Sony Pictures Chairman on Ghostbusters Reboot "Haters" : "It's The Greatest Thing That Ever Happened"

Lizzy Finnegan

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Sony Pictures Chairman on Ghostbusters Reboot "Haters" : "It's The Greatest Thing That Ever Happened"


Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman wants more Ghostbusters "haters," saying "it's the greatest thing that ever happened."

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-rothman-spider-man-plans-904849], Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman talked about a number of things - Spider-Man, global marketing, animation. And, of course, the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot. In that part of the conversation, Rothman shares his take on critics of the film, asking for "more haters to say stupid things."

"I thought we needed a more global focus, because that's where the growth area is. And we have to invest a lot high up in the funnel, meaning earlier in the development process," he began, in response to a question about his strategy. "The studio may have had a hard run, but there were and are tremendous assets in our IP. It's a misnomer and a myth out there that Sony doesn't have IP. Ghostbusters is going to come out in a month, and [that's part of Sony's IP]."

When asked about how he thinks "online bashing" will impact the reboot, Rothman said: "It's the greatest thing that ever happened. Are you kidding me? We're in the national debate, thank you. Can we please get some more haters to say stupid things?"

The first official trailer for the reboot currently the 9th most disliked YouTube video [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166693-The-First-Ghostbusters-Trailer-Is-Here#&gid=gallery_5891&pid=1] ever, beaten out by the likes of Justin Bieber's "Baby" and the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare reveal trailer.

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Silentpony_v1legacy

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I've always said having the most dislikes of any YouTube video is just as good as having the most likes. I mean a Youtube channel I created 30secs ago is just as good as PewDiePie's right?

Seriously though, I think Mr. Rothman is wildly over-estimating how much cash being so hated is going to generate. What, are all the 'haters' gonna' stick it to the man by actually seeing the movie?!
I think its wrong to see just about everyone saying they're not going to see the movie as proof positive everyone is going to see the movie.
 

munx13

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This image is the first thing that came to my mind when reading this.



I highly doubt someone will go see a movie just because they can click the 'dislike' button
 

thewatergamer

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Yeah, the movie that my company is funding is like totally the greatest thing ever and you should go see it right now and make me money! I mean, backyard Olympic pools don't pay for themselves, and if you don't want to line an asshole companies pockets with your hard earned cash so you can see a cold calculated piece of shit wearing a beloved franchise like a mask, well your just a misogynist!

Either the chairman of sony is a lying sack of shit desperately trying to cull the negativity of his garbage production to try to make money off of it, or he's actually stupid enough to think that the ghostbusters reboot is going to be some amazing piece of timeless cinema that will blow the original out of the water, and people just don't like it because "women", I'd find either believable
 

Devin Barker

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Look I know a lot of people hate that its all female and hate that its a reboot and blah blah blah... But does anyone else not like it because the trailer just didnt look funny? I have no problem with what they did to the franchise or who they cast... it just doesnt look funny and that is my problem with it.
 

Chefsbrian

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Devin Barker said:
Look I know a lot of people hate that its all female and hate that its a reboot and blah blah blah... But does anyone else not like it because the trailer just didnt look funny? I have no problem with what they did to the franchise or who they cast... it just doesnt look funny and that is my problem with it.
This is my biggest issue. I couldn't give a shit about the gender of the cast. But this cast, what we've seen of the movie, just doesn't look good. Ghostbusters was successful by and large by its cast, the deliver and dry humor was a big piece of what I liked about it. So far I'm not seeing it here, with a little more focus on "lol panics and screaming and slapstick". Physical humor, I guess I'd say. And it doesn't seem to do that very good either.

Who knows though, maybe the trailer cutting crew was just absolute shit at their job. Its not gotten my interest for theatrical release, but maybe I'll torrent it a few months on. And if its any good, then I'll go see the inevitable sequel in theaters.
 

Soulrender95

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Hey Tom, remember that Deadpool movie you didn't want to make and thought no one else wanted to see?
and Fan4stic that you rushed into production so you wouldn't lose the rights?
and who was it that decided Ted was a dumb idea?
and let us not forget who campaigned against James Cameron's Avatar.

that's right Tom, those were the things you did, so yeah Fuck you Tom, your opinion is worthless and I have no idea how you still get work you are quite possibly the worst person to go to for a worthwhile opinion when it comes to genre movies
 

Zenja

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Fhqwhgod said:
Here is a thing to say: I will not even hate-watch that movie.
This is a behavior I don't understand, the hate watch. This guy actually has a point with it. I mean EVERYONE complains about Michael Bay but his movies make really good profits. Especially, the extremely hated Transformers... soon to release Part 5, and part 7 is greenlit. For all the rage, people still show up to watch Michael Bay movies which means you are voting FOR him with your wallet.

