Currently in the top 10 of the most viewed films on the Netflix platform, this blockbuster, which had an amazing flop at the cinema, is attracting subscribers.
Netflix subscribers are giving a colossal box office failure a chance: Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of Excalibur. Carried by Charlie Hunnam, this film was to be the first episode of a saga of several feature films, but was such an oven that the project was thrown in the trash.
His mother and father killed by Vortigern the traitor to monopolize the throne, the young Arthur Pendragon fled. Taken in by prostitutes, he grows up and becomes a gang leader in the slums of Londinium. When he learns that a sword stuck in a rock will make whoever gets it out king of Britain, Arthur tries his luck. He manages to pull the blade out, but before its power, faints.
Warner Bros.
Arthur’s parents are played by Eric Bana and Poppy Delevingne. In the role of the formidable Vortigern, brother of Uther Pendragon, we find Jude Law, and the magician sent by Merlin has the features of Astrid Bergès-Frisbey. Aidan Gillen and Djimon Hounsou round out the cast.
All these pretty people had signed up for an adventure in six films, telling the life of Arthur from his childhood to his death. Except that the shooting is launched with an unfinished script and that the post-production (the editing, in particular) is very complicated. Guy Ritchie signed a film with an estimated duration of 3h to 3h30 and under pressure from the studio, had to resolve to offer a finished product of 2 hours maximum.
Warner Bros.
The result will be exhausted by the press as well as the public and the film does not even repay its shooting budget (estimated at 175 million dollars) by collecting only 148.6 million at the worldwide box office. A slap on all levels.
Today, thanks to Netflix, a new audience is discovering the film and the severe spectators of 2017 are giving it a chance, which places it among the platform’s weekly hits. Guy Ritchie can say thank you to subscribers!