“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” the 2017 Guy Ritchie epic that became one of the most expensive box-office failures in Hollywood history, is now streaming on Netflix.
Warner Bros. spent roughly $175 million producing the film, which reimagined the King Arthur legend as the launch point for a planned six-movie franchise spanning Arthurian mythology. The studio spent heavily on marketing as well. When the film underperformed in the U.S. and failed to gain traction overseas, Warner Bros. lost an estimated $150 million on the project, placing it among the costliest box-office bombs ever made.
The film stars Charlie Hunnam as an adult Arthur, following the character’s path from orphaned prince to street thief before his rise to kingship. The early stretch of the movie, which gives future knights nicknames like Goosefat Bill and Wet Stick, leans into the fast-talking British crime-caper style that made Ritchie famous with films like “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and, more recently, “The Gentlemen.”
The back half of the film shifts into more conventional fantasy territory, drawing comparisons to other post-“Lord of the Rings” epics such as “Mortal Engines” and “Gods of Egypt,” complete with wizards, creatures and magical swords, though it remained PG-13.
A Franchise That Never Happened
“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” was designed to set up five additional films, though the movie never explicitly says so. Those sequels never materialized. Later in 2017, Warner Bros. also released “Justice League,” its rushed DC superhero team-up, which underperformed relative to individual films built around Wonder Woman, Superman and Aquaman. Both failures signaled that studios could not simply will a Marvel-style shared universe into existence by spending big and hoping audiences would follow.
Ritchie’s career has shifted considerably since. He has returned to smaller, mostly British crime and war films at a rapid pace, released a streaming adaptation of “The Gentlemen,” and created the Paramount+ drama “MobLand,” which has become his most successful television venture to date.
His most recent theatrical release came out in May, with another film scheduled for February, a completed collaboration with actor Jason Statham already in the can, and a further Statham project set to begin shooting soon.
Nearly a decade later, “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” survives less as the first chapter of an abandoned cinematic universe and more as a standalone curiosity — a big-budget experiment from a director who has since found more durable success on television.
