'Ghostbusters' Answers The Call Of Independence Day Audiences, Topping Last Weekend's Box Office Charts

Audiences made the call for more movies to bring them out of quarantine, and Ghostbusters answered. More than 35 years after the 1984 supernatural comedy classic hit theaters, Ghostbusters found itself at the top of the box office again, raking in $550,000 over the three-day Independence Day weekend and claiming the number one spot on the charts. It was a major win for Sony, which dominated the top two spots of the pandemic box office with reissues of major hits.

It's been 36 years since Ghostbusters last topped the weekend box office, but stranger things have happened. The Ivan Reitman comedy classic took the number one spot at this year's Independence Day box office, Deadline reports, grossing $550,000 over the three-day weekend, bringing its pandemic total to $656,000 since its re-release on July 1. Ghostbusters played at 622 locations this weekend, with drive-in cinemas accounting for 90% of box office business.

This is actually the second time that Ghostbusters has dominated an Independence Day weekend box office, with the Columbia Pictures release winning both June 29-July 1 and the July 6-8 period in 1984, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie opened on June 8 of that year to $13.6 million, raking in a grand total of $229 million domestically. The latest re-releases, which include a Fathom Events return in October and a 30th anniversary edition in 2014, bring the lifetime gross of the comedy classic starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis to $243.2 million.

The next installment of the Ghostbusters franchise, the Jason Reitman-directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife, is scheduled to hit theaters on March 5, 2021.

Most films performing well during the pandemic are re-releases, but the odd new release can crack the top 10 every now and then. This week's new release success story is AGBO Studios' Relic, the IFC Midnight horror movie starring Emily Mortimer that managed to rank third this weekend with $282,600. Dave Bautista's family comedy My Spy managed to take the No. 10 spot too, with $107,000.