King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is on track to be this summer’s biggest box office flop. The mega-budget franchise starter from Warner Bros., Village Roadshow, and RatPac-Dune, suffered poor reviews and opened with only $14.7 million this weekend, which will reportedly end up at around $40 million in domestic gross totals. While overseas numbers have not been released yet, there are reports that the movie is flopping in China and movies rarely break even when they fail in both markets.
King Arthur centers around the mythical king and Jude Law as Merlin. The movie is an origin story about the future royal’s strict upbringings. The film stars Charlie Hunnam, the actor most known for his role on Sons of Anarchy. In a statement by Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief Jeff Goldstein, the Warner Bros. executive explained that “the concept didn’t resonate with a broad audience and we’re disappointed. We had higher hopes.”
King Arthur is just the latest movie in the extensive list of Warner Bros. fantasy franchise starters that ended up never taking off at the box office. For example as Forbes points out, Green Lantern earned $216m on a $200m budget, Jack the Giant Slayers made $197m on a $115m budget, Pan made $128m on a $150m budget, and finally, The Legend of Tarzan earned $356m worldwide on a $180m budget.
Meanwhile, Amy Schumer’s Snatched made more money at the box office with a smaller budget. The Mother’s Day action-comedy earned $17.5 million from 3,501 theaters. Fox reportedly spent $42 million to make the movie but was certainly hoping for a larger return on investment, especially considering Schumer’s last movie Trainwreck made $30 million in 2015. Overall, The Hollywood Reporter reports that this is one of the slowest Mothers Day weekends in recent history.
The movie centers around a mother and daughter who end up being abducted while on vacation in Ecuador. The comedy, which received decent reviews, was Goldie Hawn’s big screen debut in 15 years. While Schumer is not particularly liked in most conservative circles, the comedy was a hit in conservative states, according to reports. The movie was popular in Florida, Oklahoma City and Antonio.
That said, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continued to reign supreme in the box office earning $63 million at the box office. So far, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has made $246.2 million domestically and $384.4 million overseas for a total of $630.6 million.