The hate watch is amazing consumer behavior. I don't spend my money on things I don't like or simply even don't approve of. How someone can pay to go see a movie they hate is beyond me. I would just be pissed for 2 hours and that doesnt sound like a good value. I can be pissed for free or go spend money to do something that takes my mind off of it. But to spend money to have it shoved in my face for two hours? I don't get that behavior.

But many people do it so, it wouldn't surprise me if he is right and this movie does awesome at the box office.
 

faefrost

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Keep in mind that this is coming from Tom Rothman, formerly of Fox Studios. Just to give a refresher course here is Midnight's Edges take on his history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP0A-NntFU4
Yeah this guy is that bad. He is a parade of bad decisions. And this "Outrage" approach to marketing finally got him canned from Fox after Fan4stic.

So no. Sony is not celebrating all the outrage and bad press. This article is Rothman blame shifting in order to protect himself. He is a master of that.
 

faefrost

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Zenja said:
Fhqwhgod said:
Here is a thing to say: I will not even hate-watch that movie.
This is a behavior I don't understand, the hate watch. This guy actually has a point with it. I mean EVERYONE complains about Michael Bay but his movies make really good profits. Especially, the extremely hated Transformers... soon to release Part 5, and part 7 is greenlit. For all the rage, people still show up to watch Michael Bay movies which means you are voting FOR him with your wallet.

The hate watch is amazing consumer behavior. I don't spend my money on things I don't like or simply even don't approve of. How someone can pay to go see a movie they hate is beyond me. I would just be pissed for 2 hours and that doesnt sound like a good value. I can be pissed for free or go spend money to do something that takes my mind off of it. But to spend money to have it shoved in my face for two hours? I don't get that behavior.

But many people do it so, it wouldn't surprise me if he is right and this movie does awesome at the box office.
Bay makes embarrassing popcorn movies that people will guilty watch. But he doesn't typically stand up and accuse his primary fanbase of being racists or sexists for not liking his movies. Rothman is the fool that led Fan4stic. You remember the "You're all racist" approach to selling the film to its target audience?
 

Ukomba

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Sorry, but I'm with the AVGN on this. I'm simply not going to watch it. That's how I treated Disney's The Force Awakens.
 

Scarim Coral

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Yeah this doesn't suprised me since they only cared about the profit/ attention than the actual quality of the product.
 

Gatlank

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Zenja said:
This is a behavior I don't understand, the hate watch. This guy actually has a point with it. I mean EVERYONE complains about Michael Bay but his movies make really good profits.
I see people complaining about Bay movies but not hating them with a passion.

But he doesn't typically stand up and accuse his primary fanbase of being racists or sexists for not liking his movies.
This is also a major factor since he doesn't give a fuck about what others think and goes around poking the hornets nest.
 

Casual Shinji

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Well, atleast he's not trying to spin it.
Silentpony said:
I think its wrong to see just about everyone saying they're not going to see the movie as proof positive everyone is going to see the movie.
Yeah, but they are gonna go see the movie. All those critics on Youtube that are making a big stink over it? Yeah, they're gonna go see this, just for the sake of being able to make a video about how truly bad it is. It's a giant media event, and you can bet everyone wants to get involved. It's what they're already doing with the tons of videos on how it looks like shit.

It'd be nice if no one went to see this piece of crap, but we both know everyone will get involved in the feeding frenzy of ripping it to bits. And that alone is going to earn it a billion dollars.

So yeah, the dude is right -- The amount of hate this movie is getting will ultimately help it break the box office, more so then if people were indifferent or even moderately excited.
 

RJ 17

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I wonder if he'll still have that shit-eating grin when the numbers come in.

Then he'll just blame the movie's lack-luster performance on sexism in the internet nerd culture.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Casual Shinji said:
Oh I sincerely doubt YouTube critics are gonna hate-fuck this movie SO much that it turns a profit. It has hype, sure. But actually financial stability? Hardly.
 

StatusNil

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The heedless arrogance of this jackass beggars belief. Here he's nakedly gloating about the PR of Sony Inc. hijacking "the national debate" with more of the playground-style "girls vs. boys" antagonism that passes for ideology in this sorry decade, and he thinks it's the Greatest Thing Ever. And no doubt plenty of idiots will still be lining up to pay their tithes to the great cause of his bottom line.

