‘King Arthur’ is summer’s first big box-office flop
Warner Bros.’ “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” failed to pull an Excalibur-like miracle to top “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” becoming the summer season’s first big flop.
In its debut, the liveaction take came in third, with just $14.7 million. Falling well below analyst expectations of $25 million, this is an even rougher start than projected for a movie with a $175 million price tag.
Directed by Guy Ritchie, a respected filmmaker since his 1998 debut, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” who was able to turn Sherlock Holmes into a Hollywood action hero with Robert Downey Jr., the picture stars Charlie Hunnam as the legend, a casting gamble considering he had not yet proved to be a box-office draw. Unfortunately, it appears he still isn’t.
“King Arthur” has suffered from a mix of negative reviews, with it sitting at 27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers (59 percent male; 56 percent under age 35) gave it a B-plus CinemaScore.
While some hoped that the action-adventure might play like last year’s “Legend of Tarzan,” which was no blockbuster but did better than anticipated and went on to pull in $127 million, such expectations are falling through. Still, like “Tarzan,” “King Arthur” could be an international hit to come. It took in $29.1 million in foreign receipts over the weekend.
“Guardians” remains atop the box office for the second weekend in a row. The James Gunn-written and directed picture, which opened higher than its predecessor by an impressive 55 percent, brought in an additional $63 million in the U.S. and Canada. Beating analyst expectations of $58 million, this is only a 57 percent drop from its debut last week, a feat, as most Marvel sequels tend to decline about 60 percent.
The first “Guardians” debuted with $94 million in its first three days and fell 55 percent in its second weekend.
Internationally, the film brought in $52.2 million for a global gross to date of $630.6 million.
Of the weekend’s new releases, 20th Century Fox’s “Snatched” performed the best, taking in $17.5 million. It met analyst projections of $15 million to $20 million and landed in second place.
The film, starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn as a traveling daughter and mother on an exotic vacation that goes horribly wrong, is the first original raunchy comedy of the summer season. As this is a genre that’s often box-office gold, a la last year’s “Bad Moms” and 2014’s “Neighbors,” “Snatched’s” performance is a decent start for the $42 million movie.
But it is lower than the $30 million bow for Schumer’s 2015 hit “Trainwreck.”
That might be due to a sea of poor reviews of the movie, which has only a 36 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audience members (77 percent female; 64 percent white; 51 percent ages 18 to 34), however, did give it a B CinemaScore.
Pulling up the top five rear were Universal’s “The Fate of the Furious” and Fox’s “The Boss Baby.” The two brought in $5.3 million and $4.6 million, respectively, for domestic grosses to date of $215 million and $162.4 million.
On the limited-release front, BH Tilt’s “Lowriders,” in fewer than 300 theaters, brought in $2.4 million, good enough for a top 10 spot at No. 8. and better than its projections of $750,000 to $1.2 million.
Starring Demian Bichir and Eva Longoria, the coming-of-age drama set against East Los Angeles’ lowrider culture follows a young street artist (Gabriel Chavarria, “East Los High”) straddling life between his father (Bichir), who’s all about lowriders, his exfelon brother (Theo Rossi of “Sons of Anarchy”), who hates their dad, and his need for self-expression. Longoria plays the wife of Bichir’s character, the stepmom to the sons.
Dubbed the first major feature inspired by the people and traditions of the lowrider culture and produced in part by Imagine Entertainment and Telemundo Films, “Lowriders” targeted high-performing Latino markets, with the audience being 53 percent male and 61 percent ages 18 to 34.
This weekend, joining the multiplexes will be Fox’s “Alien: Covenant” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” and Warner Bros.’ young adult adaptation “Everything, Everything.”
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