Actor Charlie Hunnam called backing out of the lead role in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise “the most emotionally destructive and difficult thing that I’ve ever had to deal with professionally.”

In an interview for VMAN, the star of the upcoming “Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur” detailed the sequence of events that precipitated his decision to decline the role that he had accepted just a month earlier.

“I’d given Guillermo (del Toro) my word, over a year before, that I was going to do [“Crimson Peak”],” Hunnam said. “People were saying, ‘Are you crazy? Guillermo still has got four months to recast, it’s the fourth lead, you can go and do this [instead].’ I said, ‘I can’t … I gave him my word.'”

Also Read: Charlie Hunnam Is Ripped And Rugged as King Arthur in Newest Look (Photo)

Hunnam had not only committed to “Crimson Peak,” but also had the final season of “Sons of Anarchy” to shoot.

“It was the worst professional experience of my life,” Hunnam said of the decision to pull out of “Fifty Shades,” then recounted the conversation he had with the film’s director, Sam Taylor Johnson.

“I called her and we both cried our eyes out on the phone for 20 minutes. I needed to tell her that this was not going to work,” he said, recalling his grueling work schedule. “There was a lot of personal stuff going on in my life that left me on real emotional shaky ground and mentally weak. I just got myself so fucking overwhelmed and I was sort of having panic attacks about the whole thing.”

Also Read: 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Fans Get Hot and Bothered Over Story Told From Christian's Point of View

The actor also refuted speculation at the time that he pulled out of the film due to its sexually explicit content.

Recalling a turn in Showtime’s “Queer as Folk,” Hunnam said, “When I was 18 I was getting fucked in the ass, completely naked on national TV, you know?”

The Fall/Winter issue of VMAN hits newsstands on Sept. 17.

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A moldering manor house, a young virgin with a predilection for ornate nightgowns and dark passages, and an aristocratic family hiding some truly terrible secrets are just some of the ingredients of Guillermo del Toro‘s “Crimson Peak.”

The insanely lush Gothic romance and ghost story plays like a hitherto unrecorded collaboration between Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, the designers of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion and whoever directed all those Bonnie Tyler music videos in the 1980s.

And while the film boasts a talented ensemble, let’s give credit to the film’s real star: costume designer Kate Hawley (“Edge of Tomorrow”), who drapes the innocent Edith (Mia Wasikowska) and the duplicitous Lucille (Jessica Chastain) in dresses and nightgowns that perfectly match del Toro’s directorial style here: insanely overdone yet perfectly appropriate.

See Video: Guillermo del Toro's 'Crimson Peak' Trailer Features Lots of Creeps Haunting Mia Wasikowska

Del Toro, who also co-wrote with frequent collaborator Matthew Robbins, pays homage to the British horror movies made by Hammer Films in the 1950s and ’60s, and “Crimson Peak” offer fitting tribute, down to the long sequences where people wander up and down creepy hallways in between scare moments.

Defenders of the recent “Godzilla” reboot justified that film’s delayed gratification as an homage-based decision, but del Toro and Robbins at least give audiences something to look at and think about while we’re waiting for the next money shot.

Wasikowska’s Edith Cushing — named for Hammer star and eventual “Star Wars” supporting cast member Peter Cushing — is an odd duck amid high-society girls in 1901 Buffalo, N.Y.; she’s a writer, even though her haunted tales are rejected by publishers who think women should write only romances. Edith has cause to be interested in the supernatural, however, since she was visited as a child by the ghost of her late mother, who warned her to beware of something called Crimson Peak.

While her father Carter (Jim Beaver) would like to see Edith pair off with her childhood friend, optometrist Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam), her head is turned by visiting British baronet Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), who sweeps the sheltered young girl off her feet under the watchful eye of his sister Lucille. Carter doesn’t get the chance to share with Edith what he has learned about the Sharpes before she is whisked off to their estate in England, built atop a mine producing clay so red that the floors bleed crimson.

Production designer Tom Sanders and his team have created the mother of all haunted houses, complete with a dramatic staircase, rickety elevator, rusty pipes, a hole in the ceiling through which leaves (and later, snow) fall to the floor of the foyer, and both an attic and a basement Edith is warned to avoid. (Lucille skulks around like Mrs. Danvers in “Rebecca,” wielding a massive set of keys to all the rooms.)

The more Edith learns about who she married, and why she’s really there, and what spirits still possess this terrifying home, the more she wants to escape. But when winter comes, bringing snow that absorbs the color of the clay beneath, she discovers that Crimson Peak more than merits her late mother’s dire warnings.

Also Read: Charlie Hunnam Still Regrets Pulling Out of 'Fifty Shades of Grey': I Was 'Having Panic Attacks'

The sight of Wasikowska — looking like a Botticelli goddess in a puffy-sleeved brocaded nightgown, hair streaming down on both sides, clutching a candelabra — clearly pushes del Toro’s Gothic-horror buttons, and he shares that delight with audiences; when she eventually throws open the doors to the house only to face a great whoomp of snow and wind, it’s hard not to shriek with delight, and it’s at that operatically unrestrained level that “Crimson Peak” works best.

These actors have been called upon to play archetypes, and they do so brilliantly. The Buffalo sequence plays like “The Age of Innocence,” with Alan and Thomas battling for Edith’s attention at dances and dinners. Once in England, Thomas and Lucille share any number of foreboding stares while Edith pieces together their true intentions. (Beaver, the principal cast’s one American actor playing an American character, imbues the father with enough genuine spirit and paternal affection to keep him from being merely a plot device.)

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Fans expecting wall-to-wall gut-bucket phantasmagoria may be surprised to see how much time del Toro gives to the love triangle and to the slow accumulation of the film’s creepy atmosphere. While the digital effects are undeniably contemporary, “Crimson Peak” is otherwise a period homage that mostly plays like a period film, rarely giving in to contemporary notions of pacing and payoff.

When the scares do arrive, however, they’re effectively unsettling. Only once or twice does the film indulge in cheesy jump effects, where the audience flinches because of a sudden LOUD noise. Instead, you can feel the director savoring the anticipation and then resolving it skillfully and grandly. The result is del Toro’s best film since “Pan’s Labyrinth,” one that should rightly become a staple for many Halloweens to come.

