'King Arthur' flops, 'Guardians 2' still rules at box office

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first major box office flop of the summer movie season has arrived.

Studio estimates on Sunday say director Guy Ritchie's "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" opened to a bleak $14.7 million from more than 3,700 locations against a costly $175 million production budget.

The gritty reimaging of the Excalibur myth starring Charlie Hunnam as Arthur debuted in third place behind box office leader "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and "Snatched" at No. 2.

Warner Bros. was unsurprisingly disappointed at the poor showing for "King Arthur" but hopeful for the rest of its summer slate, including "Wonder Woman" and Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk."

"Snatched" surprised analysts by beating "King Arthur" on the charts. The raunchy, R-rated Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn comedy from 20th Century Fox opened with $17.5 million.

Marvel and Disney's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" collected $63 million and has earned $246.2 million domestically in just two weeks.

It was down just 57 percent from last weekend and is proving to be the only film in theaters capable of drawing mass audiences.

Rounding out the top five were holdovers "The Fate of the Furious," with $5.3 million, and "The Boss Baby" with $4.6 million.

"The newcomers definitely had a tough time ... For most general audiences, 'Guardians' remains the go-to movie," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. "It has incredible staying power."

Neither "King Arthur" nor "Snatched" were well-received by critics, and audiences weren't all that enchanted either, giving "King Arthur" a B+ CinemaScore and "Snatched" a B.

"Snatched" also lagged behind Schumer's "Trainwreck," which opened to $30.6 million in July 2015.

Dergarabedian, however, noted that the success of "Trainwreck" was more of an anomaly than a precedent and echoed the studio in categorizing "Snatched" as a solid start for the film that cost $42 million to make.

There was a clear gender divide, too, between the two major new releases this weekend. "Snatched" audiences were heavily female — an estimated 77 percent according to Fox — while 59 percent of the audience for "King Arthur" was male.