Opinion: ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Reboot Didn’t Flop Because of Sexism

In case you haven’t heard, director and actress Elizabeth Banks‘ reboot of “Charlie’s Angels” basically flopped in the box office.

Banks took to twitter to express that she was still proud of the girls and the film.

Well, if you’re going to have a flop, make sure your name is on it at least 4x. I’m proud of #CharliesAngels and happy it’s in the world.

— Elizabeth Banks ❄️ (@ElizabethBanks) November 18, 2019

Banks said, “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.”

Banks said that female-led movies like Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman don’t count in this case because they both are part of bigger cinematic universes that are led by male actors.

“They’ll go and see a comic book movie with Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel because that’s a male genre,” Banks said. “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.’”

Others took to twitter to comment back on the statement Banks made because it was too controversy.

“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.”

Come on… The movie’s success doesn’t depend on whether men see it. Half the population is women and they didn’t see it either.

— Nate Petty (@thenatepetty) November 18, 2019

I just think it's funny you call wonder woman a Male genre movie, a woman directed it. Patty Jenkins had to overcome a lot and made her movie successful, it's not about the genre it's about advertising. I didn't hear about the movie till 2 weeks before release date. #badmarketing

— Canuck 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@The__Canuck) November 18, 2019

My question is: how are comic book movies a "male genre" but action movies are suddenly not? As a woman comic book movies appeal to me but action movies don't.

— Princess Sparkle Krogan (@NiftuCal) November 20, 2019

https://twitter.com/Dawn666/status/1196992356802793472

Now, I don’t think sexism was necessarily the reason for the film’s demise. It flopped because it simply did not live up to fan’s expectations.

The movie’s marketing team failed to highlight the promotions of the film, so not a lot of people even knew when the film was coming out.

Fans are still glued to the original franchise and crave new content that tells a different story no one has seen before. Fans want a different take on the film and not a film that they can already figure out the whole plot. This reboot was fairly predictable.

So, yes, the Hollywood industry is usually sexist, which is extremely harmful and frustrating, but plenty of women didn’t want to see this film either, not just men.

However, Banks is still proud of the film and the hard work everyone has put into it.