'Charlie's Angels' Flopped Big Time At The Box Office
Sometimes, you can look at a trailer for a movie and think to yourself "Why are they doing this?" That pretty much sums up to reactions of most folks who took one look at the trailer for the new update of 1970's classic television show Charlie's Angels. Their was a revival of the series back in the early 2000s that was a huge box office success. The sequel wasn't as good as the original so there was never a third film made. Until now.
Charlie's Angels was a widely popular television series that ran for five seasons on ABC, debuting in 1976 and ending in 1981. The show starred Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and the iconic Farrah Fawcett, skyroceting their careers into the stratosphere. Hoping to make a ton of money off of its legacy in 2000 Charlie's Angels got a reboot featuring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore. The film went on to become an international success, raking in $264 million worldwide.
The film's sequel, 2003's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, made slightly less with a worldwide total of $259 million, and the reviews were not as good as its predecessor. On late film critic Roger Ebert's website he gave the film two and a half stars writing;
"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is not a funny movie, despite a few good one-liners, as when Bernie Mac explains that the Black Irish invented the McRib. It is not an exciting movie, because there is no way to genuinely care about what's happening, and it doesn't make much sense, anyway. It is not a sexy movie, even though it stars four sexy women, because you just can't get aroused by the sight of three babes running toward you in slow motion with an explosion in the background. I've tried it."
Had he been around for the latest version of the franchise he would have been just as brutal because the reviews for the new movie are in, and they are not good. Of the new film starring Elizabeth Banks and Kristen Stewart Variety reports;
Sony’s reboot failed to meet even the studio’s cautiously low expectations, debuting to a franchise-eviscerating $8.6 million in North America. Given that the film failed to make up much traction overseas, launching with $19.2 million, including a disappointing $7.7 million in China, it seems likely the Angels just completed their final mission.
One plus for Sony: its potential financial losses will be minimized through co-financiers Perfect World Pictures and 2.0 Entertainment, which put up half of the film’s $48 million budget.
Banks herself is blaming the film's low ratings and reviews on men. In an interview with The Sun (via Indie Wire) Banks stated;
“They’ll go and see a comic book movie with Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel because that’s a male genre,” Banks told the Sun. “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 a Wonder Woman movie but we’re setting up three other characters or we’re setting up ‘Justice League.’” “By the way, I’m happy for those characters to have box office success,” Banks adds, “but we need more women’s voices supported with money because that’s the power. The power is in the money.”
Maybe the film will pick up momentum during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Or maybe this serves as a lesson to stop digging up old franchises and trying to milk them for more money.
