The Appeal of Ghostbusters
Why has Ghostbusters inspired thousands of fans to put on a flightsuit and purchase or make their own proton pack? As an elementary school teacher, I have polled my students and the majority have seen Ghostbusters. When it came out in 1984, Ghostbusters dominated silver screens across America and the world, ultimately racking up $321 million domestically, launched a sequel in 1989, a reboot in 2016, and another sequel to follow in 2020. Yes, we get it: Ghostbusters has inspired all sorts of passion and merchandising, but why?
This is a question that the “Ghostheads” documentary briefly attempted to tackle . After some analysis and introspection, I propose that Ghostbusters owes its success primarily to four key ingredients.
- Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters”
2. The iconic “No-Ghost” logo.
3. Accessibility. Any serious Ghosthead knows that Dan Akroyd originally set the story in space and that we have Ivan Reitman to think for bringing the story back down to Earth and its mundane inhabitants. In his engaging book about writing, Stephen King points out that one way to engage readers is to tell them how a . Again we have Reitman to thank for this as we watch the Ghostbusters tackle their first ghost bust and see some of the problems they encounter along the way.
4. Comedic Details and Weight
