Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex · Library of Congress. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Ghostbusters II arrived in 1989 as Columbia Pictures' answer to five years of audience demand, reuniting Ivan Reitman with his original cast for a sequel that leaned into slime, sequels-era spectacle, and the easy chemistry that made the first film a phenomenon. It never matched the cultural lightning of 1984, but it cemented the Ghostbusters as a franchise property, one that would echo through toys, cartoons, and reboots for decades. For collectors of eighties studio comedy, it remains a fixture of the era's blockbuster machinery.
This cell pairs Peter Venkman, the wisecracking frontman played by Bill Murray, with Winston Zeddemore, Ernie Hudson's everyman addition to the team. Their shared frames are prized because the pairing represents the ensemble's balance of ego and grounded reason. A 35mm cell like this one is a physical fragment of the release print itself, a piece of the actual film run through projectors in 1989, tying the collector directly to the theatrical experience rather than a reproduction.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour theatrical release print of Ghostbusters II (1989).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, corners appear rounded and cleanly punched with no torn edges visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual-bilateral (two-track) variable-area stripe with a Dolby noise-reduction encoded appearance; a narrow digital timecode or data line is also visible adjacent to the optical track.
Edge print
Not clearly legible in this capture; faint edge markings are present but cannot be reliably quoted.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-yellow tint consistent with a colour print stock; dye image appears saturated and not visibly faded or red-shifted.
Projection history
Light horizontal scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a theatrical release print of Ghostbusters II (1989).
Era check
The dual variable-area optical track with apparent Dolby encoding, colour positive print stock, and perforation style are all consistent with a late-1980s theatrical release print.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063271
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
