Ghostbusters director Paul Feig laments the fact that his reboot wasn't as successful as it could've been. When it was first announced, the 2016 reboot was praised by some people for its gender-swapping of the main roles. However, a vocal minority of the original movies' fans were up-in-arms over the reboot, so much that they launched an impressive campaign to make the film's first trailer the most disliked movie trailer in YouTube history.

The Ghostbusters reboot starred Melissa McCarthy as Dr. Abigail Yates, Kristen Wiig as Dr. Erin Gilbert, Kate McKinnon as Dr. Jillian Holtzmann, and Leslie Jones as Patricia Tolan, with Chris Hemsworth as their secretary, Kevin Beckman (a role he credits for helping him prepare for Thor: Ragnarok). Although the movie earned mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, it was still chastised by many people, and the film ended up grossing a mere $229.1 million at the worldwide box office against an estimated production budget of $144 million. It was clearly not enough to justify a sequel, and that disappointed the director.

Feig's Ghostbusters reboot hit theaters a year ago, and the director has finally spoken out about his 2016 film at Vulture Festival in Los Angeles. He expressed disappointment that Ghostbusters wasn't as successful as he hoped it would be or that it could've been, as well as the fact that the movie turned into somewhat of a cause for people when all he wanted to do was make a fun movie for everyone to enjoy.

Peul Feig

“I think it kind of hampered us a little bit because the movie became so much of a cause. I think for some of our audience, they were like, ‘What the f***? We don’t wanna go to a cause. We just wanna watch a f***in’ movie.' It was a great regret in my life that the movie didn’t do better, ’cause I really loved it. It’s not a perfect movie. None of my movies are perfect. I liked what we were doing with it. It was only supposed to be there to entertain people.”

Ghostbusters unwittingly became the poster-child for the new trend of remaking classic or memorable films with an all-female, or at least a female-led, cast. Although the film didn't kickstart the trend, it paved the way for studios to pursue more female-led remakes. Feig's reaction may come from people questioning whether Ghostbusters and the other female-led remakes were signs of the industry progressing forward or merely pandering to audiences for a quick buck while capitalizing on each movie's established fan base.

At the moment, Sony Pictures has no plans to pursue a sequel to Feig's Ghostbusters reboot, but that doesn't mean the franchise is being shelved. The studio as well as series co-creator, Dan Aykroyd, are looking into possible ways to adapt Ghostbusters into animation, a live-action Netflix series, or onto the big screen again. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

More: A Streaming Ghostbusters Show Could Actually Work

Source: Vulture