Why Ghostbusters 3 Took 31 Years To Make

https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Ghostbusters-3-never-made/answer/Jon-Mixon-1

Bill Murray became a bigger star than he was previously - Basically any third film depending upon getting Bill Murray onboard and that was never possible. By the time that Murray became interested, he was still feuding with co-star Harold Ramis and Ramis was suffering from the illness that eventually took his life.

Too much time had passed - Ghostbusters II did poorly (although not that poorly as it earned nearly 6x its budget) because it was five years from when the original was released. Had they pushed for the release of G3 following the relative success of Groundhog Day, the film might have been made. They didn’t, and it wasn’t.

Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray seem to have what could be charitably referred to as a “troubled” relationship - Basically despite the twin financial successes of Ghostbusters and G2, they have not not acted together in any other projects for more than 30 years. It seems unlikely that she would have returned for G3 and that likely added to the project’s myriad woes.

Dan Aykroyd’s limited draw was dropping even further - Basically Aykroyd’s triple disasters of Nothing But Trouble, Loose Cannons, and Coneheads moved him from a leading actor back to character roles. Even if G3 was greenlighted without Murray (apparently a possibility that was discussed) Aykroyd did not have the drawing power to make it financially feasible.

Bill Murray’s “difficult phase” began - While Murray is beloved by fans and is a master showman, he clearly has a number of personal demons which have plagued him for years. Frequent disappearances, moodiness, and negative interactions with co-workers have all been reported, and have made it difficult to cast Murray. Unless he had gotten these issues under control, G3 was always going to be an speculative venture. He didn’t and it never became more than speculative.