Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth film in the series about a globe-trotting archaeologist, brought in $60 million in ticket sales in its North American weekend debut, a disappointment for theaters trying to bounce back from the pandemic.
The US and Canadian tally, reported Sunday by Comscore Inc., missed the $70.3 million projected by Box Office Pro. Sales outside the North America came to $70 million. The film’s distributor, Walt Disney Co., was forecasting as much as $65 million for Friday through Sunday in the US and up to $145 million globally through long July 4 holiday in the US.
The sum was bad news for the movie’s producer, Lucasfilm, and parent Disney, as well as the theater industry. Two bombs this summer movie season, Warner Bros.’ The Flash and Disney’s Elemental, have led analysts to cut their forecasts for the year and raise fresh questions about the longer-term outlook for theaters.
“Consumer demand for going to the movies is in flux,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts wrote on June 28.
They anticipate full-year ticket sales of about $8.8 billion in North America, citing Box Office Pro. That’s down from a peak estimate of $9.2 billion just a few weeks ago and far less than the $11 billion-plus logged annually before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The analysts also fret that production delays tied to striking writers in Hollywood could push a full recovery for the theatrical industry beyond the next two years.
Through mid-2023, theaters have rung up domestic ticket sales of $4.54 billion, an increase of 18% from last year. But sales remain 21% below the same period in 2019, according to Comscore.
The weekend tally for Dial of Destiny showed fans retained some affection for the adventurous professor Indiana Jones, played again by Harrison Ford, despite a 15-year gap since the last picture. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opened to weekend sales of $100 million in North America in 2008 and went on to take in $790.7 million worldwide.
One problem: Dial of Destiny is especially popular with older audiences that have been among the most reluctant to return to theaters.
In the latest film, Jones, played by the 80-year-old Ford, races to retrieve an artifact that can change the course of history. His co-stars include Antonio Banderas and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Karen Allen returns as Marion.
Critics were mostly favorable, with about two-thirds recommending the picture, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews. The film cost about $295 million to make, according to Variety, and many tens of millions more to market, suggesting it will face a high hurdle to break even.
A couple of big successes later this month could narrow the gap. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, a Paramount Pictures release featuring Tom Cruise, opens July 12 and is forecast to generate more than $300 million in North America, according to Box Office Pro. Warner Bros.’ Barbie, out nine days later, could bring in as much as $240 million domestically.
Another Cruise-Paramount Global collaboration, Top Gun: Maverick, was among the highest grossing films of 2022 in the US, with $718.7 million in ticket sales.
(Updates with year-to-date theatrical revenue in seventh paragraph.)