The original Ghostbusters released in 1984. A lighthearted horror comedy, the film starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as a group of ghost hunters based in New York City. Kicked out of their university jobs for their supernatural pursuits, the group would form a ghost hunting unit and go on to save the city from a spectral god of destruction. The film had a budget of $30 million, quite high for the time period. The film was released with relatively modest expectations, due to the high special effects costs and multiple conceptual reworks the movie had gone through.