of the original.
That’s why I’m confident that O8 will make money where the Ghostbusters reboot flopped.
A lot will depend on story and execution as well. Plotlines in the Ocean’s series practically write themselves