‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Disappoints with Underwhelming Domestic Box Office Debut

Franchises with an older target audience tend to start slow. Movies like ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ and ‘No Time to Die’ had relatively modest domestic openings but went on to gross nearly $800 million worldwide. Disney would undoubtedly hope for a similar trajectory with ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ at the box office. However, the film’s domestic debut doesn’t seem very promising. The fifth installment in this iconic franchise fell at the lower end of expectations, earning an estimated $60 million during its three-day opening weekend, with a lackluster $24 million on Friday. Projections suggest that the movie might generate $82 million over the extended five-day weekend, which still falls short of the $100 million debut achieved by ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ 15 years ago.

To make matters worse, many people didn’t even enjoy the previous film. ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ managed to gross over $300 million domestically and more than $700 million worldwide during its theatrical run, turning a profit for Paramount, the rights holder to Lucasfilm projects at the time. However, ‘Dial of Destiny’ marks the first film in the franchise not directed by Steven Spielberg or featuring a story by George Lucas. It is being distributed by Disney, which reportedly spent $295 million on production and millions more on global marketing efforts. If ‘Dial of Destiny’ hopes to be considered a success, it will need to stage a remarkable comeback. In comparison, ‘Fast X’ had a better three-day debut a few weeks ago but is now struggling to reach $150 million domestically.

The soft opening of the movie would have been disappointing under any circumstances, but it hits harder when considering that this is star Harrison Ford’s final portrayal of the legendary character. Disney was optimistic about ‘Dial of Destiny,’ even premiering it at the Cannes Film Festival a few weeks ago. However, to everyone’s surprise, the film received mostly mixed reviews, despite having James Mangold, a typically reliable director, at the helm. The reactions have been slightly more positive in the United States, with the film currently holding a borderline “fresh” score of 68% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, accompanied by a B+ CinemaScore from the opening day audience.

Image via Disney

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Little to Celebrate at This Weekend’s Box Office

After battling for the top spot last weekend, two animated films—Sony’s ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ and Disney’s ‘Elemental’—engaged in a closely contested race for the second spot this week. ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ has already amassed a phenomenal $339 million domestically, adding $11.5 million in its fifth weekend. On the other hand, ‘Elemental’ experienced a comeback after a disappointing debut, earning $11.3 million and bringing its running domestic total to $88 million. Considering its nearly record-low opening a couple of weeks ago, this performance isn’t too shabby. Although ‘Elemental’ still has a long way to go to be considered a success, positive word-of-mouth is helping it salvage its reputation.

In the fourth spot this weekend, Sony’s R-rated comedy ‘No Hard Feelings’ collected $7.5 million, adding to its domestic tally following a promising debut seven days ago. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, the film has made nearly $30 million domestically so far. Rounding out the top five was Paramount’s ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,’ which earned $7 million in its fourth weekend, resulting in a disappointing domestic total of $136 million. The movie’s performance globally is equally lackluster, barely surpassing the $350 million mark. It remains the lowest-grossing entry in the long-running franchise’s history at the worldwide box office. Meanwhile, ‘The Flash’ dropped out of the top five and is struggling to reach $100 million domestically as it nears the end of its disastrous theatrical run.

You can watch our interview with the stars of ‘Dial of Destiny,’ Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, here, and stay tuned to FilmSweep for more updates.

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• Mission: Impossible — Fallout
• No Time to Die
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• [Elemental](Reference link not available)
• [No Hard Feelings](Reference link not available)
• [Transformers: Rise of the Beasts](Reference link not available)
• [The Flash](Reference link not available)
• Cannes Film Festival
• Rotten Tomatoes
• CinemaScore
• [Interview with Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge](Reference link not available)
• [FilmSweep](Reference link not available)