Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now streaming on Showmax

The 15th biggest blockbuster of 2024 (so far), Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now streaming on Showmax, just in time for Halloween.

The 13-rated film picks up three years after Ghostbusters: Afterlife. When the discovery of an ancient artefact unleashes an army of ghosts that casts a death chill upon the city, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to save the world from a second Ice Age.

Returning Afterlife cast includes Paul Rudd, named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2021; Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard; Emmy nominees Carrie Coon and Mckenna Grace; and Kenya-born Celeste O’Connor, while Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts are all back in their original Ghostbusters roles. Oscar nominee Kumail Nanjiani and Emmy winner Patton Oswalt also join the fun this go-round. 

Chicago Sun-Times calls the film "a delightful balance of slimy ghost stuff, sharp one-liners, terrific VFX and a steady stream of callbacks to various characters, human and otherwise, from the 1984 movie."

The original Ghostbusters was directed by his dad Ivan Reitman, so for Afterlife director Jason Reitman, stepping into the Ghostbusters franchise meant truly embracing his role in the family business.

“One of the great experiences of my life was making Ghostbusters: Afterlife with my father, sitting next to him on set, going to the initial screenings with him, and then getting to tour the movie around the world, to stand in front of an audience with my father and say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Ivan Reitman,’” he says. “I’d watch them rise to their feet, and then my father would inevitably cry. It was the experience of a lifetime. It was beautiful and it made me feel like I was part of the Ghostbusters family.”

A few months after the release of Afterlife, Ivan passed away, leaving a remarkable legacy of comedy and ghostbusting. Before he did, he gave one last piece of transgenerational advice. 

“We sat outside with my dad and we started telling him all our ideas for the next Ghostbusters movie,” Jason recalls. “We laid it all out for him, and it’s the last story that I ever got to tell my dad – the story of Frozen Empire, a new adventure for the Ghostbusters back in Manhattan.”

After co-writing and executive producing Afterlife, Gil Kenan steps into the director’s chair for the new film, with Jason producing. 

In picking up the reins, it was important for Gil to take the franchise’s themes and make them his own. “With Afterlife, there were very personal themes to Jason that were being worked through in the screenplay of that film. It was absolutely a film about the passing of a generational torch and seeing whether the characters in that story could look at their heritage and accept their destiny. That is Jason’s story,” says Gil. 

“For me, as a storyteller, there has always been a question about how to define home – it’s a theme that has been running like a ribbon through all of my work. As I focused on this film, it became clear that the animating principle of this story is a family trying to find a way to ground themselves, to have a place they can hold onto, a place to define them as a family. That is a question I can sink my teeth into, and it just started to naturally feel like the story I should direct.”

Taking the helm of a Ghostbusters film is a responsibility that Gil does not take lightly. “Ghostbusters sets a very high bar,” he says. “Every film that has come before has some indelible cinematic moments. We are all aiming high to create a film worthy of the Ghostbusters logo, and the spirit that allows the improvisation, the looseness, the sense of play or life in front of the camera, is all part of a collective spirit of trying to capture lighting in a bottle.”

As with all films in the franchise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is designed to be an entry point for new moviegoers who have never seen a Ghostbusters movie before, and also satisfy diehards who have been at every opening day since 1984.

“Ghostbusters changed my life as a kid,” says Gil. “The unique blend of scares and comedy - I had never experienced anything like it in a movie theatre before. What really got me was the fun of it all, the joy on screen. It was that feeling, a thrill ride through the supernatural world around us, that inspired me in creating the tone of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. At times funny, at times scary, always fun. And not just for adult fans who like me grew up with the films, but for all audiences, including kids who will be the same age now that I was when I first saw Ghostbusters... Kids who I hope will discover in this film the same thrill of discovery in the world of Ghostbusters that I did in 1984.”

Watch Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Showmax.