What is "ghostbusters"

n. (plural of ghostbuster English)

Ghostbusters is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis as three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis co-star as a client and her neighbor, and Ernie Hudson as the Ghostbusters' first recruit.

Aykroyd conceived the film as a project for himself and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi, with the "Ghostmashers" travelling through time and space in the future with magic wands. He and Ramis dramatically rewrote the script following Belushi's death and after Reitman deemed Aykroyd's initial vision financially impractical.

Ghostbusters was released in the United States on June 8, 1984. It received a positive response from critics and audiences and grossed $242 million in the United States and more than $295 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Oscars at the 57th Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song (for the eponymous theme song), but lost to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Woman in Red respectively. The American Film Institute ranked Ghostbusters 28th in its AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list of film comedies. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The film launched the Ghostbusters media franchise, which includes a 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II, two animated television series, The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters and several video games. A reboot, also titled Ghostbusters, was released on July 15, 2016, by Columbia Pictures.

Ghostbusters, Ghost Busters or Ghostbuster may mean:

• Someone who participates in ghost hunting or paranormal investigation.
• Ghostbusters, the 1984 movie, or one of its spin-offs including:
  • Ghostbusters (franchise), the overall movie franchise, of which the film Ghostbusters was the first installment
  • The Real Ghostbusters, an animated series based on the film produced during the 1980s
  • The Real Ghostbusters (comics)
  • Ghostbusters II, a 1989 live-action sequel to the original film
  • Extreme Ghostbusters, the short-lived animated sequel/spin-off to The Real Ghostbusters, made in 1997
  • Ghostbusters III, a planned sequel to the first two films
  • Ghostbusters (2016 film), a 2016 reboot
  • Ghostbusters: Legion, comic mini-series released by 88 mph Comics (2004-2005)
  • Ghostbusters (role-playing game), a role-playing game
  • "Ghostbusters" (song), the main theme for the movies
  • Ghostbusters (video game); there are a total of six video games based on Ghostbusters:
    • Ghostbusters (Activision video game), the 1985 Activision video game
    • Real Ghostbusters (video game), a 1987 arcade game loosely based on the animated series
    • Ghostbusters II (video game), the 1989 Activision video game
    • Ghostbusters (Sega video game), the 1990 Sega video game
    • The Real Ghostbusters, a 1993 Game Boy video game part of the Crazy Castle series
    • Ghostbusters: The Video Game the 2009 video game by Atari
    • Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime a 2011 downloadable sequel to Ghostbusters: The Video Game
  • Ghostbusters (comics), a page covering all the various comicbook series based on the property from 1988 to the present
  • Ghostbusters (pinball), the 2016 pinball machine by Stern Pinball, based on the 1984 movie
• The Ghost Busters, a 1970s live action TV series (not related to the more famous film or its spinoffs)
  • Ghostbusters (1986 TV series), a 1980s cartoon sequel to the live action TV series
• Spook Busters, a 1946 Bowery Boys film the working title of which was Ghost Busters
• Ghost Buster, the finishing move of professional wrestler Koko B. Ware

The Ghostbusters franchise spawned various comic books published by various comic book companies through the years starting in 1988 and continuing to the present day. These comics have ranged from being based on the The Real Ghostbusters animated series, to the 1984 film.

Ghostbusters is a cooperative twin stick shooter video game developed by FireForge Games and published by Activision. Taking place after the events of the 2016 film, the game features four-player cooperative gameplay where players control new Ghostbusters characters to defeat enemy ghosts. It was released on July 12, 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Developer FireForge Games filed for bankruptcy three days after the release of the game and are 12 million dollars in debt.

Ghostbusters is a comedy role-playing game designed by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford and published by West End Games in 1986. It is based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters.

The Ghostbusters RPG won the 1986 H.G. Wells Award for Best Roleplaying Rules. In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Ghostbusters as one of The Millennium's Most Underrated Games. Editor Scott Haring noted that Ghostbusters was "the first-ever RPG to use the dice pool mechanic" and "the game did a great job of catching the zany feel of the movies."

"Ghostbusters" is a 1984 song recorded by Ray Parker Jr. as the theme to the film of the same name starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. Debuting at #68 on June 16, 1984, the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 11, 1984, staying there for three weeks, and at number two on the UK Singles Chart on September 16, 1984, staying there for three weeks. The song re-entered the UK Top 75 on November 2, 2008, at No. 49.

It was nominated at the 57th Academy Awards for Best Original Song, but lost to Stevie Wonder's " I Just Called to Say I Love You".

Ghostbusters is a supernatural comedy franchise created in 1984. Its first installment was the film Ghostbusters, released on June 8, 1984, by Columbia Pictures. It centers on a group of eccentric New York City parapsychologists who investigate and capture ghosts for a living. For the film, the franchise licensed action figures, novelizations, and other original Ghostbusters-themed products. After the initial success, they released original material in other fields such as comic books, video games, television series, and a theme park attraction.

Ghostbusters (later called Filmation's Ghostbusters) is a 1986 animated television series created by Filmation and distributed by Tribune Entertainment, based on Filmation's 1975 live-action television show The Ghost Busters. It is not to be confused with Columbia Pictures' 1984 film Ghostbusters or that film's subsequent animated television show The Real Ghostbusters. When making their film, Columbia Pictures needed to obtain rights to use the name from Filmation.

The success of Columbia's (unrelated) film spurred Filmation to resurrect their own property, producing an animated series based on the characters from the earlier TV show. This animated series ran from September 8 to December 5, 1986 in daytime syndication and produced 65 episodes. The series is technically called simply Ghostbusters, but home video releases used the name Filmation's Ghostbusters to avoid confusion. In the US, reruns of the show previously aired on CBN Cable, The Family Channel, and most recently as part of Qubo Night Owl, which started from 2010. and currently on the Retro Television Network. The series can also be seen on Hulu.

Ghostbusters is a 2016 American supernatural comedy film directed by Paul Feig and written by Feig and Katie Dippold. It stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones and Chris Hemsworth. The third feature film in the Ghostbusters franchise, it is not a sequel to the previous films but rather a reboot where four women who start a ghost-catching business in New York City.

A third Ghostbusters film had been in various stages of development following the release of Ghostbusters II in 1989. As a result of original cast member Bill Murray's refusal to commit to the project and the death of fellow cast member Harold Ramis in 2014, Sony decided to reboot the series. Much of the original film's cast make cameos in new roles. The announcement of the female cast in 2015 drew a polarized response from the public.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures, the film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on July 9, 2016 and was theatrically released in the United States on July 15, 2016, in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. Ghostbusters has grossed $194 million worldwide against its $144 million budget.