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After tapping Michael B. Jordan to play the Human Torch in “Fantastic Four,” 20th Century Fox is embracing colorblind casting once again, as Idris Elba is in negotiations to star in adaptation of Charles Martin’s best-selling novel “The Mountains Between Us” for the studio’s Fox 2000 division, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

The story follows a male doctor and a female writer who’s engaged to be married who both survive a plane crash in the mountains. The doctor suffers broken ribs while she sustains a leg fracture, and he must use his climbing skills to get her down the mountain to safety.

Charlie Hunnam and Rosamund Pike were previously attached to star, but since race isn’t essential to either character, Fox execs thought Elba best suited for the romantic role.

Also Read: Rosamund Pike in Negotiations to Star in 'The Mountains Between Us'

Hany Abu-Assad (“Paradise Now”) is directing from a script by Chris Weitz, who rewrote earlier drafts by J. Mills Goodloe and Scott Frank. Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping of Chernin Entertainment are producing the movie. Fox 2000 executive Marisa Paive will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.

The filmmakers continue to search for the film’s female lead, who is expected to be white, though actresses of all races are currently being considered.

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Elba is riding high off two SAG Awards for his turns in “Luther” and Netflix’s “Beasts of No Nation,” the latter of which failed to earn him an Oscar nomination, to much consternation among the public.

Elba, who next stars in “Star Trek Beyond,” is nearing a deal to play gunslinger Roland in an adaptation of Stephen King‘s beloved “The Dark Tower.” He also lends his voice to Disney’s live-action “The Jungle Book” and the studio’s animated sequel “Finding Dory.”

He’s represented by WME.

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Director James Gray‘s “The Lost City of Z” unveiled its first scenes in a sales trailer posted online featuring Charlie Hunnam heading deep into the jungle of Bolivia in search of a fabled civilization believed to house palaces of gold.

Hunnam stars as Percy Fawcett, a real-life British surveyor and army major who spent years in the early 1900s exploring the jungles of South America’s Amazon — leaving behind his wife (Sienna Miller) and young family to face “terrible disease, murderous savages” and other dangers.

The movie also stars a heavily bearded Robert Pattinson, new Spider-Man player Tom Holland, Angus Macfadyen and Edward Ashley.

Also Read: David Grann's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Rights Sell to Imperative for $5 Million

Hunnam replaced Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role just before production began early last year.

Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are producing via Plan B Entertainment along with Anthony Katagas and Dale Johnson. MICA Entertainment is financing the film, which is based on David Grann‘s best-selling nonfiction book.

MadRiver Pictures’ Marc Butan is executive producing, as are MICA Entertainment’s Julie B. May and Glenn Murray. Sierra/Affinity is representing international sales of the title, with CAA overseeing domestic rights to the film.

Also Read: Charlie Hunnam Replaces Benedict Cumberbatch in 'Lost City of Z'

Rights to Grann’s next nonfiction book, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” sold last month to Santa Monica-based Imperative Entertainment for roughly $5 million in a highly competitive auction.

“The Lost City of Z” is expected to hit theaters later this year.

Update: The video has been removed due to copyright concerns.

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Guy Ritchie may be the best thing to happen to medieval times since “Game of Thrones.”

The director’s vision of “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” was presented to San Diego Comic-Con at the Warner Bros. panel on Saturday, and Ritchie’s high-octane sensibilities seemed to agree with the sword in stone.

The king himself, “Sons of Anarchy” alum Charlie Hunnam, was on hand to present the first look. Ritchie’s swift, almost-POV camerawork was on display — as was Hunnam’s enviable physique.

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Hunnam seems much more like a street hustler than royalty in the action flick, but it works to his advantage. Jude Law makes for a compelling villain, with welcome appearances from Djimon Hounsou and Eric Bana.

Warner Bros. unleashes the retelling on March 24, 2017 in the U.S.

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James Gray‘s “The Lost City of Z,” starring Charlie Hunnam and Sienna Miller, which is based on journalist David Grann‘s book about a British explorer in the Amazon, will serve as the closing-night film at the 54th New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced on Wednesday.

The film will have its world premiere on Saturday, Oct. 15, concluding a festival that will begin on Sept. 30 with Ava DuVernay‘s documentary “The 13th” and also include a gala screening of Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women.”

Gray’s previous films include “The Immigrant” and “Two Lovers.”

“The Lost City of Z,” which also features Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, is based on the true story of the early 20th century explorer Lt. Col. Percy Fawcett, who spent decades searching for a lost city in the jungles of Brazil.

Also Read: 'The Lost City of Z' First Trailer Shows Charlie Hunnam Under Attack in Amazon Jungle

The film, NYFF Director Kent Jones said in a statement, “represents something new. It’s a true epic, spanning two continents and three decades, and it’s a genuine visioin of the search for sublimity.”

The film is produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Anthony Katagas and Dale Armin Johnson, and is executive produced by Brad Pitt and Marc Butan. It is looking for distribution, with an anticipated release in 2017.

The full lineup for the 2016 NYFF will be announced next week in New York City. Tickets for the festival go on sale Sept. 11.

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“Mr. Robot” star Rami Malek is in talks to join the remake of “Papillon” alongside Charlie Hunnam, TheWrap has learned.

The actor would play Louis Dega, the role made famous by Dustin Hoffman in the 1973 original. Hunnam is already signed to take on Steve McQueen‘s role of Henri Charrière.

“Papillon” is backed by Red Granite Pictures and will be directed by Michael Noer.

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The remake will take a modern tack on the original “Papillon,” which was based on the memoirs of a convicted felon (Charrière) who escaped from Devil’s Island, a South American settlement for exiled prisoners. Charrière is helped by Malek’s character (Dega), a counterfeiter.

Red Granite was recently implicated in a U.S. Justice Department attempt to seize more than $1 billion in assets, including proceeds from “The Wolf of Wall Street,” from a Malaysian wealth fund associated with the Hollywood production company. However DOJ documents specify that the lawsuit was not filed against Red Granite or against any of its other motion picture assets, freeing the company to proceed with “Papillon.”

Malek also starred in “Short Term 12,” “Need for Speed” and “Night at the Museum.” He is nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in “Mr. Robot.”

