Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire — how to watch, trailer, cast and everything you need to know
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now in theaters.
After fending off Gozer once again in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, this latest entry follows the Spenglers to the Ghostbusters' old stomping grounds: New York City, where they've taken up in the old firehouse.
As you might expect, something strange soon arrives in their neighborhood. This time around, our team does battle with a malevolent entity that wields a powerful force known as the "death chill", which is capable of killing with the power of fear itself.
Here's everything we know about Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire now that the movie's hit theaters.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire release date
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now available to watch in theaters. It was released on Friday, March 22, 2024.
Originally, it was set for release in December 2023 but got pushed back to March 2024 last July.
If you're looking for more info about the rest of the releases you can look forward to watching this year, check out our guide to all the new movies still to come in 2024.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: reviews
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire wasn't too warmly received by critics. At the time of our latest update, the movie has a critics rating of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, fans seem much warmer on the release, as the audience score is a much higher 86%.
We rated the movie 3/5 stars. In What To Watch's Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire review, we said 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has its flaws, but Sony shouldn't put the franchise on ice just yet', arguing that it is a fun improvement on Afterlife, but one that struggles to make time for its large cast.
Empire rated it 2/5, writing: "There was potential here, but Frozen Empire is an overpopulated mish-mash, with too many heroes to wrangle. What’s left is a bit of a gooey mess. We’ve been slimed."
Meanwhile, THR said of the movie: "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire doesn’t mess with the well-honed formula, carefully balancing its laughs and scares in the breezy manner that makes for pleasurable, if lightweight, viewing".
Who's in the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire cast?
The main cast for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has been confirmed. Expect to see Egon Spengler's daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) and his grandkids Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) bust some ghosts with teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), Lucky Domingo (Celeste O'Connor) and "Podcast" (Logan Kim) also back in the frame.
As for former Ghostbusters, we know that Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) are on the cast list, with Annie Potts and William Atherton returning as Janine Melnitz and Walter Peck, respectively.
On March 24, we learned that a few new faces would be appearing in the movie. Deadline revealed that Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, James Acaster and Emily Alyn Lind had all boarded the project. So far, we only know one of their roles, though, as Patton Oswalt is down to play a character called Hubert.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire plot: What will happen in the Ghostbusters sequel?
Thanks to the end credits scene from Afterlife (and a tease from writer-director, Gil Kenan), we knew the old base of operations would factor in. At the end of the previous movie, we learned that Winston (Ernie Hudson) had repurchased the gang's iconic firehouse and intended to relaunch the company.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will see the Spengler family heading back to the old NYC firehouse where they'll be teaming up with the old guard to confront a new foe.
Per the movie's logline, the original Ghostbusters have developed a top-secret laboratory where they've been working on ways to take busting ghosts 'to the next level'.
By the sounds of things, they'll need all the help they can get, as the discovery of an artifact unleashes an evil force (which we know from the trailer to be the "death chill) that threatens to plunge us all into another Ice Age. So, it's up to Ghostbusters new and old to save the day!
A post shared by Gil Kenan (@gilkenan)
A photo posted by on
Whos is the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire director?
Along with writing the film with Jason Reitman, Monster House director Gil Kenan is stepping behind the camera this time around.
At the time his role was confirmed, Kenan said: "It's an absolute honor to pick up the proton pack and step behind the camera for the next chapter of the Spengler family saga. I just wish I could go back to 1984 and tell the kid in the sixth row of the Mann Valley West that one day he was going to get to direct a Ghostbusters film."
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailers
The final Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire trailer arrived on March 1. This new trailer' focuses almost entirely on the new threat that the Ghostbusters will face in this new chapter, and what it is capable of doing to New York City.
A new trailer dropped on Monday, January 29. In it, we get to see the new generation teaming up with the OG Ghostbusters properly. The crew can be seen in action around New York City... and being told not to carry on their work by a city official. And after that, we see the source of our new big bad ghost... an "unimaginable evil, commanding an army of ghosts."
On November 8, 2023, Sony gave us our first look at Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. This teaser trailer begins with crowds of people having fun in the sun... before a cold snap rolls in across NYC, with huge icicles raining down from the sky and springing up through the streets.
It turns out this mysterious frost is the "death chill", the power to kill people by fear itself. We then hear a rather grizzly description of just how the death chill works, before seeing it in action. The teaser then ends with the team all geared up and bracing to confront the silhouette of a menacing new ghost...
Gil Kenan movies
Gil Kenan is a British-American director and screenwriter best known for his debut movie, the Academy Award-nominated animated horror-comedy, Monster House. Since then, he's helmed a variety of projects, including writing the previous Ghostbusters movie. Here's a full list of his directorial credits so far:
A Boy Called Christmas (2021)
Poltergeist (2015)
City of Ember (2008)
Monster House (2006)
