Disney's "Arthur" No Legend

You win some, you lose some. That phrase is as true for the movie business as it is for investing.

Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Jerry Bruckheimer had a great summer last year with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. This summer, however, will not be as rewarding for the man who is sometimes credited with saving Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) CBS with his CSI shows.

King Arthur, the action-packed take on the famous legend, ranked third in the weekend box office tournament, grossing $15,193,907 (according to boxofficemojo.com). That's for the Friday-to-Sunday frame, the period used for the rankings. The movie opened two days earlier, so its total gross is $23,623,758. That is pretty disappointing, considering the budget was reportedly around $125 million, not counting marketing costs.

It also comes up short of the buzz in advance of the film's release. There was a lot of talk about the "catalytic potential" of this release, that the film would be what was needed to get Disney shares back on a roll, hopefully to reach levels not seen in years. I remember the same kind of talk around the time Pearl Harbor -- also courtesy of Mr. Bruckheimer -- was supposed to take a Titanic-like hold on the mass movie audience.

Didn't happen. And unless King Arthur suddenly does the equivalent of freeing Excalibur from its stony prison in the next few box office frames, it won't happen this time around either. The movie will surely go down from here, and will probably have Disney executives shaking their heads.

Don't blame Bruckheimer necessarily...he did his best. Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Spider-Man 2 is filling the fantasy needs of the people right now in a big way, and it's hard to battle that kind of juggernaut. That movie took the top spot again -- big surprise! -- and has now passed the $250 million mark (that's a quarter of one billion bucks, my Foolish friends). Marvel Enterprises (NYSE: MVL) is certainly pleased, especially considering the puke-green response to last summer's lethargic Hulk.

This past weekend also contains a see-I-told-you-so element. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 came in one slot behind Arthur for the three-day weekend, but its per-theater average was higher than the Disney property, coming in at $5,485; Bruckheimer's film did $4,923 per location. Moore's cinematic essay on the Bush administration would have been released by Disney, but the company got cold feet. Lion's Gate (AMEX: LGF) ended up releasing the controversial lightning rod.

King Arthur isn't precisely like one of the disasters seen in Fox's (NYSE: FOX) The Day After Tomorrow, but it's not going to help the share price. Maybe the possible dividend increase, which Selena Maranjian wrote about yesterday, will finally provide some magic for stakeholders.

Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns shares of Disney.