10 Reasons Mark Wahlberg’s New Movie Bombed At The Box Office, Making Just $7.5 Million

Summary

• Arthur the King’s title misleads audiences, sounding like a medieval epic instead of a dog movie.
• Mixed reviews and a score of 64% on Rotten Tomatoes suggest mediocre reception.
• Mark Wahlberg’s declining box office draw and a poor marketing campaign may have led to the film’s flop.

Mark Wahlberg’s new adventure movie, Arthur the King, has flopped at the box office with a measly $7.5 million opening weekend, but why is the film doing so poorly? Adapted from Mikael Lindnord’s memoir Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home, Arthur the King stars Wahlberg as Lindnord, the captain of a team of mountain climbers, who finds a stray dog during a grueling 435-mile climb. Arthur the King was directed by Simon Cellan Jones, scripted by Michael Brandt, and released into theaters by Lionsgate following an ill-advised, male-skewering marketing campaign.

With an opening weekend haul of just $7.5 million, Arthur the King has bombed at the box office. The movie has faced stiff competition from Dune: Part Two and Kung Fu Panda 4, which have both had impressive legs at the box office, but that’s not the only factor in Arthur the King’s failure. From a title that sounds like it belongs in a totally different genre to a star who doesn’t have the broad appeal that he once had, there are plenty of reasons why Arthur the King has been a box office flop.

10 Arthur The King’s Title Sounds Like A Medieval Epic, Not A Dog Movie

The title tells audiences nothing about what kind of movie it is

It’s easy to blame box office failure on a bad title, but that has to be the case with Arthur the King. Anyone who hadn’t seen any marketing for Arthur the King, and was just checking listings at their local movie theater for something to watch, would assume that it’s a medieval epic, not a lighthearted dog movie. The title of the memoir that the film was based on, The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home, might be a little wordy, but at least it tells its audience that it’s a story about a dog.

9 Arthur The King’s Reviews Were Okay But Not Great

It has a “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s a low fresh score

Arthur the King earned a “fresh” Rotten Tomatoes score, but that fresh score is 64%, just 4% above the fresh threshold. That’s not a high enough score to turn any heads – it’s attached to a picture of a nice, ripe tomato, but it’s still a sign of mixed reviews. Audiences feel a lot more confident watching a movie with a Rotten Tomatoes score in the 80s or 90s, which practically guarantees a good time, than a score in the 60s, which could go either way.

8 Mark Wahlberg Isn’t The Box Office Draw He Used To Be

The old A-list has been replaced by a new A-list

About a decade ago, when Wahlberg was starring in movies ranging from award-winning dramas like The Fighter to raunchy comedies like Ted, he could draw in a crowd. However, in more recent years, he’s starred in flops like Deepwater Horizon, Patriots Day, and Mile 22, and relied on the brand recognition of franchises like Transformers and Uncharted to succeed at the box office. The traditional movie star is slowly becoming a thing of the past, and former A-listers like Wahlberg are being replaced by new talent like Timothée Chalamet and Sydney Sweeney.

7 Arthur The King’s Marketing Might Have Hindered It

Arthur the King’s trailers targeted male sports fans, not the bigger demographic of dog lovers

As with many box office bombs, Arthur the King was let down by a misguided marketing campaign. The trailers focused more on Wahlberg’s character, the captain of an adventure racing team embarking on a mountain climb, and less on his relationship with the stray dog they encounter. The marketing skewed an audience of male sports fans, but they’re not a big moviegoing audience. Dog lovers are a much bigger demographic, so the trailers should’ve focused on Arthur the dog instead.

6 Arthur The King Could Have Decent Legs (Thanks To Its “A” CinemaScore)

The audiences who have seen Arthur the King seem to have loved it

While it has a lukewarm critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Arthur the King has an impressive audience score of 97%, indicating near-unanimous satisfaction. It also has an “A” CinemaScore from moviegoers leaving the theater. Arthur the King may have only been seen by a small number of people, but the people who did watch it seem to have enjoyed it. If they tell their friends about it, it could generate positive word-of-mouth that gives the movie good legs at the box office, allowing it to be a hit after all.

5 Arthur The King Seems More Like A Streaming Movie Than A Theatrical Release

This is the kind of movie that audiences are happy to watch at home

There’s nothing about Arthur the King that demands to be seen on the big screen. With its small scale and simple storytelling, Arthur the King is the kind of movie that would do really well as a streaming exclusive. Since it doesn’t promise spectacle, and it doesn’t promise something that audiences have never seen before, it’s not the kind of movie that does well in a theatrical release.

4 Dog Movies Aren’t Exactly A Blockbuster Genre (Although Some Have Done Well)

Dog movies aren’t a guaranteed moneymaker

With its tale of a man’s relationship with his dog, Arthur the King isn’t the kind of movie that audiences usually flock to. It’s not a superhero movie or a legacy sequel; it’s an intimate story about an adorable animal. Dog movies have performed well in the past – A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Journey, and Channing Tatum’s Dog all made a lot of money – but it’s not a guaranteed blockbuster genre. Harrison Ford’s The Call of the Wild was a flop (although that can be partly attributed to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic).

3 Arthur The King’s Budget Was Too Big

Some reports have Arthur the King’s budget at $40 million

The mid-budget movie is dead. The only movies that seem to succeed these days are massive $200 million blockbusters by major studios and tiny $1 million indie movies that manage to make a splash in the cultural conversation. A24 and Blumhouse have made a lucrative business out of producing low-budget, low-risk movies, some of which break out and turn a huge profit that covers the losses of their other films. A movie like Arthur the King, which is reported to have a budget of up to $40 million (via Deadline), just can’t thrive in this climate.

2 Arthur The King’s Box Office Is Missing The Canadian Market

Arthur the King is going straight to Prime Video in Canada

The North American box office figures for Arthur the King only account for the United States. For its Canadian release, the film is being released straight to Prime Video. Canada is a huge country full of avid moviegoers and typically makes up a large chunk of any mainstream movie’s North American box office haul. By sending the movie straight to streaming in Canada, the studio has slashed its potential box office revenue.

1 Arthur The King Is The Kind Of Movie That Would’ve Performed Well Pre-COVID

The film industry is a very different beast in the post-COVID world

The film industry still hasn’t recovered from the effects of the COVID pandemic, and it will likely never get back to its pre-COVID ways. Before COVID, when audiences were more likely to go to a small movie at a theater and streaming services hadn’t made at-home viewing the norm, a movie like Arthur the King could’ve been a modest hit. But it’s just not the kind of movie that can succeed in a post-COVID world.

Source: Deadline