This week while perusing through Target during my lunch break, because apparently that’s what I do for fun, I discovered a curious thing:
The action figures for the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot movie are already on 30% clearance, even though the movie doesn’t come out for another 2 weeks, on July 15th.
(This took place at the Franklin, TN, location.)
It presents a theory about the free market:
Could it be that boys aren’t interested in buying action figures
in which females are the protagonists?
I invite you to watch the video I shot, on the scene, which clearly shows that the Ghostbusters reboot movie is clearly being marketed to boys, as these toys are in the same isle as Star Wars and Ninja Turtles, which primarily consist of male characters.
Even though the new Ninja Turtles movie has been out for a month already, none of those toys are on clearance, which implies boys are still asking their parents for them.
Obviously, there has been a lot of skepticism about the upcoming movie by Ghostbusters fans; especially to make the four Ghostbusters female; as opposed to male, which is the gender they been identified as since 1984.
Sure, I admit: If they couldn’t get the original cast to do an actual sequel (especially since Harold Ramis passed away two years ago in 2014), I would have at least liked to have seen brand-new characters to carry on the torch, in the likeness of the original cast:
Maybe Paul Rudd, Steve Carrel, Seth Rogen, and Donald Glover. I think that would have been awesome to see!
In that version of reality, I could imagine that much more action figures would have been sold and prevented this 30% clearance situation at Target. Not to mention, I think fans would be much more excited about going out and seeing the new movie.
Again, these toys are purposely placed in the boys’ aisle, not with Barbies. The Ghostbusters toys are clearly intended to be purchased mainly by boys, not girls; which is why they are stocked on the shelves the way they are.
Yet boys aren’t buying them.
This is the free market at work; in which politically correctness is evidently being ignored by very young consumers.
With all that being said, I will be seeing the Ghostbusters reboot movie in a few weeks and will be doing a movie review on it; comparing it to the original, from a family friendly perspective.
So if you if this post has entertained you, check back in a few weeks for more on the Ghostbusters reboot.
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 
I got through your video and I think I have a theory on why Girlbusters isn’t selling as well.
I did a bit of research and the last peice of Ghostbusters that came out was in 2012 in the form of a video game, that didn’t sell so well and that was with the original cast
Before that it was 2009 with Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon
When you compare that to what TMNT has done today, you will find that TMNT is more relevant to this generation of kids than Ghostbusters is.
We havnt had ANY decent Ghostbusters stuff since 2009 and are you expecting kids, or boys of ages 8+ to be interested in a franchise that isn’t even technically revived yet?
The toys might sell better once the movie is out but there has been so much marketing to “men” to try and prove that “if you don’t like this film, you are sexist” that they forgot about the kids.
And so what if the free market is saying “boys aren’t interested” it just furthers the notion that perhaps the new ghostbusters film isn’t as good or interesting as the executives and media are saying.
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I agree, Daniel, there is an aspect of lack of identification involved – kids and parents just don’t really identify with a movie that just isn’t out. Sequels can get away with it as long as the toys get identified as “an Iron Man toy” and do cross promotion (movie advertises the toy, toy advertises the movie), and Jurassic Park toys (and the like) can be identified as “dinosaur toys”. (Which, I assume, is why the ghosts are selling better than the humans.) I’m sure that Star Lord and Rocket Racoon toys sold very poorly until the GotG movie came out.
But on top of that, let’s assume the savvy consumer looks up the film online. Googling it shows you the movie website, wikipedia, IMDB, and the trailer on youtube. Youtube is obviously the more interesting of those links… and the trailer is massively downvoted. Adults will “know” the movie is terrible because Youtube is telling them so, and until a trusted critic or a friend say otherwise, they’re going to stick with that opinion. And most importantly, children will “know” that the movie is terrible, because Youtube is telling them so, and because everyone on the playground who’s seen it is going to say Ghostbusters is bad, because the video is the only thing they know. Which is why the studio is so dead set on saying that all those people are lonely, basement dwelling nerds – they need to recover from that, and they have no good way to do so, so all they can do is appeal to anti-nerd culture, or pro-social justice camps, rather than relying on the trailer and promotions.
Also, it’s really irritating that the original Ghostbusters is half way down the google results page, yet the poorly-received sequel is in a more prominent position.
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boys young enough to play (boys don’t actually play with action figures they collect them btw) with action figures are not interested in girls not named mom at all
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I honestly think that if they had done it as a continuation (like the girls are the next generation) instead of a reboot, then people would be just fine with it being an all female crew. Not saying that women couldn’t start up a ghost busting business on their own, but the original movies were so iconic that the fans feel betrayed. Imagine the reaction if they were to reboot Back to the Future with a completely different cast, and just updated a few things for 2016, while acting like the original never happened; there would be outrage.
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Why are boys not buying toys of a movie that is being marketed mostly to women under the guise of feminism? Hmm….
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Gah ,how many times do you have to apologize to prove your anti-sexiss and anti-raciss creds?
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Who buys toys for films no one wants to see?
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No one.
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You know that somebody will slam you, just for saying things line “the boy’s aisle” 😉
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I actually thought of that. I sort of amazed I’ve received no hateful comments yet…
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It’s just funny because the reality of girls toys is that they are the most gender specific toys out there, with no concession to making them unisex.
The denial of human nature only goes one way.
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All good points. But the idea that some jackass thought boys really wanna be girls (and get the piss pounded outta them at school) playing with female toys says either they’re half-wits or they’re trying to get fired. P.c. liberals are so effing stupid. Totally want to fight human nature.
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