Production on “Papillon” will begin next month.

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Guy Ritchie is in negotiations to direct Disney’s live-action “Aladdin,” an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

The animated film “Aladdin” was released in 1992 and featured the voices of Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman and Scott Weinger. The movie followed a young man who was granted three wishes by a genie trapped in a lamp.

“Aladdin” was the highest-grossing film of the year (grossing $217 million in the U.S. and over $504 million worldwide) and won Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Song for “A Whole New World.”

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Dan Lin will produce the live-action version via his Lin Pictures banner. John August wrote the script.

In January 2015, Disney announced “Genies,” a live-action prequel to 1992’s hit animated movie that the studio has in development. Damian Shannon and Mark Swift are writing the script for the movie, which Tripp Vinson will produce under his Vinson Films banner.

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Ritchie’s recent credits include “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and the “Sherlock Holmes” films.  His upcoming projects include the TV series “Snatch,” on which he is the writer. He is also directing, producing and writing “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” starring Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law.

Ritchie is represented by MRC, CAA and Anonymous Content.

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Could Jax Teller ride on FX once again?

“Sons of Anarchy” star Charlie Hunnam told TMZ on Wednesday that he’d be open to appearing on FX’s upcoming “Sons” spinoff “Mayans MC,” which received a pilot order from the network earlier this month.

As Hunnam sees it, however, there’s a hurdle to his appearance, and it’s a pretty tall one.

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“The last I saw, Jax Teller was dead,”  Hunnam said.

Which would seem to be true. On the series finale of FX’s biker drama, Hunnam’s character Teller was seen (and don’t even complain about spoilers at this point) riding his bike and putting himself on a collision course with a truck driven by Michael Chiklis.

Given that the spinoff takes place in a post-Jax Teller world, that might complicate things.

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Still, the actor allowed, perhaps Teller could make an appearance by way of a dream sequence.

“Listen, if they call me, I’ll do it,” Hunnam said. “If they want me to do a little dream sequence, I’ll do a little dream sequence.”

Hunnan added, “I’d do anything for [‘Sons’ creator] Kurt [Sutter]. I love that guy.”

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So there it is, “Sons” fans — a definite yeah, possibly.

The new project centers on E.Z. Reyes, a prospect in the Mayan MC charter on the Cali/Mexico border, who struggles with his desire for vengeance against the cartel, and his need for respect from the woman he loves.

Sutter co-wrote the pilot for the spinoff with Elgin James, and will also direct it.

Watch Hunnam talk about the spinoff in the video.

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Amazon Studios has released a teaser trailer of “The Lost City of Z,” starring Charlie Hunnam and Tom Holland.

The movie, based on a book that tells a true story, follows British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, who disappeared while search for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s. The trailer shows confrontations with indigenous people, as well as the cast members running for their life.

“We must turn back!” says one voice in the trailer.

Also Read: 'The Lost City of Z' NYFF Review: Charlie Hunnam Explores the Amazon in Stirring Saga

“There is no turning back,” responds another.

The movie also stars a heavily bearded Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Angus Macfadyen and Edward Ashley.

Hunnam replaced Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role just before production began early last year.

Also Read: 'The Lost City of Z' First Trailer Shows Charlie Hunnam Under Attack in Amazon Jungle

Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are producing via Plan B Entertainment, along with Anthony Katagas and Dale Johnson. MICA Entertainment is financing the film, which is based on David Grann‘s best-selling nonfiction book. James Gray is directing.

The film premiered at the New York Film Festival and wowed critics — it has a score of 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

“The Lost City of Z” will be released in New York and Los Angeles theaters on April 14, with a wider release the following week.

Watch the trailer above.

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A buff Charlie Hunnam pulls a sword from a stone and embraces his royal destiny in the new trailer for Warner Bros.’ “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.”

Hunnam has the title role in Guy Ritchies’s frequently delayed new film, which offers an iconoclastic take on the classic Excalibur myth and traces Arthur’s journey from the streets to the throne.

When the child Arthur’s father is murdered, Vortigern (Jude Law), Arthur’s uncle, seizes the crown. Robbed of his birthright and with no idea who he truly is, Arthur comes up the hard way in the back alleys of the city. But once he pulls the sword from the stone, his life is turned upside down and he is forced to acknowledge his true legacy…whether he likes it or not.

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The film also stars Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”) as Mage; Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (“Blood Diamond”) as Bedivere; Aidan Gillen (“Game of Thrones”) as Goosefat Bill; and Eric Bana (“Star Trek”) as Arthur’s father, King Uther Pendragon.

Guy Ritchie (“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” the “Sherlock Holmes” films) directed the film from a screenplay by Joby Harold (“Awake”) and Guy Ritchie & Lionel Wigram, story by David Dobkin (“The Judge”) and Joby Harold.

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The film is produced by Akiva Goldsman, Joby Harold, Tory Tunnell, Steve Clark-Hall, Guy Ritchie and Lionel Wigram. David Dobkin and Bruce Berman served as executive producers.

“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” opens on May 12.

You can watch the full trailer above.

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Charlie Hunnam plays British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, who explored the Amazon in the 1920s in James Gray’s “The Lost City of Z.” And as he revealed during Amazon’s annual CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas, the part didn’t come without danger.

Speaking at the event Thursday, the actor revealed that he was almost struck by lightning when they had ventured out too deep into the jungle.

“We seemed to shoot in fairly safe places that were close to our hotel, and then James and myself got into our blood a little bit and went further and further out,” he said. “At times we would travel two hours to get to a location, and we’re like, ‘what are we doing here?’ One day, we had ventured very far into the jungle and we got caught in a torrential downpour.”

See Video: 'Lost City of Z' Teaser Trailer: Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland Rumble in the Jungle

Hunnam recalled that the river started to rise and the cast and crew were worried about a flash food, which prompted them to gather up their equipment. However, Hunnam believed this was the reason they came to Colombia to shoot and refused to move until they got the shot — well, until he was almost struck by lightning.

“A lighting bolt struck about where the speakers are [pointing to something on stage] and knocked me off my feet — and I was like, ‘ok lets go!'”

Shooting the movie came with a lot of physical stress, especially given the fact that he had to lose 35 to 40 pounds for the role — but the greatest ordeal actually happened in his hotel room.

