Charlie’s Angels: Sony ‘reducing marketing’ for reboot after disastrous opening at US box office

The Charlie’s Angels reboot has bombed at the US box office, leading Sony to reportedly pull back on promotion for the film.

The action-comedy, which revived the franchise with actors Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska, opened to a dismal $8 million (£6.1m) in its first three days of release. The film cost a reported $48m (£37m) to produce.

According to Deadline, Sony Pictures initially planned to spend $100m (£77.1m) globally to promote the film, but claimed that “the studio [is] now reducing that overall cost greatly to around $50m (£38.6m) and pulling back on expensive ads” as a result of its opening weekend.

Written and directed by actor Elizabeth Banks, who also appears in a supporting role, the Charlie’s Angels reboot follows in the footsteps of two previous big-screen revivals of the iconic Seventies TV series.

Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu previously starred in Charlie’s Angels in 2000 and a sequel, Full Throttle, in 2003.

The first film earned $40m (£30.8m) in its opening weekend, leading to a final worldwide gross of $264m (£203.7m). The sequel came in slightly under, ultimately grossing $259m (£199.8m) in total.

The new film, which also co-stars Sam Claflin, Djimon Hounsou and Patrick Stewart, introduces a global corporation of investigative “Angels”, and has earned mixed reviews from critics.

Vulture’s Allison Wilmore criticised the film’s “girl-power makeover” of the franchise, with dialogue and themes she said are “not actually explored beyond [their] potential to be stuck on a T-shirt”.

Charlie’s Angels is released in the UK on Friday 29 November.