Discuss all things Ghostbusters here, unless they would be better suited in one of the few forums below.
#4972995
Hello everyone. Hope all is well. I have a curious question I hope someone can help me with. It’s a long shot but one of you might have the answer to my query. But first! Some context!

Movie trailers and marketing is something that’s always fascinated me. Things are done quite a bit different now than they use to be. Marketing is now more like a war campaign carried out with precision. Analytics, algorithms, & research are all part of the marketing toolbox in 2022. But back in the day things were a little less precise & more haphazard. Anyways, Sometimes we’ve seen movie teaser a full year before the movie debuts. And sometimes we use to get movie teasers shot JUST as teasers. Our first look at “Ghostbusters Afterlife” was shot exclusively for the teaser. Other infamous examples include Terminator 2, Godzilla(1998) and Spider-Man(which was eventually pulled from theatres after 9/11. Now that was a great teaser!). These were all made at least a year before the movie came out. Let the buzz and hype begin! But I digress..

Anyways as a lot of you know both original Ghostbusters movies were super rushed productions. Unprecedentedly rushed for Relatively FX heavy movies. As such you’ll notice in some of the teasers/trailer for GB2 and even GB1 they feature temp or alternate FX shots. We also see deleted and alternate scenes, though that’s not uncommon.

Why do I mention all this? Well I’ve always been curious when the marketing campaign for Ghostbusters began. Does anyone here know when the first footage from either GB1 or GB2 premiered? Or what movie the trailers might’ve been attached to? I’m interested to see how long before the release date that people were anticipating these movies. I’d be fascinated to see when Columbia started marketing & with what movie, if it was even attached to a specific movie that is. We’ve heard about the No ghost logo appearing in cities very early. But when did people see the first teaser/trailers? A couple months before the movie opened? More? Less?

Some of the trailers for GB2 feature some of the reshoots so we know that was released post February ‘89.
#4973017
I'm not 100% sure on which film it was released with, but Ivan had a teaser trailers out for both films very fast. While the films were still in production. If you look at the unreleased "commercial" teaser for GB2, it's all NYC footage bc they hadn't even started shooting in LA. Sigourney commented on her Cleanin' interview that she was impressed at how fast Ivan was marketing.
#4973022
d_osborn wrote: September 30th, 2022, 8:22 am I'm not 100% sure on which film it was released with, but Ivan had a teaser trailers out for both films very fast. While the films were still in production. If you look at the unreleased "commercial" teaser for GB2, it's all NYC footage bc they hadn't even started shooting in LA. Sigourney commented on her Cleanin' interview that she was impressed at how fast Ivan was marketing.
Do you know why that commercial wasn’t released? It would’ve been a perfect Super Bowl spot or something.
#4973029
I also recall they started with just the No Logo and driving Ecto-1 around Manhattan but I forget if that was just guerilla stuff in October/November 1983 when they were filming in NYC at places they had no permits for. But I am pretty sure the original teaser trailer was in theaters around December 1983 (that's the one with the unused theme song that's was mistaken as Hughes and Thrall for decades). The 2 movies that come to mind from December 1983 were Christine and Scarface.

In the 2014 EW article, it is stated so "An early teaser hit theaters while the film was still shooting, helping the Ghostbusters no-ghosts logo become a thing way in advance. ”People went crazy for the trailer,” says associate producer Joe Medjuck."
https://ew.com/article/2014/11/07/1984-ghostbusters/

In the long form version of the article, Medjuck said he thinks it was January 1984. "I remember seeing a teaser trailer around January. People went crazy for the trailer, so we thought it was the Stripes audience, plus."
http://microsites.ew.com/microsite/long ... stbusters/

Well, we know for sure, Reitman was doing test screenings on the Columbia lot in February 1984 and the ShoWest convention promo video that Aykroyd and Murray shot for was in March 1984. It had to have been before that.