“The greatest ordeal was in my hotel room — a beetle had burrowed into my ear and I woke up to a sound of a drill in my ear,” he said. “Years ago, I had a similar experience where I had a girlfriend who had a moth fly into her ear so I knew what had happened.”

Also Read: 'The Lost City of Z' NYFF Review: Charlie Hunnam Explores the Amazon in Stirring Saga

Hunnam explained that it was 3 a.m. and he didn’t want to wake anyone, so he decided to “MacGyver this” and use a Neti Pot to flush out the beetle. However, nothing happened and he (miraculously) went back to sleep. When he woke up again, he felt the beetle moving around again, at which point he decided to call the producers, who eventually called for a trip to the hospital.

The movie, based on a book that tells a true story, follows British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, who disappeared while search for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s. The trailer shows confrontations with indigenous people, as well as the cast members running for their life.

The movie also stars a heavily bearded Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Angus Macfadyen and Edward Ashley.

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Summertime might seem like a pure cash grab for studios stagnant with awards hangovers — but trust us, there are plenty of Hail Mary passes getting tossed all throughout the hotter months.

Last year, the four-month summer movie season brought in $4.5 billion in total box office revenues — a full 39 percent of the year’s $11.4 million total domestic gross. Studios have a lot riding on performance of big-budget tentpoles, and it’s often more challenging and expensive to market those films with so many competitors beside them on calendar.

The 2016 summer season delivered two movies that grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, Disney’s “Captain America: Civil War” and “Finding Dory,” as well as Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” which reeled in $967 million. But it was also home to a handful of big-budget flops, such as Sony’s “Ghostbusters” and Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.”

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The holidays may be the season for prestige pictures, but in the summer, studios have to go big or go home. Here are some of their riskiest bets:

“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”
(Warner Bros., May 12)

In a kingdom of Hollywood action stars, Charlie Hunnam is certainly among the fairest — but he’s largely untested in the marketplace, especially packing IP as dusty as King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Combine that with the much-delayed release date and director Guy Ritchie — whose last Warner outing, “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” was a visual feast and a lot of fun but failed to resonate worldwide — and this is certainly risky business. Hopefully the studio can pull a sword out of stone on this one.

“Snatched”
(Fox, May 12)

It’s been 14 years since Goldie Hawn graced the big screen, and she returns in an action comedy playing Amy Schumer’s mom. The onscreen pair are irresistible in interviews and early promotional appearances, but this film does not have the Judd Apatow halo afforded Schumer on her debut “Trainwreck.”

The good news? Schumer is a huge star now, and while she did not write the screenplay here she seems to have infused the project with her brand of rivaling self-deprecation and empowerment. The bad news? Director Jonathan Levine has not been around since his underperforming YA project “Warm Bodies” in 2013. Time will tell if this comedy snatches an audience.

“Everything, Everything”
(Warner Bros., May 19)

If “Everything, Everything” were on a roulette table, we’d be happy to put our chips down — despite the fact that this is the first major outing for Stella Meghie (director of the SXSW gem “Jean of the Joneses”) and a big test for internet-beloved actress/activist Amandla Stenberg. On the plus side: This interracial youth romance has a modest budget, grassroots potential and a Warner Bros. marketing budget.

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”
(Disney, May 26)

How do we solve a problem like Johnny Depp? It’s no secret that he’s had a terrible fun of box office luck. But that Captain Jack Sparrow costume has always been kind to Depp — and a veritable cash machine for Disney. But it’s been six years, and a hell of a lot of personal drama, since Depp played the swashbuckler. Javier Bardem lends some star power as an undead villain, but there’s no telling if “Dead Man” has a pulse.

“Wonder Woman”
(Warner Bros., June 2)

Warner Bros.’ DC Comics universe has produced solid hits like “Suicide Squad” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” but they haven’t performed as well financially — or critically — as Disney’s Marvel universe. Can director Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” right the ship? There’s a lot riding on the film’s performance — including the Warner Bros.’ strategy for upcoming DC-inspired movies as well as the future of its top executives as AT&T looks to complete its acquisition of the studio.

“The Mummy”
(Universal, June 9)

Universal has struggled to cash in on its classic horror franchises — anyone remember 2010’s “The Wolfman” or 2014’s “Dracula Untold”? And while Tom Cruise has an impeccable action-movie track record, rebooting the studio’s storied monster movie universe is a hell of a mission for a horror newbie.

Sofia Boutella’s menacing supernatural villain looked fantastic in early footage, though, and it features an action sequence with a zero-gravity escape from a crashing plane.

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“All Eyez on Me”
(Lionsgate, June 16)

Legendary rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas 21 years ago. Given the strength of Universal’s “Straight Outta Compton,” it’s encouraging to see another ’90s hip-hop icon’s life story on screen. Now we’ll see if  audiences get hype to the tune of the $200 million worldwide take for “Compton.”

“Cars 3”
(Disney, June 16)

Yeah, yeah, Pixar has a bulletproof library of beloved animated films — but there’s something to be said for being the bridesmaid on a shelf of brides. The “Cars” franchise is that bridesmaid — 2011’s “Cars 2” earned $50 million less than the 2006 original domestically — and it’s another summer sequel that has taken six years to sputter back to the big screen. Despite star voices from Owen Wilson and Armie Hammer, will audiences be ready to buckle up for another adventure here?

“Spider-Man: Homecoming”
(Sony, July 7)

After Andrew Garfield hung up his red costume two movies into a planned trilogy, Sony teamed with Marvel to reboot Spider-Man once again. The new Spidey, Tom Holland, was a standout in his introduction in last year’s “Captain America: Civil War,” but audiences may tire of seeing a third iteration of Peter Parker back in high school. And director Jon Watts is untested with big-budget movies — his last outing, “Cop Car,” earned just $135,000.

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“Dunkirk”
(Warner Bros., July 21)

A big strand of the Christopher Nolan brand DNA is that the director is a massive earner — but divorced from the Batman franchise, the highly-sensitive and meticulous filmmaker might not deliver the same results. Especially with “Dunkirk,” a gravely serious retelling of WWII’s Battle of Dunkirk.

