Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur flopped in cinemas — now it’s suddenly a hit on Netflix

If you wander through Netflix lately, you might notice something odd climbing the ranks in the U.S. top ten—a 2017 Arthurian epic that barely made a dent on release, now apparently finding a second life amid the algorithm. Yes, after all these years, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Guy Ritchie’s big-budget swing at sword-and-sorcery) is enjoying an unlikely comeback. The film bombed so spectacularly on its original run it completely torpedoed plans for a franchise, but now it’s comfortably rubbing elbows with Jake Gyllenhaal, Clint Eastwood, and whichever dog-based Christmas film is flavour of the week. You really can’t predict what’s going to stick when it comes to streaming platforms.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword spent six days inside the U.S. Netflix Top 10 after years out in the cinematic wilderness.

Guy Ritchie Does Arthur

First off, a bit of background. This is the film where Guy Ritchie—usually associated with sweary London lowlifes and clever heists—decided to throw a grenade into the medieval legend pot. Written by Ritchie himself along with Joby Harold and Lionel Wigram, the project drafted in Charlie Hunnam as Arthur, made him a tough-living street lad, and threw in copious doses of Ritchie’s now-standard slick montages, fast-talking schemes, and thoroughly modern music cues. Whether you think all this works or not probably depends on your tolerance for drum-and-bass soundtracking a siege scene.

The cast is one of those on-paper knockouts: Jude Law chews scenery as Vortigern (the villainous uncle with a killer wardrobe), alongside Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou, Aidan Gillen, and Eric Bana as Arthur’s doomed royal dad. The plot is only loosely tethered to any historical text: Arthur’s dad gets bumped off, his uncle nicks the throne, and young Arthur grows up tough on the streets, completely oblivious to the fact he’s got claim to the kingdom until fate and Excalibur drop in his lap. Think The Gentlemen with sorcery and more mud.

From Flop to Cult Curiosity

Here’s where it gets properly odd. At the time, critics absolutely rinsed King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, torching it on Rotten Tomatoes with a measly 31% rating and seemingly taking visible pleasure in delivering the bad news. The budget came in at a whopping $175 million, but the film only clawed back $148 million at the worldwide box office, so that was curtains for the planned multi-film universe. Ritchie walked away, presumably back to the type of projects people actually turn out for.

The disconnect is, of course, that audiences didn’t half mind it, especially now. Over on Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score things are much chirpier, with a respectable 69%. The feedback? A lot of people seem convinced it’s great fun, describing it as 'exceptional' and 'outstanding,' which is pretty generous for a film that contains both sword-wielding war elephants and David Beckham doing a cameo.

• Charlie Hunnam as Arthur
• Jude Law as Vortigern (villainous uncle)
• Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey as The Mage
• Djimon Hounsou as Bedivere
• Aidan Gillen as Bill
• Eric Bana as Uther Pendragon

If you missed it in cinemas, you’re in good company. Now, thanks to Netflix’s endless stream of rediscovered oddities, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is trending once more, proving there’s always a second act—if not at the cinema, then in your living room.