Things don’t seem to be looking too good for the newest installment of the long-running Indiana Jones movie franchise, despite the return of Harrison Ford to the titular role, as it is currently projected to be a massive box office flop for Disney, according to the Daily Caller.
The film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is expected to bring in $60 to $70 million on its opening weekend, according to a Hollywood Reporter piece cited by DC. Another popular film news outlet, Deadline, also believes the movie will earn $60 to $65 million domestically and pull in a total of $140 million worldwide.
The Daily Caller goes on to point out that the new projections are a massive drop from the numbers originally predicted by Box Office Pro from the early part of June, which claimed that the movie would make $81 to $111 million on its opening. The outlet then readjusted its numbers the following week to $68 to $102 million. Then, on June 22, the predictions were altered once again to $68 to $95 million.
This might seem like good numbers, but it’s not when you look at the overall budget to make the latest installment of the franchise which was $294.7 million. That figure landed it in the eighth spot on a list of most expensive films ever made, according to IMBD. Just to break even, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny must make $750 million and $800 million to earn a profit. That’s a whole lot of money.
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A lot of movies have a massive 50 to 60 percent drop off in ticket sales during the second week they are in theaters. If that proves true for Indy, it means there’s no way it’s going to break even, let alone produce a profit. What’s surprising is that the new film is projected to do worse than the previous installment, which was not a hit with critics or fans of the franchise. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pulled in $126 million over Memorial Day weekend in 2008. It then went on to make $317 million in the U.S. and $790 million across the world.
One of the theories being bandied about online for why the projections for the movie are so low is because it has been infected with a lot of left-wing political ideology. There has been massive criticism of the film already due to claims Indy is sidelined in his own film for a younger female co-star and the pushing of the usual “female empowerment” narrative that has become popular, according to the Daily Caller.
The report revealed that this theory has come about due to a scene in the trailer that shows actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge slamming capitalism. A second scene from the preview shows Indy bragging about fighting the Nazis, while Waller-Bridge’s character retorts, “and you stole from Indigenous people too.”
According to Inside The Magic, the director of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, James Mangold, who also directed the extremely popular Wolverine film, Logan, was asked about the Helena Shaw character that Waller-Bridge plays, who is the title character’s goddaughter in the movie, and the choice he made to do away with the Shia LaBeouf character, Mutt Lang.
He explained the decision was not to make the popular franchises “woke,” but was simply an opportunity to have a strong female lead character for Indy to have alongside him.
“I think the point I had was that when I came on, I wanted to capture that wonderful energy between Indy and an intrepid female character,” he stated.
“So that was my first goal, and there’s only so many people you can edge into a picture,” he continued, discussing the decision to replace Shia LaBeouf.
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