The Charlie's Angels reboot becomes the latest box office bomb of the fall, grossing only $8.6 million in its opening weekend. While there have been some noteworthy hits the past couple of months (Joker, most prominently), there have also been more than a few major commercial disappointments. The likes of Terminator: Dark Fate and Doctor Sleep flopped and will ultimately cost their studios money. Even last weekend's champ, World War II drama Midway, earned just a fraction of its $100 million production budget in its debut and has a long way to go to reach profitability.
Though Charlie's Angels wasn't arriving with substantial buzz or fanfare, there was still hope it'd perform solidly at the box office. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, the reboot looks to revive the classic property for a new generation of moviegoers, featuring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska in the lead roles. Heading into the weekend, Charlie's Angels received generally positive (but overall mixed) reviews from critics, but that didn't help at all in terms of the film's box office prospects.
Per THR, Charlie's Angels had a rough debut in third place with just $8.6 million domestically in its first three days, well behind the new #1 film, James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari. The racing drama starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale stormed out of the gates with an impressive $31 million in the U.S. Midway ($8.8 million), Playing With Fire ($8.5 million), and Last Christmas ($6.7 million) rounded out the top five.
Much like last week's Doctor Sleep, Charlie's Angels was moderately budgeted around $48-55 million. Even with that in mind, this is a disastrous opening for the action film. Charlie's Angels was projected to gross $13.2 million, so it came in below those soft expectations. Odds are, it'll have very weak legs at the box office; interest in it was quite low, and the back half of November features several buzz-worthy projects, such as A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Frozen II, and Knives Out. All of those titles are appealing to different demographics, but the variety of films available will make Charlie's Angels look like a less appealing option in the coming weeks. Any sequels that might have been planned are probably off the table now.
On the flip side, Ford v Ferrari was precisely what Fox needed. Since Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox became official, a number of Fox films flopped, sparking public comments by Disney co-chairman Alan Horn. It's nice to see audiences turned out for Ford v Ferrari, an adult-skewing true story drama that is seen as a possible Oscar contender this year. Its success proves there's still a demand for this kind of film, which will hopefully encourage Disney to green light similar projects under the Fox banner in the future.
Source: THR
