Thus far, Charlie’s Angels has had four incarnations in the television and movie landscape. Arguably the most successful thus far are the Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, and Drew Barrymore films that came out in the early 2000s. Charlie’s Angels and its sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, made over $500 million worldwide. Nearly ten years later, the intellectual property returned to the television format; however, the updated Charlie’s Angels show was trashed by critics – and holds an abysmal 0% on rotten tomatoes – and barely made it through the first season. The series was canceled after the fourth episode due to low ratings. The franchise has been locked in a vault ever since. Audiences weren’t exactly clamoring for a reboot; however, one ended up happening anyway. Charlie’s Angels starred Kirsten Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska as the three leads, with Elizabeth Banks taking the reigns as the director. The 2019 remake came back with a lukewarm critical receptionist, boasting a middle-of-the-road 52% on rotten tomatoes. Despite the past success of the previous entries, Charlie’s Angels bombed in theaters, with the film only earning back $28.20 million worldwide based on a $40 million production budget. So, what happened? Despite the failure of the TV adaptation, the series was a major success back in the early 2000s. Let’s dive deeper into the reasoning behind the failure of the Charlie’s Angels reboot.
Elizabeth’s Controversial Comments
Heading into the opening weekend, Elizabeth Banks sparked some controversy regarding why Charlie’s Angels needed to succeed. The writer/director/actress spoke to the Herald Sun, stating that it would re-enforce the sentiment that men don’t go see female-led pictures if the movie failed. When the filmmaker was reminded of the success of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, Banks dismissed them off by stating they were in the male genre because they’re superhero features. Not surprisingly, this didn’t necessarily go over well with audiences and the statement that men don’t go see female-led pictures rings false especially since the previous two Charlie’s Angels films did so well at the box office. Let’s not forget Bridesmaids, Hunger Games, and Maleficent are some of the features that saw worldwide success prior to Banks Angels’ reboot. Her dismissal of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel was also eye-rolling. Yes, those pictures are in a male-dominated category; however, the success of those features ultimately proved to executives that men are willing to shell out money for big action vehicles starring a female lead. The reason that there hasn’t been much success with female features is that producers and executives have had the mindset that women don’t equal box office success. There are considerably fewer female-led films because of this notion. Not every female-led movie does well, but that shouldn’t be faulted because men opted not to see the movie. Are there men out there who would absolutely refuse to watch a film with a female lead? Yes, the Ghostbusters reboot is a strong example of that. At the end of the day, Charlie’s Angels just didn’t seem like an interesting film. Despite the level of talent attached to the project, the 2019 feature came across as a bland television movie, not something many audiences felt was necessary to see in theaters.
This Was Clearly A Feminist Movie
61% of the audiences were females for the Charlie’s Angels reboot. And for good reason, as Banks may have turned men off of this movie. Her comments certainly didn’t help, but the trailers showed that this was another “women are superior to men” type of film. The actual feature only re-enforced the statement, with a good majority of the males within the movie either being pervy douchebags or evil. It’s been documented at this point that movies that spread hate towards men tend to flop. The most notable is Birds of Prey (and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Filmmakers need to understand that trashing a gender is not the way to go to get their point across. There’s nothing wrong with showcasing strong women and the powerful messages behind it, but there’s also no need to tear down and call men s**t in the process. Bridesmaids focuses on a female cast but is relatable to both men and women. The film never tears down men to get its message across and is actually pretty damn good as well. You can have a movie with a strong man and woman side by side; Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor are notable examples of this. With the Charlie’s Angel’s reboot clearly smacking its feminist themes in the audience’s face, it surely turned off most men. Unfortunately, it appeared that women weren’t all that interested either, as the responses to Banks’ comments from women showed that they couldn’t have cared less about the movie.Wonder Woman
Follow Us
