‘Ghostbusters’ holds its own, but ‘Life of Pets still No. 1

Ghostbusters Directed by Paul Feig With Wiig, McKinnon, McCarthy and Jones Violet Crown, Regal PG-13, 116 min. “The controversy and all the attention helped us get out there”, said Josh Greenstein, Sony‘s president of world-wide marketing and distribution.

Naturally, success like this has us thinking about sequels, and while no official word has come down from Universal about whether Max (Louis C.K.) and Duke (Eric Stonestreet) will be back for more excursions in the Big Apple, that doesn’t mean we can’t get the ball rolling. After all, dusting off the ectoplasm was expensive, with Sony shelling out $144 million to make “Ghostbusters” and millions more to market the film. And that could be a challenge in some territories that don’t have the same familiarity with the original “Ghostbusters” films. “It’s another to risk $200 million on a movie with a gay protagonist that needs to play in China and Russian Federation, countries where LGBT citizens face discrimination, legal challenges, and violence”, Brent Lang wrote.

Ever since the new Ghostbusters film was announced, with its all-female cast, the hate for it has been awful.

Central Intelligence is still drawing crowds with an estimated $5.3 million; unfortunately, the critically praised The Infiltrator, starring Bryan Cranston, appears to have stalled out with a rough debut weekend, earning an estimated $5.3 million.

In limited release, director Woody Allen’s new comedy Café Society had an impressive outing, scoring $355,000 in five theaters. The film will feature cameos from Bill Murray (Groundhog Day), Dan Aykroyd (Spies Like Us), Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Ernie Hudson (The Crow), Annie Potts (Designing Women), and Ozzy Osbourne.

Feig’s previous female-skewing comedies – including Bridesmaids and The Heat – were extraordinarily successful thanks to incredible multiples, as they held on week after week at the box office.

Everything continues to come together for the critter-laden cartoon, says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “There was all this hoopla and all this chatter about the movie and now it’s opened and it did just fine”, said Dergarabedian. Feig has previously mentioned that he has a couple of ideas for a second movie, but the rest of the cast has been mum on whether they’d like to return. Where available, the latest global numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.

Final figures are expected Monday. It was thought initially that it will be hard for Ghostbusters to snatch the number one position of Secret Life of Pets. With its $11 million gross, Finding Dory lands at No. 4, one full month into release.

Finding Dory was fourth with $11 million.

Not doing so well from last week is Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, which landed just $7.5 million to bring its domestic up to $31 million. “The Purge: Election Year“, $6.1 million ($3.6 million international). 7. This weekend sees the release of the animated flick “Ice Age: Collison Course” and the thriller “Lights Out“. There’s even a Ghostbusters II nod, as Slimer carjacking the Ecto-1 isn’t the first time the ugly little spud has gotten behind the wheel. The movie which has a production cost of $75 million has already earned $203.2 million in two weeks alone. “Big Fish and Chinese Flowering Crabapple”, $14.3 million. 9. “When Larry Met Mary”, $15 million. 8.