Brief, starry glimmers of Tom Hardy and the screen debut of pop crooner Harry Styles aside, this Warner Bros. release is surely a box office battle test — especially slotted in summertime, where popcorn-friendly crowd-pleasers rather than serious fare tends to dominate.

“Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”
(STX, July 12)

If anyone knows outer space as high art, it’s director Luc Besson — who is also a Queenmaker in the realm of female action stars (Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, to name a few). “Valerian,” however, has an astounding reported budget of $208 million and no bankable stars (sorry, Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne).

“The Dark Tower”
(Sony, August 4)

Stephen King’s multi-book, genre-busting saga is one of the hottest properties surrounded by a powerful fandom — and the movie has languished in development for decades. After a few date shuffles and a promising show of footage at CinemaCon this year, Sony and MRC will finally birth the first installment in the epic, starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. But it has to work, and big, if planned film sequels and TV spinoffs are to follow.

The Emoji Movie
(Sony, August 4)

The tiny icons have made texting a lot more informal — and universally understood across languages — but is there really enough for a feature film? Sony will soon find out. Bonus points for serious placement partners in apps like Spotify, and getting Patrick Stewart to voice the very popular poo emoji.

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“The Lost City of Z” is a movie about the glory of perseverance, not the cost of it. Director James Gray held on to the idea of making a film of David Grann‘s 2009 book of the same title with a fervor that matches the hero of Grann’s non-fiction narrative, a British explorer named Percival Fawcett who spent the early parts of the 20th  century searching for a lost Amazonian city. Gray suffered through several setbacks with financing of this project until he finally got the money he needed and set out to shoot in the jungle on 35mm film.

There is nothing at all negative or even ambivalent about Gray’s portrayal of Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), his wife Nina (Sienna Miller), or other members of the expeditions like Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson) and Fawcett’s own son Jack (Tom Holland, “Captain America: Civil War”). Gray seems to find these people marvelous and admirable, and he shoots them attentively and adoringly so that we can get to love them just as much as he clearly does.

Most directors would have approached “The Lost City of Z” in one of two ways: Fawcett could have been seen as a flawed dreamer who brought pain to both his family and others around him, or he could have been brightly viewed as a heroic man with a mission, but the subtle Gray has carefully worked out a rather distant yet sensual middle ground between these two obvious choices.

See Video: 'The Lost City of Z' First Trailer Shows Charlie Hunnam Under Attack in Amazon Jungle

Gray has always been a methodical, highly cautious director — and that caution of his has led to exquisite films like “We Own the Night” and “Two Lovers” — but his work was beginning to seem a bit too small or too gloomily constricted. “The Lost City of Z” is an attempt at an entirely different kind of film for Gray, and the results are revelatory and expansive while also true to his own complicated creative character.

“The Lost City of Z” is not a conventional or crowd-pleasing sort of movie. It runs 140 minutes, and it often moves like a lusciously tempting fantasy of freedom or like a hazy memory connected by either old-fashioned dissolves or hard cuts between images to represent fleet-footed thoughts. Gray isn’t afraid to let the narrative drift in a daydreaming sort of way to reflect the state of mind of his characters. Fawcett’s search for a lost city in the Amazon jungle might have been just a metaphor for filming this difficult project, but Gray is after bigger game here.

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Gray takes chances with the structure of this picture, discretely moving back and forth in time and not bothering with forward momentum or even any particularly “dramatic” scenes, for Gray does not have the instincts of a dramatist but rather the skillset of a musician or a painter working with film. Since Fawcett is a born explorer, it often feels as if Gray himself were exploring how he could tell this story, and he never wants to settle on anything obvious.

In Gray’s previous movies, men and women were shown as trapped by their family life and by their milieu, but “The Lost City of Z” is about people doing anything they can to escape and transcend their environments. What’s so intoxicating about this film is that Gray convincingly suggests that a really spirited person of either gender can find ways to make sure that their reach can exceed their grasp.

A particular achievement here is Gray’s treatment of Fawcett’s wife Nina. In countless movies, we watch a male lead driving the plot while his wife or girlfriend sits at home and alternates between smiling patiently and complaining impotently. As filmed by Gray and played by Miller, Nina Fawcett is an adventurous woman herself and a textured rebuke to all those “wife at home” roles.

See Video: 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Star Tom Holland Dances to Daft Punk on Set

Nina aids her husband and tries to be his partner in the search for the lost city whenever she can, and she even wants to go along with him on one of the expeditions, but while Fawcett is seen as a progressive in some areas, he’s definitely a man of his time when it comes to how he views his wife.

“You’re real,” Nina says quietly at one point, lightly touching her husband’s handsome head as if his stay at home were just a mirage. In the last section of “The Lost City of Z,” when Fawcett has gone off one more time with their son Jack to search for the lost city, Miller’s Nina reaches a point of spiritual exaltation that matches up exactly with what we see of her husband. Gray makes us feel that these two people were ideally suited to each other.

The last shot of Gray’s “The Immigrant” was so lyrically expressive of the fates of his characters that it was indelible, but he tops himself with the last shot of “The Lost City of Z,” which surprisingly blends knock-out visual beauty, tender feminism, overall personal inter-connectedness, and something else, too, something yearning and just out of reach. (“To look for what is beautiful is its own reward,” Nina says toward the end of this film.)

“The Lost City of Z” feels like a clear artistic advance for Gray, who proves himself here as one of our finest and most distinctive living filmmakers.

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James Gray’s “The Lost City of Z” was partially filmed in the rainforests of South America, meaning the stars of the period drama faced a treacherous environment not unlike that of their characters.

“It was the whole experience that was extreme,” Tom Holland said in an interview with TheWrap’s Stuart Brazell. “It wasn’t just one thing, it was everything. We were really in the thick of it, we were thrown in at the deep end … The jungle is relentless, there’s no breaks.”

Charlie Hunnam stars in the film, written and directed by Gray, as Percy Fawcett, the real-life early 20th Century British explorer who made several trips to the Amazon in search of a lost city, only to eventually disappear himself.

Also Read: 'The Lost City of Z' Review: Charlie Hunnam Explores the Amazon in Stirring Saga

The crew journeyed to Colombia for part of the shoot, leading to one particularly harrowing run-in with mother nature.

