On June 8, 1984, the American supernatural comedy film was released in theaters across the United States, combining science fiction, horror, and late-night sketch-comedy humor.
The original idea first came to Dan Aykroyd, the co-writer, who spent a very “ghostly” life with his family. Being raised around spiritualists and psychic researchers gave him the idea of wanting to mix real ghost stories with the styles of 1930s ghost comedies.
He
originally wrote the script as a movie, with himself and John Belushi as the stars. In the draft the characters traveled through different dimensions to fight ghosts. But sadly, Belushi died, and the script was put aside until Aykroyd decided to show it to director Ivan Reitman.
Reitman liked the idea of ghost-catching, but traveling through space and time was a bit too expensive to film, so he suggested changing the story.
Aykroyd, with Harold Ramis, started the rewriting. They moved the story to New York, ditched the traveling through dimensions idea, and the three, Bill Murray, Raymond Stantz, and Ramis, became the Ghostbusters team who, after losing their jobs, would start a catching-ghosts business and save the whole city.
Reitman was so excited to pitch the idea even before it was finished, asking for a $30 million budget, which was a lot for a comedy at the time. Columbia Pictures agreed, but they gave them only
13 months to write the script and finish the entire movie.
Critics doubted that special effects would ruin the comedy, but Ghostbusters was a giant success. It grossed $229 million at the domestic box office.
The movie’s famous
theme song, written and performed by Ray Parker, Jr., spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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