With the trend of nostalgia continuing to dominate the entertainment world, there's no short supply of reboots, revivals, and long-awaited sequels. We saw another beloved property return to theaters last weekend with Charlie's Angels. This new blockbuster was directed, written, and produced by Elizabeth Banks-- who also plays a supporting role as Bosley. And she recently defended the movie against any naysayers who were mad about another reboot happening.
Charlie's Angels has been entertaining audiences for decades, across various mediums. The 1978 show ran for years, followed by the successful set of movies in the early 2000's and an ill-fated TV reboot in 2011. Elizabeth Banks recently defended the property returning to theaters again, saying:
You've had 37 Spider-Man movies and you're not complaining! I think women are allowed to have one or two action franchises every 17 years —I feel totally fine with that.
Touche. We've seen countless reboots over the years, and the Spider-Man franchise is a great example. There have been plenty of different Spider-Man actors and movies, without much complaint from the public. As such, Elizabeth Banks believes Charlie's Angels can return to theaters for the first time since 2003.
Elizabeth Banks' comments to The Wall Street Journal make a great deal of sense, especially when you take into account how many Spider-centric movies have hit theaters over the last seventeen years. Sam Raimi's trilogy of Spider-Man movies was the first to hit the big screen, starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. Five years after that franchise ended, Andrew Garfield got his pair of Amazing Spider-Man movies.
Since then there's been another Spider-Man introduced, as Tom Holland's version has appeared in a whopping five movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Additionally, Sony's animated blockbuster Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hit theaters as well, winning an Oscar along the way. These Spider-Man movies have made great money at the box office, so it doesn't look too many reboots is really an issue among moviegoers.
This new version of Charlie's Angels brought the Townsend Agency to the modern world, and provided an origin story for a new trio of Angels. But while the blockbuster had a strong cast and its own killer soundtrack, but failed to perform during its first weekend at the box office. The movie fared well both critically and on audience aggregators, but it looks like moviegoers didn't run to theaters to watch Elizabeth Banks' latest directing project.
Related: How Elizabeth Banks Approached Those Wild Charlie's Angels Cameos
The reason for this poor performance will become clear in the coming days, and it'll be interesting to see if Charlie's Angels ends up being able to make a profit at the box office. My own review for CinemaBlend gave the movie a 3.5 out of five stars, praising Elizabeth Banks' ability to bring the property to the modern world.
Charlie's Angels is in theaters now. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies. And our 2020 release list to look ahead toward the New Year.
