Has Ghostbusters been banned in China?

Ghostbusters banned in China? Reports suggest that the remake of the 1984 classic won’t see the light of day in the world’s second largest film-going market.

Paul Feig’s movie may have hit another hurdle as we’re reading headlines saying:  ‘Ghostbusters banned in China.’

It looks like Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters may have hit upon another hurdle. It may have been banned in China. The film, which was released in UK cinemas on Monday, will hit U.S. cinemas from Friday, but it may be excluded from the world’s second biggest movie-going market. More on the Ghostbusters banned in China news below.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures are going to have to have the word “ghost” removed from the movie’s Chinese title in order to avoid a potential censorship issue.

However, source told the trade that the lack of a release over in China may been down to an altogether different reason – one which is much simpler.

“It’s been confirmed that Ghostbusters won’t be coming to China, because they think it’s not really that attractive to Chinese audiences,” a Chinese film executive said. “Most of the Chinese audience didn’t see the first and second movies, so they don’t think there’s much market for it here.”

Ghostbusters is getting pretty decent reviews, including from us. Luke Baldock said:

‘Ghostbusters is not the disaster many predicted, and the only time it insults the original is when it refers back to it. This isn’t the original, and the humour is vastly different, but still works in the confines of the story. There’s lots of fun to be had, and Feig proves he can transition into non-R rated comedies without losing too much of his edge. There is certainly a lot of trimming that could have been done in editing – we didn’t need 3 different variations on giving the middle finger one after the other – but there are more hits than misses, some huge laugh out loud moments, and a few genuine scary parts. Fingers crossed for a less pre-hated sequel that isn’t haunted by the ghosts of its past.’

Read our full Ghostbusters review here.

Will the global box-office suffer if Ghostbusters is indeed banned in China?