Box Office: ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Digging Up $60M Opening After $24M Friday

Pamela McClintock
·2 min read
6
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny dug up $24 million at the Friday box office for a projected weekend debut in the $60 million range. That would put the opening on the low end of projections, underscoring that the target audience — older adults — remains a demo that’s difficult to lure back to cinemas.

Friday’s haul includes $7.2 million in previews.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Disney and Lucasfilm’s long-delayed final and fifth installment in the adventure-action series will easily top the domestic box office chart heading into the long July Fourth weekend. The filmmakers are still hoping for domestic launch closer to $65 million, and $83 million or more through Tuesday. But a B+ CinemaScore and tepid reviews could hamper word of mouth. One bright spot is the 88 percent positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Friday’s audience skewed notably male (58 percent), while 42 percent of ticket buyers were 45 and older — including 23 percent 55 and older. That’s a breakdown rarely seen when it comes to a Hollywood summer tentpole. Even before the pandemic, older moviegoers weren’t known for rushing out to see a movie on opening weekend.

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

The movie is a sequel to 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which posted a three-day debut of $100 million 15 years ago.

Keeping the film series’ ongoing Nazi theme alive, Dial of Destiny’s storyline revolves around an ancient device being chased by Jones and a villain played by Mikkelsen.

Indiana Jones 5 is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel, with Spielberg and George Lucas serving as executive producers. John Williams, who has scored every Indiana Jones film since the original Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, once again composed the score.

Also opening over the pre-July Fourth weekend is DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, which earned $2.4 million on Friday, including $725,000 in Thursday previews. The family film appears DOA with a projected weekend opening of $6 million and a sixth-place finish.

July 1, 7:45 a.m.: Updated with Friday grosses and revised weekend estimates.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.