Box office King Arthur: Legend of the Sword grossed $39.2 million in the United States and Canada and $107 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $146.2 million, against a production budget of $175 million. In North America, the film was released alongside
Snatched and
Lowriders and was initially projected to gross around $25 million from 3,702 theatres during its opening weekend. It made $1.15 million from Thursday night previews at about 3,200 theatres, but after making just $5.3 million on Friday, weekend projections were lowered to $15 million. It ended up debuting to $15.4 million, finishing third at the box office.
Deadline Hollywood noted that due to the film's $175 million production budget, as well as at least an additional $100 million spent on marketing, the film was destined to be a
box office bomb. Regarding the cost of the film, the site quoted one finance expert as saying: "Make original IP [intellectual property] for a cost effective price. If it works then spend more if necessary on the sequel.
King Arthur should have been done for $60–80 [million]. Warner Bros. had no reason to spend $175M-plus on this picture." Comparing its opening to cost,
IndieWire called the film's failings "historic".
The Hollywood Reporter noted that the film would likely lose about $150 million. In its second weekend the film grossed $7.2 million (a drop of 53.5%), finishing 5th at the box office. The film debuted at No. 1 in an estimated 29 countries, including Russia, with openings to follow in the United Kingdom, France, South Korea and Australia. Over its opening weekend, it made $29.1 million worldwide.
Critical response On
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 31% based on 279 reviews and an
average rating of 4.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword piles mounds of modern action flash on an age-old tale – and wipes out much of what made it a classic story in the first place." On
Metacritic, the film has a score 41 out of 100 based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while
PostTrak reporter filmgoers gave it an overall positive score of 78%; 56% of the opening weekend filmgoers were under the age of 35, and 59% were men.
Matt Zoller Seitz of
RogerEbert.com gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that despite the potential for a revisionist King Arthur story with "[t]he Ritchie sense of style", the overall problem is the film's lack of modulation: "Ritchie keeps rushing us along for two hours, as if to make absolutely certain that we never have time to absorb any character or moment, much less revel in the glorious, cheeky ridiculousness of the whole thing." In a criticism of the film for the
Chicago Tribune,
Michael Phillips questioned the long-term longevity of the projected series of six
Arthur films from Ritchie: "I'm no businessman, but plans for a six-film franchise may be optimistic. Optimism is nowhere to be found in Ritchie's movie itself. It is a grim and stupid thing, from one of the world's most successful mediocre filmmakers, and if
Shakespeare's
King Lear were blogging today, he'd supply the
blurb quote: 'Nothing will come of nothing.'." Chris Hartwell of
The Hollywood Reporter expressed disappointment in the film's lackluster box office performance denying a sequel for the introduction of
Merlin, stating it would have been more successful as a solo film instead of setting up a franchise. Alissa Wilkinson of
Vox writes that the film is "surprisingly good, and surprisingly political" in relation to the
British withdrawal from the European Union, and "occasionally, it's even pretty great".
Accolades King Arthur: Legend of the Sword was nominated in four categories at the 2017
Golden Trailer Awards: "Throne" (Open Road Entertainment) for Best Action, "Story" (Wild Card) for both Best Original Score and Best Sound Editing, and "Rules 60" (Wild Card) for Best Fantasy Adventure TV Spot (for a Feature Film). At the
Golden Reel Awards 2017, the film received a nomination for
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Music Score. ==References==