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

Reboot earned one fifth of the opening weekend of Cameron Diaz-led original in 2000

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.