To say that “Charlie’s Angels” is a bit of a box office disappointment this weekend is an understatement. Sure, the film only cost roughly $48 million, but when you earn an estimated $8.6 million in your opening weekend, no studio is going to rush out to make 14 sequels. Well, according to some recent interviews with ‘Angels’ director Elizabeth Banks, she has a clue why female-led action movies are at a disadvantage.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal Magazine, Banks says there’s an inherent bias against female-led action franchises. And that fact is highlighted by the way that no one complains about reboots of male-led properties.
“You’ve had 37 ‘Spider-Man’ movies and you’re not complaining!” said Banks. “I think women are allowed to have one or two action franchises every 17 years —I feel totally fine with that.”
She also spoke about why she believes Kristen Stewart, who normally finds herself acting in smaller, indie films, decided to make the leap into an action franchise, especially when it seems so out of character for her. Banks says it all comes down to the ability to make money.
The filmmaker added, “Being in a big franchise allows you to have it all. I recognize the same thing, it’s almost unfair for women. The best roles are usually in small movies, but then you don’t make any money. It’s okay to want to make money.”
Now, in a separate interview with the Herald Sun, Banks goes on to describe how you can’t necessarily compare something like “Charlie’s Angels” to recent female-led franchise films such as “Wonder Woman” and “Captain Marvel” (both of which are likely going to make hundreds of millions of dollars more than Banks’ film). She claims that audiences will pay money to see the comic book films, even with female leads, because it’s all part of a “male genre.”
“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.’”
She continued, “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.”
Sadly for Banks, and the hopes of other female-led action franchises in development, “Charlie’s Angels” isn’t likely going to be that financial success that will usher in a new wave of female-driven action films. Instead, it’s likely that the reboot will add to Hollywood’s reluctance to give these subgenre more opportunities in the future.