Disney
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — the fifth and allegedly final, at least as far as Harrison Ford is concerned, film in the storied franchise — made $60 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, which was also a holiday weekend.
Usually, a $60 million opening would be considered solid for a tentpole blockbuster film. The problem is, however, that instead of the usual $100M-$150M price tag that usually comes with blockbusters, Dial of Destiny reportedly cost Disney and Lucasfilm a whopping $300 million. And that’s BEFORE they spent another $100 million in marketing.
At the global box office, Dial of Destiny has reportedly racked in $130M, which is less than half of what Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made back when it debuted in 2008.
Yesterday, I learned from a key source that Indiana Jones and the Dial Destiny, before $100M in estimated P&A, cost a mindboggling $300M-plus. Much higher than the $250M-$295M that’s been leaked out there.
This despite the fact that Dial of Destiny had a marketing and publicity global campaign louder than The Flash, with the cast doing several interviews and $90M in promotional partners. [via Deadline]
Given a general frustration with both Lucasfilm and the current state of blockbuster filmmaking, movie fans were quick to clown on Dial of Destiny’s financial misfortunes.
this version of Indiana jones would have made more money than avatar pic.twitter.com/YzWc0sIFhC
— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) July 3, 2023
Both The Flash and Indiana Jones did less than Black Adam pic.twitter.com/45XQKcA8gm
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) July 2, 2023
1) $300m was waay too expensive
2) Crystal Skull made audiences skeptical
3) LucasFilm in general has people skeptical
4) Leak sites stirred up more skepticism
5) Early reviews confirmed skepticism
6) Younger generations aren't as interested in Indy & movies starring 80 year olds https://t.co/Im9MAWNgrC— Sean Chandler 🔜 Overlook Film Festival (@kirkneverdied) July 2, 2023
https://twitter.com/BlackMajikMan90/status/1674803344752394241
One common theme among fans seems to be utter confusion as to why a movie — especially an earth-bound one such as Indiana Jones and not something like Star Wars — would possibly cost $300 million to make.
The Walt Disney Corporation: uwu I am a little baby I need 7 years and $300 million dollars to make another Indiana Jones movie and it won't even be good 🥺🥺🥺🥺
Denis Villeneuve: Dune 2 will be done in less than 2 years and it will make you cum
— guy online (@fellawhomstdve) June 29, 2023
https://twitter.com/scottEmovienerd/status/1675541523281203201
https://twitter.com/MuseZack/status/1675630507307175936
turns out it was a bad idea for hollywood to spend 150-300 million dollars on every movie
— Diego Crespo (@thediegocrespo) June 28, 2023
It’s certainly a shame as far as the movie is concerned, as it’s not only far better than the initial reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival suggested, but Harrison Ford clearly is reveling in this emotional goodbye to the beloved character.
In addition to Ford, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, and more.