'Indiana Jones' Has Disappointing Opening Weekend
by EG
Expectations for the opening weekend of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny were modest, but the movie still managed to disappoint with weak ticket sales both in the United States and abroad. The movie took the top spot on the box-office charts, but its weekend take was on the low end of expectations and doesn't bode well for the sequel's ultimate fate. The movie cost almost $300 million to produce and is almost certain to not turn a profit. Read on for details.
Via Variety.
Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” lassoed the top spot on domestic box office charts, collecting an underwhelming $60 million in its opening weekend.
That’s a decent amount of money for a tentpole that’s aimed at older audiences, but “Indiana Jones 5,” one of the most expensive movies ever, cost $295 million before marketing. It’ll take a heroic feat, one that would test even an enduring legend like Indiana Jones, for the fifth installment in the decades-old franchise to become profitable in its theatrical run.
It was a disappointing weekend at the box office as “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” a $70 million-budgeted family film from DreamWorks and Universal, cratered in its sixth-place debut with $5.2 million. In addition to “Dial of Destiny” and “Ruby Gillman,” the DC superhero adventure “The Flash” tumbled to the No. 8 spot in its third weekend of release with $5 million, another embarrassing 67% drop. It has yet to cross $100 million domestically, with ticket sales at $99.2 million to date.
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the final adventure to star Harrison Ford as the swashbuckling explorer, added $70 million at the international box office for a global start of $130 million. That’s worse than “The Flash,” which misfired with $75 million internationally and $139 million globally and cost $100 million less to make.
In terms of its domestic debut, the latest “Indiana Jones” didn’t come close to matching its predecessor, 2008’s “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which opened 15 years ago to $100 million. Audiences and critics were lukewarm on “Dial of Destiny,” which earned a “B+” CinemaScore and holds a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’ll get a boost on Tuesday’s July 4th holiday, with estimates of $82 million domestically and $152 million worldwide for the five-day frame. But the action-adventure doesn’t have a long runway before Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (July 12) and Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer” (July 21), which cater to similar demographics, open on the big screen.
“This is a weak opening,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Most action-adventure series finish by episode five and that’s happening here.”
Get the rest of the story at Variety.