Charlie’s Angels already had a stinker of an opening weekend and now it’s facing a tough second frame, too. The figures are in and the latest reboot of the feminist action franchise, this time starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska, has dropped by a sizeable 69% from one Friday to the next.
As Forbes reports, the Sony movie earned a paltry $970,000 domestically this Friday, which puts it at a likely second weekend gross of just $3.13 million. That’ll make Charlie’s Angels‘ total ten-day cume a mere $13.8 million. Last weekend, the flick accrued an $8.6 million opening, which was a significant step-down from predictions of $10-12 million. A slight boost from overseas means its current worldwide count stands at $33.7 million, and while this isn’t as bad as it could be for the studio due to the mid-level budget of $50 million, Charlie’s Angels is still a flop whatever way you cut it.
Director Elizabeth Banks has already responded to the disappointing box office performance with various explanations for why it might’ve failed, including controversial statements about the sexism of moviegoers. In case you missed it, Banks has argued that female-led superhero films such as Captain Marvel only succeeded because they were part of a “male genre.”
Probably much closer to the truth though is Banks’ further assertion that poor marketing on Sony’s part is to blame. There’s also likely a larger issue at play here, as Charlie’s Angels follows on from Terminator: Dark Fate as another movie that sports a familiar brand leaving audience’s cold. Hollywood execs might soon have to think about whether some of their IPs have simply passed their expiration date.
In any case, Sony will no doubt be disappointed with this one as they probably thought they had a very timely reboot on their hands. The film also ties together all previous renditions of Charlie’s Angels and features a bunch of post-credits scenes introducing even more heroines, so clearly there were plans to do a follow-up or two. But based on these numbers, that’s unlikely to happen now.