'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' Reigns At US Weekend Box Office With $44M In Ticket Sales

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” the latest installment in the long-running comedy/science-fiction franchise, scared away the competition at the U.S. weekend box office with $44 million in ticket sales from 4,315 theaters.

What Happened: The Sony Pictures SONY release saw the return of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts from the original 1984 blockbuster; Harold Ramis, who was also part of the original cast but passed away in 2014, appeared in archival clips and via a fake Shemp-style body double. The new film focused on the next generation of ectoplasmic warriors, with Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd as the adult leads and 15-year-old Mckenna Grace and 18-year-old Finn Wolfhard as the youth stars of the production.

The success of “Ghostbusters:Afterlife” stood in stark contrast to the weekend’s other new opening: “King Richard” starring Will Smith in a biopic of the father of tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams. Released theatrically by AT&T’s T Warner Bros. with a simultaneous HBO Max streaming presentation, opened in fourth place in the weekend’s top 10 with $5.7 million in ticket sales from 3,302 theaters.

What Else Happened: The Walt Disney Co.’s DIS “Eternals,” which was the top grossing film over the past two weekends, placed second with $10.8 million in ticket sales from 4,055 theaters.

United Artists Releasing’s 007 epic “No Time to Die,” which ranked seventh in the top 10 with $2.7 million from 2,407 theaters, became the world’s top grossing pandemic-era film with a global box office tally of $733 million, of which $154 million came from U.S. audiences. “No Time to Die” muscled out “F9” from Comcast’s CMCSA Universal Pictures, which brought in $725 million at the global box office.

What Happens Next: The Thanksgiving holiday disrupts the usual Friday-to-Sunday opening weekend, as several new films arrive in theaters on Wednesday, Nov. 24, including Disney’s animated feature “Encanto”; Ridley Scott’s glossy biopic “House of Gucci,” distributed by United Artists Releasing and starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver and Al Pacino; Netflix’s NFLX “The Unforgivable,” starring Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis in a drama about a released prisoner seeking to rebuild her life; and “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” the latest installment in the long-running horror franchise, via Sony Pictures.

Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 25 will see the Disney+ premiere of Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back,” a three-part production that culled previously unseen footage from the 1970 documentary “Let It Be” for a different perspective on the tumultuous 1969 recording session that helped to speed the Beatles’ break-up.

Nov. 26 will see United Artists Releasing’s theatrical distribution of “Licorice Pizza,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age comedy starring Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn and Tom Waits, while Apple Inc.’s AAPL Apple TV+ will premiere Becky Read’s offbeat holiday documentary “‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas.”

Saying No To Superheroes: Elsewhere in the movie world, award-winning director Jane Campion returned to the big screen with “The Power of the Dog,” her first feature film since “Bright Star” in 2009. However, for her next work Campion will not be found directing a superhero movie.

“I actually hate them,” said Campion in an interview with Variety. “I think it’s safe to say that I will never do that – they’re so noisy and like ridiculous."

“Sometimes you get a good giggle, but I don’t know what the thing is with the capes, a grown man in tights,” she added. “I feel like it must come from pantomime.”

Campion made history in 1993 as the second of seven women to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for “The Piano” – her screenplay won the Oscar, and she also won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d'Or, the first female director to receive that honor.

“The Power of the Dog,” a Western starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst, won the Silver Lion at the recent Venice International Film Festival and opened in limited theatrical release on Nov. 17. It will be made available on Netflix starting Dec. 1. 

Photo: "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," via Sony Pictures.