“The desire to experience grand adventure I think infected all of us during this,” Hunnam said. “That sense of exploration. We ended up going, as the film went on, further and further and further into the jungle.”

Eventually they wound up two hours up the river into the jungle, caught in the middle of a massive storm. “The type of storm that you can’t really imagine unless you’ve been in the rainforest. Violent rain coupled with incredibly violent lightning crashing all around us,” he said.

But despite the danger, Hunnam wanted to stay and keep shooting, arguing with the producers and the director that the nasty conditions were precisely the reason they came to the rainforest in the first place.

Also Read: Charlie Hunnam Says He Was Almost Struck By Lightning While Making 'Lost City of Z'

“A bolt of lightning hit a tree about 20 feet from me, and the tree exploded,” he said. “What was left of it was set on fire. The shockwave, the energy that then transferred into the ground, knocked me off my feet. Which was a pretty extraordinary interaction with the power of the natural world.”

“It was definitely worth our while, but it was 100 percent worth our while to make an authentic movie,” Holland said. And an authentic movie is what they got, all it took was almost dying.

Sienna Miller also stars in the movie alongside Holland, Hunnam and Robert Pattinson, and she hopes the film reminds moviegoers of the classic Hollywood productions of the 1970s.

Also Read: 'Lost City of Z' Teaser Trailer: Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland Rumble in the Jungle (Video)

“I hope that they appreciate that this is a proper film. I don’t know that people make films like that anymore,” she said. “If you love cinema, and you understand cinema, you should sit back and absorb this piece of work that James Gray made.”

“It’s sort of a return to classic epic filmmaking,” Hunnam said. “With a very, hopefully, heartfelt and deep, human journey at the center of it.”

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Schoolteachers who want to bust students for watching Guy Ritchie’s “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” instead of doing the reading should be on the lookout for phrases like “kaiju elephants,” “martial-arts training” and “snake-bite hallucinations” in future book reports.

This is not your father’s Camelot legend, as “King Arthur” proclaims from scene to scene, and whether or not you embrace this jacked-up take on the once and future king will rely entirely on your tolerance for Ritchie’s filmmaking at its most caffeinated. There are quick cuts and CG imagery and bro-ing out in nearly equal proportions; I found some of this excess to be heady and exciting, but by the end of the film’s running time, it all became a bit tiresome, to say nothing of tiring.

What Ritchie (and fellow screenwriters Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram) offer here is a remix of the Arthurian legend, playing around with the chronology and sampling bits of other origin stories, from Moses (orphaned baby Arthur is set adrift down the Thames on a raft) to “Batman Begins” (as a child, he’s trained in the martial arts by the one Asian guy in all of Londinium, a character the film actually refers to as “Kung Fu George,” played by Tom Wu of “Marco Polo”).

Watch Video: 'King Arthur' Trailer Features Buff Charlie Hunnam and Lots of Swordplay

Arthur’s childhood is handled in a montage that shows Ritchie at his French-New-Wave-on-speed best, a series of smackdowns and humiliations that build the child to grow from victim to a full-grown prince of thieves. Once the character matures into Charlie Hunnam (sporting the same mildly-perturbed expression that made up the bulk of his “Lost City of Z” performance), he’s strong and savvy, standing apart in the grimy London streets and cutting a figure in ecru casual separates.

(The movie accentuates the relative brightness of his wardrobe with an overhead shot of Arthur in a packed barge, surrounded by people in brown and black. One is reminded of a line from a superior version of this tale, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” in which a peasant observes that Arthur “must be a king” because “he hasn’t got s–t all over him.”)

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Perfectly happy as a scoundrel, Arthur’s life takes a turn when he pulls legendary magic sword Excalibur out of the stone, putting him at odds with evil king Vortigem (Jude Law); uncle Vortigem once studied with evil wizard Mordred before murdering Arthur’s father Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana) to take the throne. Uther’s allies Bedivere (Djimon Hounsou) and William (Aidan Gillen), with the help of a supportive and unnamed mage (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”), push Arthur into leading their revolution, although in true Joseph Campbell style, this reluctant hero refuses over and over before finally accepting his destiny.

Ritchie and his regular editor James Herbert cut up the action scenes with the desperation of the life of the party who’s secretly afraid to go home to his empty apartment. “King Arthur” seems constantly panicked that the audience’s attention span won’t last another second, so each moment is a frenzy of sight and sound (particularly Daniel Pemberton’s emphatically percussive score), and the ultimate effect is more exhausting than exhilarating.

At one point, the director even straps GoPro cameras to his actors as they run through the streets, so they’ll stay static in the frame while the background jostles by; the exact same shot pops up in the new comedy “Snatched,” only played for laughs. (If Robert Bresson’s “Lancelot of the Lake” has an antithesis, “King Arthur” is it.)

Amidst the frantic cutting, Ritchie keeps loading on the phallic imagery: Arthur’s power derives from his sword, while Vortigem must be stopped from completing his tall, tall tower. And then there are the constant snakes: some challenge Arthur or provide him with hallucinogenic venom, while Vortigem receives advice from a group of serpent women who appear to have swum in from “The Little Mermaid.”

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This isn’t an actor’s movie, although Law does at least find a few moments to play Vortigem like a preening Mussolini, shouting at the assembled masses while swathed in fur and eagle-head epaulets. Otherwise, the characters are there to move the story along and to be consistently heroic or villainous throughout.

In a sense, Arthur — aristocrat by nature, thug by nurture — is the ideal Ritchie hero; the filmmaker’s lineage can be traced back to Edward I, but he’s spent most of his directing career celebrating small-time gangsters (“Snatch,” “RocknRolla”) and backing the proletariat in the class struggle (“Swept Away”).

If you like Guy Ritchie in blam-blam-blam mode, then “King Arthur” will be your grail of mead; those who prefer his work on a film like “The Man from UNCLE” — which feels like “My Dinner with Andre” compared to the hyperkineticism on display here — may find that there’s too much “a lot” in this Camelot.

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The legend of King Arthur has been used as the basis for many films throughout cinematic history. But aside from Disney’s “The Sword in the Stone” and the uproarious “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” few films have ever lasted long in the public consciousness. And critics think Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” won’t be a tale that endures through time either.

