Box Office: ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ uncovers $60 million national opening

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny raised an estimated $60 million in its domestic debut, a disappointing start to the fifth and final installment of the hit action-adventure series starring Harrison Ford.

The hope now is that the Disney and Lucasfilm tentpole holds up well, starting this week as Americans celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. The film, directed by James Mangold, is expected to close on Tuesday with a domestic total of $82 million.

Overseas, the film launched to $70 million for a global start of $130 million.

For Quadrant of Destiny the challenge has always been to attract new younger fans as well as those who grew up on the franchise. The film, which has experienced a series of delays, cost a whopping $250 million before release.

As it stood, the film’s opening weekend audience was significantly older, with 42% of tickets aged 45 and over, including 23% aged 55 and over. This is a breakdown that is rarely seen when it comes to a Hollywood summer tentpole. Even before the pandemic, older moviegoers weren’t known to rush to a movie on opening weekend. The photo also skewed the male significantly (58 percent). On Saturday, families started showing up.

The filmmakers had hoped for a domestic launch closer to $65 million, but a CinemaScore B+ and lukewarm reviews are likely hampering word-of-mouth. One bright spot is the 88% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Quadrant of Destiny is a sequel to 2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullwhich posted an impressive $100 million three-day debut. Crystal Skulllike the first three Indy films, it was directed by Steven Spielberg.

THE Indiana Jones film series once again Harrison Ford as the swashbuckling archaeologist. The 80-year-old actor stars opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore and Mads Mikkelsen. (Steven Spielberg directed each of the previous four Indy movie.)

Keeping the Nazi theme of the film series alive, Dial of Destiny’The plot of the film revolves around an ancient device pursued by Jones and a villain played by Mikkelsen.

DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s will also open during the pre-July fourth weekend Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, which bombed with an estimated $5.2 million. The family photo made it to number 6. Abroad, Teen Kraken opened to $7.6 million for a global start of $12.8 million.

And there’s more.