I had no interest in this rehash to begin with, as even the sequel to the original classic was pretty disappointing. But now I truly believe it's a moral imperative not to reward the utterly cynical demagoguery that they're peddling here with one dime.
 

Zenja

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faefrost said:
Zenja said:
Fhqwhgod said:
Here is a thing to say: I will not even hate-watch that movie.
This is a behavior I don't understand, the hate watch. This guy actually has a point with it. I mean EVERYONE complains about Michael Bay but his movies make really good profits. Especially, the extremely hated Transformers... soon to release Part 5, and part 7 is greenlit. For all the rage, people still show up to watch Michael Bay movies which means you are voting FOR him with your wallet.

The hate watch is amazing consumer behavior. I don't spend my money on things I don't like or simply even don't approve of. How someone can pay to go see a movie they hate is beyond me. I would just be pissed for 2 hours and that doesnt sound like a good value. I can be pissed for free or go spend money to do something that takes my mind off of it. But to spend money to have it shoved in my face for two hours? I don't get that behavior.

But many people do it so, it wouldn't surprise me if he is right and this movie does awesome at the box office.
Bay makes embarrassing popcorn movies that people will guilty watch. But he doesn't typically stand up and accuse his primary fanbase of being racists or sexists for not liking his movies. Rothman is the fool that led Fan4stic. You remember the "You're all racist" approach to selling the film to its target audience?
Gatlank said:
Zenja said:
This is a behavior I don't understand, the hate watch. This guy actually has a point with it. I mean EVERYONE complains about Michael Bay but his movies make really good profits.
I see people complaining about Bay movies but not hating them with a passion.
Insulting the audience is a fair point, but I haven't seen them do that yet. I see others doing that and Sony indirectly encouraging it or simply seeing it as publicity as in this article. As for Bay, I see plenty of actual hate and contempt for him and his movies. I still havent seen all of the Transformer movies because I legitimately don't care. People who hate what he did to the franchise still complain about it to this day and everyone has seen all the movies. Whether you like em or hate em. I have seen the first one and I grew up with Transformers and I think Michael Bay did the franchise a service by improving the lore. (I know what he did with the second one and I still think that)

Ninja Turles, he actually did a fair job at recreating the cartoon that I loved as a kid. Out of the Shadows even more so. I will agree that there was a couple inappropriate moments (sexually charged) for a kids movie, but that is the only grievance I have. They were faithful to the source material. And where they deviated, was minor and not detrimental to the characters or the lore. I outgrew the Turtles because it is a shit property with crappy lore that only 8 year old could love with its overabundance of stereotype character building and terrible good guys vs. bumbling idiot villains story structure.

People go out of their way to bash Bay when he really has a good work portfolio. He didn't create Transformers but is getting bashed for trying to improve their crappy lore. He didn't create the Ninja Turtle but he is getting bashed for trying to stay true to their bad lore. The guy can't win. People love to hate him. As someone who doesn't really have interest in these movies but loved Ninja Turltes as a kid, and thought Transformers was a dumb story with cool toys as a kid, he hasn't done a bad job. Yet the hate he gets is enormous.

TLDR: Fair point on insulting your audience, although that didn't happen in this article. I think a lot of people "hate watch" Michael Bay. I could agree with "like his movies but lie about it and say they hate them" if that is what you are implying. EIther way people non-stop complain about his movies but he can make lines form and studios rich at the box office.
 

Zenja

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Casual Shinji said:
Well, atleast he's not trying to spin it.
Silentpony said:
I think its wrong to see just about everyone saying they're not going to see the movie as proof positive everyone is going to see the movie.
Yeah, but they are gonna go see the movie. All those critics on Youtube that are making a big stink over it? Yeah, they're gonna go see this, just for the sake of being able to make a video about how truly bad it is. It's a giant media event, and you can bet everyone wants to get involved. It's what they're already doing with the tons of videos on how it looks like shit.

It'd be nice if no one went to see this piece of crap, but we both know everyone will get involved in the feeding frenzy of ripping it to bits. And that alone is going to earn it a billion dollars.

So yeah, the dude is right -- The amount of hate this movie is getting will ultimately help it break the box office, more so then if people were indifferent or even moderately excited.
I agree, AVGN even got bashed for saying he refused to have anything to do with it. Even not covering it, makes you sexist a big deal.