Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny may struggle to make a profit at the box office from its theatrical release.
According to Variety, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is currently targeting at least $65 million from 4,500 North American theaters in its opening weekend. This latest installment in the franchise is also debuting day and date at the international box office, where it’s expected to add $80 million for a global start of $145 million to $150 million.
Although the film will get a boost on Tuesday because of the July 4th holiday, it does not have a ton of time to dominate the big screen before coming up against other July blockbusters like Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning Part One and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Disney spent a sum of $295 million to bring the fifth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise to life, a budget that does not include the cost to market the film. This means that even under the best circumstances, Disney will struggle to make a profit from the film’s theatrical run.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the first Indiana Jones movie to hit theaters since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which opened to $100 million in May 2008. Although Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn’t a critical success, the Steven Spielberg-directed film, which cost $185 million to make, still ended its theatrical run with $317 million in North America and $790 million globally. It is currently expected that Dial of Destiny will fall short of the box office earnings for Crystal Skull which is, to date, the franchise’s highest-grossing film.
Harrison Ford Says Goodbye to Indiana Jones
Dial of Destiny is the fifth and final adventure to star the iconic Harrison Ford in his equally iconic role as Indiana Jones. Ford has announced that he will not retire from acting after this latest Indy entry, but he would not be picking up the whip to play Indiana Jones again in the future. "It is my final film," Ford said. "I was not so much interested in doing the same thing over and over again, I wanted to have an emotional ending to this character. And I'm so grateful for the audience that we've had, I just wanted to make sure that they would be satisfied and happy with the final iteration."
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrives in theaters on June 30.
Source: Variety