Guy Ritchie's King Arthur set for royal flop

There could be more bad news for Guy Ritchie, following the mauling his interpretation of the King Arthur myth has taken at the hands of the critics.

Authorities in such matters Deadline and Variety are predicting a woeful debut weekend of just $25 million (£19.3 million) in the US, spread over a hefty 3,650 screens.

Variety is even going as far as calling ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’s likely performance ‘an opening weekend flop of epic proportions for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’, though it could pick up some business in other territories like the UK.

It’s suggested that Warner Bros. shifting the movie’s release date around on several occasions may not have helped matters, and now that the reviews are in, it could spell disaster.

Critics have given this new ‘geezerish’ take on the ancient story a bit of a kicking, and it currently sits with a lowly 25% approval rating on reviews aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

And though the movie’s lead Charlie Hunnam may have a following from his celebrated turn in ‘Sons of Anarchy’, he’s yet to prove himself as a draw at the multiplex, as evidenced by the underwhelming box office performance of big-budget kaiju vs. robot actioner ‘Pacific Rim’.

‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ cost a chunky $175 million (£135 million) to make, so it has a lot to do before it can even think about breaking even.

Despite reasonable reviews, Ritchie’s last movie, the big screen reboot of ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ tanked too, meaning his last hits were the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in 2009 and 2011, both of which breached $500 million at the box office.

Let’s hope he has better luck with his live-action remake of ‘Aladdin’ for Disney in 2019.

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