Paul Feig ''regrets'' the lack of success surrounding his 'Ghostbusters' remake.

The 55-year-old director was at the helm of the 2016 reboot of the hugely popular 1984 Ivan Reitman movie, which most notably swapped the main roles from male to female, and starred the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon.

However, despite creating a buzz when it was announced, the feature didn't do as well as expected when it hit cinema screens, and Paul now believes the fact that the movie unintentionally became a ''cause'' movie for gender equality is the reason it didn't sell as well as it had hoped.

Paul said: ''I think it kind of hampered us a little bit because the movie became so much of a cause. I think for some of our audience, they were like, 'What the f**k? We don't wanna go to a cause. We just wanna watch a f***ing movie.'''

The filmmaker admits the lack of success the movie garnered is a ''great regret'' in his life, as he ''really loved'' the feature, and hoped it would do well.

Speaking at Vulture Festival in Los Angeles, he said: ''It was a great regret in my life that the movie didn't do better, because I really loved it. It's not a perfect movie. None of my movies are perfect. I liked what we were doing with it. It was only supposed to be there to entertain people.''

Meanwhile, actress Melissa McCarthy previously hit out at critics of the movie, especially as much of it came before anyone had even seen the flick.

The 47-year-old actress said: ''Any time someone critiques something that has not yet been made, I find it peculiar. It's like giving a book review to an author who is like, 'I haven't written it yet.' I don't pay much attention to it. It's not based in the world.''

Whilst Kate McKinnon added: ''I hope they see it and change their minds. I mean it's disappointing. I just wanted to get on set and do the best job I could and I think we all did that so I'm excited about it.''