Disney spent $295 million to bring Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to the big screen — a pretty staggering budget for what amounts to a third sequel in a 42-year-old movie franchise. Needless to say, for that and so many other reasons, there was a lot riding on how Indy’s return would perform at the box office following its June 30 release date. And as for how it’s doing so far? If we’re being generous, it doesn’t look like it will be the bomb that some people feared — but it probably ought to be performing much better than it is.
This latest sequel represents, among other things, not only Harrison Ford’s final performance in the title role. It’s also the first of the movies directed by someone other than Steven Spielberg. Plus, the franchise remains key enough for Disney that it’s reportedly planning to make an Indiana Jones TV show for Disney+. Having said all that, should this latest movie in the series have been more appropriately titled Indiana Jones and the Grab for Cash? Let’s take a closer look and see what the data reveals.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reviews, box office, and more
For starters, early reviews of the new movie have been merely so-so. As a result of Disney deciding to let the movie get an out-of-competition screening at Cannes this year, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was stuck with an early crop of bad reviews for more than a month — quickly earning itself a “Rotten” status on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 51% critics’ score, though that score has since ticked up to “Fresh” status with a 68% critics’ score.
Maybe the weight of expectation played an outsized role in how critics approached the story this time around. Audiences, though, haven’t exactly raced to their local cinemas in overwhelming numbers to check out the movie. To wit: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny only managed a $60.3 million gross domestic total during its opening weekend (June 30-July 2). That figure comes from Box Office Mojo, a service of IMDb, and it represents the #2 biggest opening of any film in the Indiana Jones franchise
Still, Disney needs a lot more Indiana Jones fans to buy tickets to get the movie into the black during its theatrical run, thanks to the huge budget and marketing spend that we noted above. And who knows; maybe it’ll get there or close enough.
As for the early reviews, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny‘s current 68% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes is either a disappointment or better than people expected — I can’t decide just yet. On the other hand, the audiences that have gone to check out the movie seem to be responding well to it, based on its audience score of 88% derived from more than 5,000 verified Rotten Tomatoes user ratings.
IMDb’s most popular movie
IMDb also has some data points of its own to offer as we consider how well the movie is doing thus far. From its analysis of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny thus far:
- It’s climbed from the 19th most popular movie in the world to the #1 spot on the site, according to IMDbPro (which ranks titles weekly based on the page views of the more than 200 million monthly visitors to IMDb).
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny‘s leading man Harrison Ford is also currently the #12 most popular star in the world, according to IMDbPro STARmeter rankings, which tracks and ranks on a weekly basis the page views of the more than 200 million monthly visitors to IMDb. Ford jumped 18 spots on this week’s IMDbPro STARmeter rankings following the movie’s release.
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny currently has a 6.9/10 score (based on 49,000 ratings) as voted by IMDb users.
