As I opined last weekend whenGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2had its massive opening weekend, the second biggest 2017 opening stateside, things are not looking great forKing Arthur: Legend of the Sword.Guy Ritchie’s latest attempt to adapt classical literature as if it were a truck commercial didn’t have a lot of buzz going into the opening weekend and by the time the reviews came in, there wasn’t a whole lot more good will going its way. (That being said, our very own Matt Goldberg saidthere were some fascinating elementsto Ritchie’s follow-up to the far superiorThe Man from U.N.C.L.E.) On Friday, the movie took in an estimated $5.3 million, falling well belowGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2at the top spot with $16.4 million. From the looks of things, Ritchie’s latest will be looking at an $18 million dollar weekend, which is not great for Warner Bros.
Elsewhere, things seemed to be staying on a steady course.Snatched, the Mother’s Day adventure-comedy starringAmy SchumerandGoldie Hawn, is currently in the third spot at the box office with $5 million. Again, there was not a lot of positive buzz pushing the comedy fromThe Night BeforehelmerJonathan Levineinto a weekend with the secondGuardiansmovie still thriving.The Fate of the Furiousbrought in $1.3 million to come in at the fourth spot aboveThe Boss Babywith $965,000.
The Fate of the Furiouswill likely have at least one more weekend in the top five next weekend, considering that bothSnatchedandKing Arthur: Legend of the Swordwill almost certainly see a tremendous drop in sales between this weekend and next. And this isn’t even bringing up the fact that next weekend will bringAlien: Covenant,Ridley Scott’s latest volume in his most popular franchise, which will likely unseatGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2from its number one spot.Covenanthas been splitting the room as far as critics go - I, for one, think it’s one of Scott’s most ambitious films to date - but theAlienfranchise can now comfortably stand on its own two feet without overwhelming worry about tepid or even negative critical response. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the new releases this weekend.
