The Elizabeth Banks written, produced, directed and starred in reboot version of ‘Charlie’s Angels’ has recorded a heavy flop in box office calculations.
The reboot earned a total of $8.6 million as against the original version, which recorded a $40 million box office weekend debut in 2000 and followed with a sequel box office take over in 2003 with a $37 million total. The original version starred retired Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.
Going behind the camera for the reboot, Banks blamed the flop of the film to the low interest men have when it comes to watching women fronted action films, “Look, people have to buy tickets to this movie too. This movie has to make money. If this movie doesn’t make money it reinforces a stereotype in Hollywood that men don’t go see women do action movies.”
Answering the question of how come Marvel Studio’s female-led film ‘Captain Marvel’ and the DC produced fantasy sci/fi picture ‘Wonder Woman’ gnashed $1.1 billion and $821 million respectively at the end of their box office run, Banks quickly concluded that they were rooted out of a male genre, thereby causing their box office success as against ‘Charlie’s Angels’.
“They’ll go and see a comic book movie with ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Captain Marvel’ because that’s a male genre. So even though those are movies about women, they put them in the context of feeding the larger comic book world, so it’s all about, yes, you’re watching ‘Wonder Woman’ but we’re setting up three characters or we’re setting up ‘Justice League’,” Banks explained.
The new ‘Charlie’s Angels’ action thriller stars Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska. It comes in as the third high-profile reboot or sequel in a row to have a low turn-up for its opening after ‘Terminator’, ‘Dark Fate’ and Doctor Sleep’ in 2019.