So I'm sure it was either December 1983/January 1984 when the teaser first was shown and marketing really started. But really, people seeing Ecto-1 and a four guys in coveralls with Proton Packs strapped on in October 1983 confusing the heck out of New Yorkers was unofficial early marketing.
#4973117
I defintely recall seeing the trailer for GB2 in a theater when I was a kid because eveyone was excited. But I can't remember which movie it was attached to...It was either Little Mermaid or Karate Kid part 3 (I was a huge karate kid fan). Ghostbusters 2 didn't come out until Christmas 1989 so that entire year had a lot of classic films in theaters.

I also definately watched an HBO special "sneak peak" of GB2 and was super excited seeing Ray, Winston and Egon getting a bucket of pink slime poured on them for the sewer shoot. Then you have your basic fast food marketing tie-ins that year.

I think GB2 had more widespread marketing since it's name was very recognizable (not to mention a cartoon) compared to GB1.
#4973136
SpaceBallz wrote: October 5th, 2022, 2:50 am I defintely recall seeing the trailer for GB2 in a theater when I was a kid because eveyone was excited. But I can't remember which movie it was attached to...It was either Little Mermaid or Karate Kid part 3 (I was a huge karate kid fan). Ghostbusters 2 didn't come out until Christmas 1989 so that entire year had a lot of classic films in theaters.

I also definately watched an HBO special "sneak peak" of GB2 and was super excited seeing Ray, Winston and Egon getting a bucket of pink slime poured on them for the sewer shoot. Then you have your basic fast food marketing tie-ins that year.

I think GB2 had more widespread marketing since it's name was very recognizable (not to mention a cartoon) compared to GB1.
Where did you live at the time? I’m assuming not in North America if it was Xmas ‘89 since it was June ‘89 here.

What’s interesting about Karate Kid 3 is that that is a Sony(Columbia) franchise so it definitely makes sense it could’ve shown up with that movie.

Now an HBO sneak peak. That’s interesting. Has anyone else seen an HBO sneak peak of GB2? That’s definitely something I’d love to see(tho if they are like most HBO sneak Peaks all they are is repackaged EPK’s).

Yeah GB2 had a huge marketing campaign compared to the first movie. I’ love to know if there was a Super Bowl commercial. Granted I dunno if movie studios did Super Bowl spots back then.
#4973152
RichardLess wrote: October 5th, 2022, 10:17 pm
SpaceBallz wrote: October 5th, 2022, 2:50 am I defintely recall seeing the trailer for GB2 in a theater when I was a kid because eveyone was excited. But I can't remember which movie it was attached to...It was either Little Mermaid or Karate Kid part 3 (I was a huge karate kid fan). Ghostbusters 2 didn't come out until Christmas 1989 so that entire year had a lot of classic films in theaters.

I also definately watched an HBO special "sneak peak" of GB2 and was super excited seeing Ray, Winston and Egon getting a bucket of pink slime poured on them for the sewer shoot. Then you have your basic fast food marketing tie-ins that year.

I think GB2 had more widespread marketing since it's name was very recognizable (not to mention a cartoon) compared to GB1.
Where did you live at the time? I’m assuming not in North America if it was Xmas ‘89 since it was June ‘89 here.

What’s interesting about Karate Kid 3 is that that is a Sony(Columbia) franchise so it definitely makes sense it could’ve shown up with that movie.

Now an HBO sneak peak. That’s interesting. Has anyone else seen an HBO sneak peak of GB2? That’s definitely something I’d love to see(tho if they are like most HBO sneak Peaks all they are is repackaged EPK’s).

Yeah GB2 had a huge marketing campaign compared to the first movie. I’ love to know if there was a Super Bowl commercial. Granted I dunno if movie studios did Super Bowl spots back then.
I think the "sneak peak" was attached as as bonus feature on one of the recent DVDs, I recognized it right away when I saw Dan helping spread the pink slime all over himself and the SFX guys running the river of slime through the miniature tunnel.

I live in Upper Michigan so you're probably right about the GB2 release, there were so many movies we saw that year I probably have the seasons mixed up. The trailer was probably on Karate Kid 3.
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