'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' has a disappointing opening weekend
Audiences apparently weren't jonesing for one last Indy adventure.
"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," Harrison Ford's farewell to the role of Indiana Jones, grossed $60 million domestically in its opening weekend. It was a disappointing showing for a film that reportedly cost close to $300 million, and it was also a decline from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which had a three-day debut of $100 million in 2008.
So what happened? One factor to consider is Disney's decision to premiere "Dial of Destiny" at the Cannes Film Festival in May, which turned out to be a major blunder. The hope was seemingly that a warm reception there would help build buzz, but instead, early reviews for "Dial of Destiny" out of the festival were surprisingly negative. As a result, the movie sat with a "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes a month before its release, which couldn't have helped with opening weekend ticket sales. Subsequent reviews were more positive, leading the film to end up with a solid "fresh" score. But the damage from Cannes may have already been done, especially given some moviegoers were already skeptical of another "Indiana Jones" sequel after disliking the previous one.
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave "Dial of Destiny" a B+. That's an improvement on "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which received a B, and the film currently holds an 89 percent Rotten Tomatoes audience score. So word of mouth suggesting this is a better Indy finale than "Crystal Skull" could help boost the film at the box office in the coming weeks and on the Fourth of July holiday.
But "Dial of Destiny" is certainly getting off on the wrong foot, continuing a summer filled with box office disappointments and coming right after DC's "The Flash" bombed with a $55 million opening. Perhaps audiences simply don't connect with Indiana Jones the way they used to, suggesting the legendary archaeologist himself has become an artifact of another era.