Though "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" showed us the box-office power of a franchise last week, earning over $425 million worldwide its opening weekend, be prepared for the opposite this weekend.
Warner Bros.' $175 million medieval actioner "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword," based on the legend and starring Charlie Hunnam ("The Lost City of Z," "Sons of Anarchy"), is projected to make only $25 million domestically on 3,600 screens, according to Variety.
The colossal bust will be the first casualty this summer-movie season and continues the drop director Guy Ritchie has suffered following the success of the "Sherlock Holmes" franchise.
Ritchie's slick style with popping photography and colorful characters brought him attention with his early work like "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch," but his 2015 spy movie "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." only made $100 million worldwide, and now "King Arthur" is being bashed by critics (it has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 22% as of this writing).
But "King Arthur" will not be the only casualty this weekend. The Amy Schumer/Goldie Hawn comedy "Snatched" is also getting the cold shoulder from critics (we thought it was shockingly awful) and is projected to earn $15 million to $17 million. But the 20th Century Fox comedy was made for a fraction of the "King Arthur" budget.
