King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is an epic summer failure at the box office

This Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law starrer have grossed just $43.8m worldwide on its opening weekend.

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Charlie Hunnam and David Beckham
Charlie Hunnam and David Beckhamwill be seen together on King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Reuters

It looks like director Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword will be an epic summer fail at the box office this year. The film, which is made on a production budget of $175m, made a disastrous opening at the US and international box offices. This Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law starrer have reportedly grossed $43.8m worldwide.

A report in Hollywood Reporter opined that the film could make a loss of $100m for its production studio Warner Bros. According to the numbers reported by The Guardian, the film grossed $14.79m from 3,702 cinemas in the US on its opening weekend. At the box office, King Arthur debuted in the third place behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 ($63m), and Amy Schumer-Goldie Hawn's Snatched ($17.5m). Internationally, the film struggled to keep up its expectation and collected only $29.1m from 51 countries.

The report added, "The film ranked first in 29, including Russia, Scandinavia and Thailand. However, it only managed a third-place opening in the crucial market of China, where it took $6.05m. King Arthur's global total left it lagging far behind the Indian sports drama Dangal, which took $32.5m and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2."

The supporting cast comprises of Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou, Aidan Gillen, and Eric Bana while King Arthur premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on May 8, 2017, and was released in the United States on May 12, 2017, in 2D and RealD 3D.

The film also received negative reviews from fans and critics. A report on Huffington Post stated, "The mythical epic starring Charlie Hunnam in the titular role was critically drubbed (it currently has a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes), but has a relatively high B+ CinemaScore."

On the other hand, box-office analyst Jeff Bock told Hollywood Reporter, "King Arthur is a paint-by-numbers Hollywood disaster — wrong director, wrong cast, wrong script, etc. The whole Game of Thrones-on-steroids direction the studio went with from the get-go just didn't get anyone psyched to see this."

This article was first published on May 16, 2017