King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword Expected To Be Huge Box Office Flop
Sorry, Guy Ritchie: it looks like people would rather see the Guardians of the Galaxy than another retelling of the King Arthur story. Variety reports that the Sherlock Holmes director's most recent film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, is expected to be an epic disappointment at the box office this weekend, projected to open to only $25 million on a $175 million budget.
Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam stars as the title character in the action film, which tells the origin story of the famous medieval character. Ritchie directed based on a script from him, Joby Harold, and Lionel Wigram. Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana, Aidan Gillen, Freddie Fox, Craig McGinlay, and Tom Wu also star. Despite a much-hyped David Beckham cameo and a new, visually stunning take on King Arthur's tale, the film hasn't been a hit with critics, earning only a 23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While also facing tough competition in the form of Marvel's juggernaut Guardians, the negative reviews only help to push the film further down the box office ladder.
However, there is still hope for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow; Hunnam's most notable other outing as a movie star, 2013's Pacific Rim, was a disappointment domestically but managed to make enough money to at least recoup its budget in overseas markets. Considering King Arthur's high costs, plus marketing, the studio is definitely hoping that the film will be able to destroy the competition overseas.
The other wide release this weekend is the Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn comedy Snatched. The film, directed by Warm Bodies' Jonathan Levine based on a script from Ghostbusters' Katie Dippold, follows a mother-daughter vacation gone wrong. Estimates put the mid-budget film in the $15 to $17 million range, although Variety notes that female-driven comedies (like Schumer's 2015 hit Trainwreck) are often underestimated at the box office. There's a chance that the film, made for significantly less money than King Arthur, could even manage to come out on top over the action flick.
Still, the big winner of the weekend will almost certainly be Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which demolished the competition last weekend with a $145 million opening. With positive reviews and fan buzz continuing to dominate the social media sphere, the film is set to beat out the competition once again, even if it experiences a sharp drop from its first weekend. The film's real competition will come next week, when Alien: Covenant hits theaters, and it will be facing even more rivals the week after with the release of Baywatch and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Still, at this point, the only real question left for Guardians' box office run is how fast it can fly to the $1 billion mark.
As the summer box office continues to heat up (for some), see all of the movies set to blow you away in the next few months.