Facing the franchise’s worst reviews to date, Disney and Lucasfilm are moving forward with the fifth and final Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate, which opens in theaters on Friday.
The box-office success of tentpole sequels in the post-pandemic era shows they haven’t been affected by soft or even bad reviews — “Jurassic World: Dominion” opened to $145 million domestically despite a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes. Most recently, The Little Mermaid had a $118 million four-day opening from 67% positive reviews.
With 65% positive reviews on this aggregator site, “Dial of Destiny” is expected to amass $60 million — a $65 million domestic bow and a $140 million global Friday-Sunday opening.
The US numbers may look a little soft, but since the 4th of July holiday falls on a Tuesday, the film is expected to do solid business during the Friday-Tuesday period. Also, Independence Day weekend is generally considered a slow movie due to other holiday activities.
The $60-65 million opening puts it in line with other big action franchises with aging characters — the latest Bond film, No Time to Die , debuted with $55.2 million domestically, while the ever-athletic Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout ” managed to earn $61.2 million in its debut.
The previous film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, opened with a three-day domestic haul of $100.1 million over Memorial Day 2008.