Weekend box office: The Guardians thrive while King Arthur falls flat
The biggest news this weekend is the disappointing box office results from KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD, which will be debated for a while because it’s not every day you see a major blockbuster film do so poorly at the weekend box office. With a budget around $175 million and less than $20 million on its opening weekend, the film is set to be a huge loss for the studio and has already triggered a slew of opinion pieces theorizing why the film is struggling. However, it shouldn’t be a surprise that King Arthur struggled. Guy Ritchie was obviously not going to take the film seriously and since it lacked an A-list star, there was nothing driving people to the theaters. The real question is why would Warner Bros. spend $175 million on a movie like this? As a movie fan, it’s frustrating because another flop for a non-franchise movie means we’re going to get less non-franchise movies, which means more comic book movies. I like them as much as the next fanboy, but we still need other blockbusters to offset the onslaught of superhero films.
Next week should belong to ALIEN: COVENANT, although it remains to be seen how well audiences will respond to Ridley Scott’s latest Alien film. The initial reviews lead me to believe Scott didn’t make the movie he wanted in favor of showing alien action movies, but we’ll see how audiences respond. PROMETHEUS opened with just over $50 million, so ALIEN: COVENANT should be able to match or slightly beat that, which means it should dethrone GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOLUME 2. There’s also another Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie called DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE LONG HAUL, but it will be a challenge for it to crack the top ten. I’m not sure anyone is still invested in that franchise. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 $62.1m
2. Snatched $16.5m
3. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword $14.3m
4. The Fate of the Furious $5.4m
5. The Boss Baby $4.8m
6. Beauty and the Beast $4.2m
7. How to be a Latin Lover $3.8m
8. Lowriders $2.7m
9. The Circle $1.8m
10. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion $1.5m
(Deadline)
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