Elizabeth Banks Says CHARLIE’S ANGELS Failure 'Reinforces a Stereotype in Hollywood That Men Don’t Go See Women Do Action Movies'
As you’ve probably heard, Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels movie completely bombed at the box office with around $8 million over the weekend. As you might imagine, a lot of people are going to place the blame on men not wanting to see women in action films. In an interview with the Herald Sun (via IndieWire) before the movie was released, 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."
Personally, I don’t think that could be further from the truth. I love seeing female-led action movies! The reason why people aren’t going out to see this new Charlier’s Angels movie is simply because it doesn’t look like a good movie. None of the trailers are interesting, and I’m a big Charlie’s Angels fan! I’m a fan of Banks as well. I enjoyed the original series, and the previous two movies did a hell of a lot better at the box office, the 2000 film had a $40,128, 550 opening weekend and the 2003 sequel made $37,634,221 on its opening weekend. So, audiences showed up for those films! They were big hits!
It’s not really fair to single out men for the failure of a movie the features a mainly female cast. Hell, my daughters saw the trailers for the film and I offered to take them to see it, but they told me they weren’t interested in seeing it because it didn’t look good. You can also make the argument that films like Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman were extremely successful female-led films, but according to Banks, that’s because they are part of a “male genre.” She said:
"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 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, but we need more women's voices supported with money because that's the power. The power is in the money.”
I’m all for supporting women-led films if those movies actually look good, but regardless of gender, a crappy movie is a crappy movie Some great female-led action movies that I’ve seen and enjoyed in recent years are Alita: Battle Angle, Tomb Raider, The Hunger Games, Revenge, and Bumblebee, just to name a few, and I’m also looking forward to seeing Blake Lively’s The Rhythm Section. I know it’s not an action film franchise, but just to get my point across, I even enjoyed Banks’ Pitch Perfect movies more than Charlie’s Angles. Unfortunately, it was just an all-around weak film with an uninteresting lead cast and hollow characters.
If you want people to show up and watch your movies, just make great movies that tell solid stories! I would love to see more female-driven action films! I’m all for it, I have daughters that enjoy them as well. But if you want people to go see them, make good interesting movies and don’t let the agenda of the film drive the marketing. Charlie’s Angles felt like it was forcing an agenda with its marketing, and obviously, that’s not what audiences want.