Early reviews for Guy Ritchie’s latest film have been widely negative, panning the film for relying on a generic origin story formula to try to keep audience interest and for using a manic editing style that has the opposite effect of what it aims to do.

Also Read: 'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword' Review: Guy Ritchie's Excesses Put the 'A Lot' in Camelot

“Ritchie and his regular editor James Herbert cut up the action scenes with the desperation of the life of the party who’s secretly afraid to go home to his empty apartment,” writes TheWrap’s own Alonso Duralde. “‘King Arthur’ seems constantly panicked that the audience’s attention span won’t last another second, so each moment is a frenzy of sight and sound (particularly Daniel Pemberton’s emphatically percussive score), and the ultimate effect is more exhausting than exhilarating,” he added.

“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” overhauls the origin tale of the famed British monarch, recasting Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) as a young man robbed of his birthright when his father is murdered and his evil uncle Vortigern (Jude Law) takes the throne. Arthur spends much of his life as a street peasant until the fateful day when he discovers the sword Excalibur and comes face to face with his true identity. The film is written by Ritchie with Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram and also stars Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou and Eric Bana. Akiva Goldsman, Toby Tunnell and Steve Clark-Hall produced along with the writers.

First reviews have its current Rotten Tomatoes score at a paltry 8 percent — a bad sign as the tally will continue to shift when more reviews get counted. Read more scathing reviews — and a positive one — below:

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Tim Grierson, Screen Daily

“After revealing quiet depths in ‘The Lost City Of Z,’ Hunnam comes across as wooden here, focusing on Arthur’s manly, smart-ass posturing at the expense of much nuance or charisma. In this regard, he’s well-matched with the equally one-dimensional Law, who played Watson in Ritchie’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ films and in ‘Legend Of The Sword’ hams it up as the haughty, fiendish Vortigern, letting his eyeliner do most of the emoting.”

Scott Mendelson, Forbes

“There are moments where Ritchie plays with chronology and narrative structure in ways that enliven otherwise routine developments, but you’ll yearn for the moments of fantastical madness promised in the prologue and the few we get after will make you wish that this didn’t have to waste time with the origin story prequel tropes. Without going into spoilers, this is indeed the sort of origin story[…]where we spend the entire film waiting for our heroes to get into the familiar places, with an implicit promise that a sequel will give you what you wanted this time.”

Evan Saathoff, Birth.Movies.Death.

“If you have problems with ‘Refusal of the Call’ heroes, this movie is going to be rough for you. Hunnam’s Arthur has no interest in the sword and yanks it only at the end of another. It takes him almost the entire movie to wield it because it gets into his brain and makes him relive his parents’ deaths whenever he tries. (You will see Arthur’s mom get killed more than in all the Batman movies combined.) Even when the film is near its final act, he’s throwing the thing away.”

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Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

“Ritchie’s ‘King Arthur’ values style and cool over everything else, and the results, which are handsome but trite, reflect that. At least the ‘Sherlock’s had extremely charismatic lead performances from Robert Downey Jr.; despite his rugged features, a sweet shearling vest, and a physique that would make a crossfit model jealous, Charlie Hunnam isn’t in Downey’s league, and his legion of ten or so sidekicks have maybe three personality traits between them.”

Drew Taylor, The Playlist

“…the real star of the film here is Hunnam, who after several years of false starts, seems to finally be taking his place as a really-for-real leading man. Ritchie’s Arthur is a powerful fighter and has the courage of his convictions, but he’s also wounded and doubtful, uneasy with the prospect of leading a rebellion much less the whole of England. And it takes an actor with a certain set of skills, a kind of roguish charm armed with extreme physicality and a beset by a tortured sense of self. It’s not as easy as it looks (his abs can’t do all the acting) and Hunnam charts the arc of the character with humor and realism. Somehow, after countless actors have pulled sword from stone, Hunnam makes the role his own.”

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“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” earned $1.15 million at the Thursday previews, passing by Amy Schumer’s “Snatched,” which earned $650,000.

The Thursday gross for “King Arthur” is significantly stronger than that of Warner Bros.’ “In the Heart of the Sea” which grossed $575,000 in previews in 2015. However, Village Roadshow and Warner Bros. also produced “The Legend of Tarzan,” which earned $2.55 million at the previews last year.

“King Arthur,” also Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow co-production, is projected for a $25 million opening by both Warner Bros. and independent trackers. Its budget was a reported $175 million. However, negative reviews should cramp its opening — its Rotten Tomatoes score is now at 26 percent.

Also Read: Guy Ritchie Sticks Up for David Beckham as He's Slain on Social Media for 'King Arthur' Role

“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” stars Charlie Hunnam as the titular monarch as he ascends from street rat to the throne of Camelot after learning of his true ancestry and how he was deprived of his birthright by his corrupt uncle Vortigern (Jude Law). The film is written and directed by Guy Ritchie with Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram and also stars Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou and Eric Bana. Akiva Goldsman, Toby Tunnell and Steve Clark-Hall produced along with the writers.

Heading into the weekend, “Snatched” was projected to make $20 million to $22 million, although Fox had a more conservative opening estimate in the mid-teens.

“Snatched” stars Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn as mother-daughter duo who go on a trip to Ecuador, only for everything to go wrong when the two are kidnapped. Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack also star in the comedy directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Katie Dippold. Paul Feig, Peter Chernin, Jessie Henderson and Michael Kurzan produced.

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Reviews for “Snatched” are at 37 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Mother’s Day should give this movie a push at the weekend box office.

Jason Blum’s “Lowriders” is debuting in 290 theaters this weekend. Starring Eva Longoria, Theo Rossi, Melissa Benoist and Demian Bichir, the BH Tilt film was directed by Ricardo de Montreuil.

The big question will be how much “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” will rake in in its second week at the box office after debuting last weekend to $146 million.

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Casting David Beckham in “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” was a no-brainer for director Guy Ritchie, who has more in common with the soccer superstar than just fair-haired good looks.

“Our kids go to the same school and we go to the same pub and then we go to the same sort of gay gym,” Ritchie said on Friday’s U.K. talker “The Graham Norton Show.”

Norton quickly jumped in, joking, “Isn’t that just ‘gym’? I think the ‘gay’ is silent.”

