New 'Indiana Jones' Movie Limping Out of the Box Office Gate
'Indiana Jones' Latest Flick Limping Out of the Gate ... On Track for $60M Opening
Harrison Ford's final rodeo as Indy doesn't seem to be drumming up much interest -- the box office numbers, so far, are looking bad ... and it might be Disney's own doing.
Disney's latest, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," raked in a measly $24 mil Friday -- and that means the film is on track for just $60-$65 million through Sunday (and about $80 mil or so through Tuesday) ... which, by most accounts, is not a very good start at all.
#IndianaJones and #TheDialofDestiny dug up $24 million at the Friday box office for a projected weekend debut in the $60 million range, coming in at the lower end of expectations https://t.co/Pd9W1rAb3C pic.twitter.com/oefvicFSId
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 1, 2023 @THR
These tepid projections haven't wavered much since a couple months ago -- when the movie premiered at Cannes -- and that's a bad sign ... at least from the outside looking in.
'Dial of Destiny' reportedly had a budget of upwards of $300 million (not including promo/marketing) -- so it would have to have long legs at the theaters for Disney and co. to make their money back, let alone turn a profit on it. For now, it doesn't seem like that'll happen ... especially with a few huge blockbusters on the way for the month of July.
Tom Cruise's newest 'Mission: Impossible' is hitting the big screen soon, as is "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" -- all of which are expected to do fairly decently.
As for why Harrison's flick appears to be primed to be a dud ... there are a lot of theories. Some say there's 'Indiana Jones' fatigue in 2023 (HF is reprising the role in his 80s), others say this movie caters to an older audience (who might be harder to get to a theater).
One interesting take has to do with the fact that Disney started letting the film -- which has gotten middling to bad reviews -- be screened pretty damn early ... and that, perhaps, bad word of mouth has caught up to it now. There's also the fact that Spielberg isn't directing this one ... although he did sign off and gave his blessing to the script/the new director.
Whatever the case, folks aren't itching to see an older (and, at times, a digitally de-aged) Dr. Jones take on Nazis anymore. The appetite for that adventure was left in the 20th century.
The dog days of summer are upon us ... and not everyone's storming through the finish line.
