No Time to Terminate the Dark Fate of Life after Ghostbusters but, that's not how the Fast & Furious Force works

 You can't go home again or Let dead Demon Dogs lie 

So... Ghostbusters was terrible.  Now, this isn't a rant because the little girl was made the prime protagonist.  The directors and producers tried to make her a plucky, gawky, and precocious hero and it was contrived, flat, and unbelievable.  But, there are numerous plot holes big enough to march the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man through in this forced crappy plot and stupid ha-ha homages to the first film but, you know what... who cares?

All of this lays at the feet of the current Studio system and Movie Making process.  There are seemingly only two types of films made by Hollywood studios these days; grotesque billion dollar blockbusters and remakes.  The moderate and mid-sized movie project or non-reboot is fading and seen as too risky; as proved the case with the ill-fated The Last Duel which is going to lose some $50 million dollars.  So, in studio accountants eyes it makes sense to green-light remakes (another version of Little Women perhaps?) or reboots or long delayed sequels and prequels.  Because there is believed to be a natural floor of support or a rabid enough fan-base to make the film profitable.

What no one wants to admit and no Hollywood executive wants to understand or confront is these film franchises (and I'm sure there are others I'm missing) are finished:

• Jurassic Park
• Alien
• Terminator
• Star Trek
• Star Wars
• James Bond
• Fast & Furious
• Harry Potter
• Pirates of the Caribbean

Those films had their day.  They told their stories.  But, like legendary aging athletes their day is done.

Now, maybe I'd be willing to watch films set in those universes; Rogue One, which told a story of characters you never heard of was the "best" film to come out of the Disney Studios Star Wars Era (and it wasn't that good) and the best scene was still Darth Vader murdering Rebel scum. 

Films as a story vehicle had their great runs before World War 2 and in the gritty, grimy story telling America post-Vietnam.  There's always been an appetite for serialized content.  From the olden days of radio to the mythical 1930s mini movie series, Americans have loved long form story-telling experiences.  But, we are now in the Era of Serial Television Series, which are afforded greater production value, content latitude, and story telling time which was not available to the sitcoms and soapy dramas of yesteryear.  And now (especially Covid influenced) viewing habits are vastly different; trending towards Binge watching and allowing the watcher to set the time for breaks and intermissions.

Of course, the biggest counter-point to my entire argument is everyone of those remakes, reboots, and sequels is still making big, big bucks for the film studios.  Ghostbusters: Afterlife has made about $185 million thus far on a budget of $80 million.  So, even as individual brick-and-mortar theaters and their parent companies suffer and go bankrupt expect another thoughtless, witless literally juvenile Transformers movie.