‘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 Gunnwritten 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.

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