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Guardians Flies, Arthur Sinks Like a Stone

Well, that didn’t take long.

Summer starts early in Hollywood—the first week of May, generally. That’s when movie studios start pushing what they hope to be their biggest, best, most lucrative productions, when theaters are saturated with superheroes, Transformers and pirates.

But not every summertime flick succeeds. The season is just two weeks old, but it looks like we’ve already seen our first summertime flop.

Admittedly, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword may yet be the stuff of legend: a legendary bomb, that is. While the book is a long way from closing on Director Guy Ritchie’s, um, unique take on Britain’s legendary monarch, things don’t look particularly promising. The once and future king earned an estimated $14.7 million in its first three days, which seems barely enough to pay the catering bill. That’s not good, but it’s even worse when you consider that Warner Bros. spent an estimated $175 million making the thing—the first of what was supposed to at least a six-film franchise. In other words, the knights of the round table were roundly trounced. Camelot turned into Camelittle. And for this fledgling franchise, Avalon now beckons.

Perhaps the folks over at Warner Bros. are shaking their collective fists at Disney, shouting, “Your father smelt of elderberries!” in a bad French accent. But insults will not alter the fact that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the film that kicked off the summer season, again collected more money than any other flick in the North American universe. It banked an estimated $63 million to claim the box-office crown for the second straight week. And with $246.2 million in its overall coffers, it’s already the year’s second biggest film (in North America), trailing fellow Disney flick Beauty and the Beast by … well, quite a bit, actually. Beauty’s earned $493.2 million, so it doesn’t look as if its reign is in any immediate peril.

Guardians spoiled the debut of another newcomer, as well. Comedian Amy Schumer’s R-rated comedy Snatched only, um, snatched $17.5 million during its opening weekend. That’s not as bad as King Arthur, of course, but it was still only good for a distant second-place finish.

The Fate of the Furious finished fourth with $5.3 million in funds. And The Boss Baby—a movie so old by Hollywood standards that the titular kid should be cashing Social Security checks by now—closes out the Top Five with $4.6 million.

Will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 be able to win the box office for the third straight week? Maybe. But another bevy of aliens may have something to say about that.