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Weekends with two major openings that aren’t targeted to the same audience typically boost boxoffice business – as we just saw Memorial Day with LILO & STITCH and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING. There was, however, a time when studios didn’t always avoid going head-to-head with the wrong films.

The classic example of what not to do occurred June 8, 1984 when Columbia opened Ivan Reitman’s action fantasy GHOSTBUSTERS and Warner Bros. launched Joe Dante’s action fantasy GREMLINS. Tracking said they’d both play best to younger males. Both studios wanted to kick-off that weekend because early June was when most schools had just closed for the summer, making teen boys available for moviegoing all week long.

GHOSTBUSTERS looked like the strongest of the two pictures. Reitman had already directed hit comedies like MEATBALLS (1979 – $43M worldwide) & STRIPES (1981 – $85M worldwide). His new film had major star power in Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd & Sigourney Weaver.

GREMLINS’ Joe Dante hadn’t directed any big hits yet, but had gotten lots of attention with his indie werewolf film THE HOWLING (1981 – $18M worldwide on a $1M production budget). GREMLINS’ stars Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates & Hoyt Axton weren’t as well known as the GHOSTBUSTERS stars. But GREMLINS had some serious star power behind the camera in executive producer Steven Spielberg, whose INDIANA JONES & THE TEMPLE OF DOOM had just opened Memorial Day weekend to $42.3M and would go on to do a then staggering $333M+ worldwide.

Despite industry speculation that one title would move to a new date, both studios stayed put. As a result, neither picture opened as well as it might have with more compatible competition. GHOSTBUSTERS kicked off to $13.6M at 1,339 theatres ($10,140 per cinema) while GREMLINS did $12.5M at 1,511 theatres ($8,280 per cinema). Hollywood handicappers knew from those averages who’d wind up winning.

GHOSTBUSTERS grossed $220.9M domestic vs. $144.4M for GREMLINS. Those were good numbers in 1984, but both films would likely have done better if they hadn’t started by splitting their target demo. Both spawned blah sequels.
GREMLINS 2 (1990) did $41.5M domestic. A GREMLINS 3 episode has reportedly been in development for years at WB/Legendary/Amblin.
GHOSTBUSTERS 2 (1989) did $112.5M domestic and a female driven GHOSTBUSTERS reboot (2016) grossed $128.4M domestic.

Another reboot, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE, opened #1 to $44M via Sony Nov. 19, 2021 with Ivan’s son, Jason Reitman (UP IN THE AIR), directing and Murray, Aykroyd & Weaver returning. Happily, it was the only action fantasy hitting the multiplexes that day and went on to do $129.5M domestic and $204.4M worldwide.