With the film about to enter its fourth weekend in theaters, Indiana Jones And the Dial Of Destiny appears to be one of the largest box office bombs in Disney history.
Key Details
- The fifth Indiana Jones film was released on June 30 and grossed a mere $60 million in its opening weekend.
- The film—the 13th most expensive film ever made—has since globally grossed $302 million on a budget of $295 million, meaning the film is unlikely to pay off its advertising budget and turn a profit.
- Middling film reviews and poor word of mouth have soured public opinion on the film, Fortune notes.
- The film will likely gross less than the previous film Kingdom Of the Crystal Skull’s $786.6 million box office haul.
Why It’s Important
When Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion in October 2012, two things became certain from the outset—a new Star Wars trilogy and at least one more Indiana Jones film. After a decade of preproduction development, multiple directors, contentious reshoots, and delays, the film finally reached theaters last month to an apathetic shrug at the box office.
The movie currently faces stiff box office competition from other better-performing movies like Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Insidious: The Red Door, The Sound Of Freedom, and the upcoming highly anticipated Oppenheimer and Barbie—making any sort of box office resurgence in its fifth or sixth weeks unlikely. The film will likely be released early on Disney+ in the coming months to help recoup losses.
As we previously reported, the news comes following the recent resurgence of a 2013 interview with Indiana Jones director Steven Spielberg, wherein he discusses the possibility that large-scale blockbuster bombs in the coming decade could have a profound effect on the film industry going forward, potentially bankrupting the industry and forcing it to change its structure forever.
It remains to be seen how the financial losses will affect Disney CEO Bob Iger and Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy, who are facing towering losses, profitability issues for the company, multiple recent underperforming films, reports of dwindling Disney World attendance, and some of the lowest share prices in the past decade, Fortune notes.