After a good laugh, Ritchie brought up the history he and Beckham have as director and actor. “I used him before in the previous film I did, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ [and] I’ve done a couple of commercials with him. I love him… he’s a lovely chap. But it just made sense [to cast him in ‘King Arthur’].”

Also Read: 'King Arthur' Defeats 'Snatched' at Thursday Box Office

Beckham is getting a lot of press for the small role, which is understandable, considering that he’s one of the most famous (and gorgeous) men on the planet.

But Ritchie did attempt to make him a little less beautiful for the new film, placing a massive scar across the left side of his face and fake teeth that appear to be rotting out of his mouth.

“That was down to me,” said Charlie Hunnam, who plays Arthur in the film. “I walked onto set and said, ‘I think you should check the contract. I have to be the most handsome man on set. Old Becksy’s not going to work for me.’ So that’s what we did to him.”

Check out the clip above.

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The hit “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” took at the box office was more than just a flesh wound.

Warner Bros.’ and Guy Ritchie‘s spin on the origin of the famed King of Camelot cost a reported $175 million before P&A, but only made $14.7 million in its opening weekend.

Not only did “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” more than quadruple that total with its $63 million second frame performance, “King Arthur” also finished behind the Amy Schumer/Goldie Hawn comedy “Snatched,” which made an estimated $17.5 million.

There’s probably no rescue in sight from overseas markets either, as the film has only made $3.7 million in China in its first two days in theaters. With such little traction with audiences on both sides of the Pacific, it’s looking like “King Arthur” will finish in the red, though Warner Bros. won’t take a full hit as the film was co-produced with Village Roadshow, who co-financed with Ratpac Entertainment.

So what led to such a woeful defeat for Arthur and his Knights?

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1.) The origin tale formula

It would be wrong to say a fantasy film can’t work in the summer. After all, “Game of Thrones” is one of the most popular titles in pop culture today. But for audiences to get intrigued by a modernized version of a classic tale, something new needs to be brought to the table.

“King Arthur” failed to do this, instead relying on an origin tale that deviates little from the classic Hero’s Journey formula. Critics panned the film for turning the Arthurian legend into a rote tale where Arthur spends his life on the streets before learning of his true identity and being pushed into leading a revolution against the traitorous relative who robbed him of his birthright. “In true Joseph Campbell style, this reluctant hero refuses over and over before finally accepting his destiny,” wrote TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde.

A film about Camelot in 2017 would have been better served getting right to the adventures of the famous medieval superteam that the Arthurian legend is best known for rather than eschew it for a rags-to-riches story that audiences around the world have seen many times before.

Also Read: 'King Arthur' Misfires at Box Office as 'Guardians' Blasts to No. 1 Again

2.) Marketing

It’s hard to fault the marketing team for not being able to come up with something that could grab attention on billboards and at bus stops. Still, the black and white posters of Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law as Arthur and his evil uncle were not going to hold up well against the colorful promo material for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” the gold-and-black spin on the ubiquitous skull and crossbones for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” or the striking, evocative visions of horror created for the “Alien: Covenant” poster.

The tagline on “King Arthur” posters reads, “From Nothing Comes A King,” which conveys the message that this is the tale of Arthur’s rise to the throne; though, again, audiences are already getting their fill of such a story by watching Jon Snow rise from bastard child to King of the North on HBO on Sunday nights.

3.) Guy Ritchie

Not too long ago, Guy Ritchie had produced a pair of successful adaptations of classic literature in the form of “Sherlock Holmes” and its sequel, “A Game of Shadows.” Both films grossed over $500 million worldwide, with the first film earning leading man Robert Downey, Jr. a Golden Globe.

But now, without RDJ to put in front of his camera, the English director has produced two straight box office flops for Warner Bros. In August 2015, Ritchie’s “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” only grossed $109 million worldwide against a $75 million budget. The same probably won’t be said for “King Arthur.” Ritchie will have the magic of Disney on his side for his next project: a remake of the animated classic “Aladdin,” due out in 2019.

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4.) Reshoots

“King Arthur” had originally been slated for a July 2016 release, but was pushed to Feb. 2017, then March, and then finally to this slot. Meanwhile, reshoots were ordered for the film while the title was changed from “Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur” to “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.” Such constant creative rejiggering not only creates audience skepticism, it also drives up production costs that have deepened this film’s financial struggles.

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5.) Charlie Hunnam

Hunnam is probably the least to blame. Certainly, “King Arthur” could have used a lead actor with a bigger pedigree to help drum up interest in the film the way Downey, Jr. did for “Sherlock Holmes.” But audiences have shown a willingness to turn out even when there’s no marquee name in the cast.”Get Out” is a fine example of this, as its most prominent cast member was “Girls” star Allison Williams, while leading man Daniel Kaluuya had been best known prior to starring in Jordan Peele’s horror film for a lead role in an early episode of “Black Mirror.”

While Hunnam’s performance in “King Arthur” only drew applause from a few critics, he received much greater praise last month for his leading role in Amazon Studios’ art house offering, “The Lost City of Z.” Strong performances in indie titles have led to big blockbuster roles for Hollywood stars in recent years. Just look at Brie Larson’s jump from an Oscar-winning performance in “Room” to top roles in “Kong: Skull Island” and “Captain Marvel.” Hunnam’s potential as a blockbuster actor could still be found in another film.

Also Read: Donald Trump Thinks He Should Be King, Not President

6.) There’s just no stopping Marvel

Since Marvel movies set up permanent camp on the first weekend of May with “Spider-Man 3” 10 years ago, it has been hard for any rival blockbuster to find traction with a MCU entry still fresh in theaters.

Over the past decade, the films that have performed best in this release slot are ones that can provide an effective alternative to Marvel’s adrenaline-fueled spectacle rather than compete against it. The most successful examples are Warner Bros.’ “The Great Gatsby,” a $150 million film that got a $50 million opening and a $351 million global total; and Universal’s “Bridesmaids,” which made $288 million worldwide against a $32.5 million budget.

By comparison, the 2010 action film “Robin Hood” made $321 million against a $200 million budget after releasing a weekend after “Iron Man 2.”

The second weekend of May could be a good launching point for a mid-budget feature, but studios will be hard-pressed trying to convince audiences to get their action fix from anything other than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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