"Ghost in the Shell" has failed in the box-office following the whitewashing affected the marketing badly. The movie is expected to lose $100 million.
After a failure with grossing only $18.6 million at the opening weekend, "Ghost in the Shell" is expected to lose quite big. According to Deadline, the co-production of Dreamworks Pictures and Reliance Entertainment and Paramount Pictures is projected to lose at least $100 million. This projection is based on the global projection of box office at $200 million, consist of the international and domestic market at $150 million and $50 million respectively.
The estimated production and promotion cost of "Ghost in the Shell" was at $250 million, while the actual production cost is at $10 million, which means the predicted loss for the movie is more than $100 million. This loss is a humiliating for Paramount Pictures, moreover to its two Chinese investors Shanghai Film Group and Huahue Media. The two companies were reported to fund $1 billion to produce franchise movies from Paramount, such as "Mission: Impossible, "Transformers" and "World War Z," including "Ghost in the Shell."
Such failure has closed the possibility of "Ghost in the Shell" sequel, according to IGN. Although the movie is a beautiful one, but it failed to deliver the good adaptation of the manga written by Masamune Shirow. Moreover, the whitewashing issue of the movie has given a huge stain to its international market, especially in Asia, the largest market.
Hollywood has been under scrutiny with the whitewashing issue in the movie such as "Ghost in the Shell" and the others, like "Death Note" and "Iron Fist" TV series. The main character in the manga is Motoko Kusanagi, but in order to suit Scarlett Johansson's appearance, the main character is named Mira Killian. Such strategy has failed to win the audience, especially in Asia.
This makes "Ghost in the Shell" will see further loss in the weeks ahead. Watch the official trailer from Paramount Pictures below:
