Warner Bros.’ planned King Arthur reboot has had a major reshuffle just a couple months ahead of its intended release date. The studio decided to push it back several months, from its original date of July 22, 2016, to February 17, 2017.
According to Deadline, King Arthur would have gone up against both Star Trek Beyond and Ice Age: Collision Course. Since the recently rebooted Star Trek franchise has so far grossed $853.1 million with J.J. Abrams’ 2009 and 2013 films, and Ice Age has taken in the rather staggering amount of $2.8 billion over its four efforts, it makes sense that Warner Bros. sought a clearer date for King Arthur’s release.
But is its new release date of February 17, 2017, much better? Simply put: yes. Because they’ve replaced Star Trek and Ice Age with Maze Runner and Bad Boys 3 The Maze Runner franchise has been a nice little Autumn money-spinner for 20th Century Fox, with the 2014 original taking in $348.3 million and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials following this up with the still impressive $312.1 million earlier this year.
Meanwhile details regarding the third instalment to the Bad Boys franchise are still very much a premium. Despite the fact that Sony Pictures has already confirmed its February, 2017 release date, we’re still non the wiser about whether Will Smith will be returning to the film.
If he does, then there’s every chance that Bad Boys 3 will match Bad Boys 2’s $273.3 million gross from 2003. But without him it would be a huge ask for it to flourish, especially since Martin Lawrence has never really had any box office pull and Michael Bay is likely to be too busy with further Transformer films to return as director.
King Arthur certainly has a better chance of defeating these films at the box office than its previous rivals, while it will also have a clearer run following its initial release since there are currently no films planned for the following weekend.
All of this is good news for Warner Bros. since they have huge plans for the King Arthur franchise. If all goes according to plan, the Guy Ritchie-directed film will be the first of six sequels that will re-imagine the King Arthur story for a modern audience. However, since Warner Bros. also had the same plans for Jupiter Ascending and Pan, which both flopped massively earlier this year and immediately led to the cancellation of these follow-ups, it’s safe to say that the studio isn't thinking too far ahead just yet.
Production on Knights of The Roundtable: King Arthur began all the way back in March 2015, when Ritchie shared an image of him working alongside his leading man, Charlie Hunnam.
Charlie Hunnam will be joined in King Arthur by Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Jude Law, Katie McGrath, and Djimon Honsou, while the key source material for its adaptation comes in the shape of Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, which was published all the way back in 1485.
