The reasons why Indiana Jones 5 was a box-office failure

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was meant to be a glorious send-off for Harrison Ford’s iconic character, but it didn’t quite turn out that way.

After a disappointing debut at the US box office that fell short of expectations, Indiana Jones 5 failed to bounce back in its second weekend and was overtaken by surprise topper Insidious: The Red Door.

It’s the latest blockbuster to disappoint at the box office, and it leaves Hollywood needing Tom Cruise to save it again with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Equally, his savior could come in Barbie and/or Oppenheimer, but wherever it comes, it won’t be from a miraculous recovery of Indy.

But why was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny a box office failure? Let’s investigate.

Before we get into the reasons why, here’s where Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny stands at the end of its second weekend of release.

In the US, the film dropped 56% from its opening weekend to add $26.5 million for $121.2 million to date. Including its $126.7 million overseas haul, Indiana Jones 5 has grossed $247.9 million so far.

A sign of how badly it’s been done so far is that it still ranks as the lowest Indiana Jones film in the series, even though the original trilogy was released in the 1980s and no adjustment for inflation has been taken into account.

By the end of its run, Indiana Jones 5 should have surpassed Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ($333.1 million), but Raiders of the Lost Ark ($389.9 million) is not guaranteed to be surpassed of the new movie. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($474.2 million) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($790.7 million) are too far behind.

If there’s any comfort to be had, it’s that the new Indy movie will at least outpace fellow The Flash , currently at $261.6 million worldwide. Whatever happens in the coming weeks, however, it will remain a box-office failure.

Assuming Indiana Jones 5 lands around $350 million to $400 million, it’s a bottom line that other 2023 blockbusters like The Flash would happily take. But a key part of why it’s seen as such a flop is that it cost a lot of money.

The reported budget for the film is around $300 million, and typically a film would need to make 2.5 times its budget before it starts turning a profit. This involves a marketing spend that, for Indy 5, was reported by Deadline to be around $100 million. That means the movie would need to make at least $750 million before it becomes profitable.

It’s safe to say now that that figure won’t be hit, and while the film may return to home entertainment and streaming, it’s sure to be a box office flop. The same budget problem hit the likes of The Flash (estimated budget $200 million) and Fast X (estimated budget $340 million).

Simply put, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was simply too expensive to make, and its appeal was vastly overstated. But it’s also possible that Disney’s marketing strategy simply didn’t work in this case either, bringing the film to its knees before it even began release.

More than a month before its theatrical release, Indiana Jones 5 received a raucous world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. It worked for Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, boosting the release, but for Indy 5, it did anything but.

The film debuted to the worst reviews of the series to date, even lower than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It bounced back in the month since and now sits at a respectable 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, but still ranks as the lowest-rated film in the series.

Rather than heralding it as a must-see blockbuster, these initial reactions likely fueled fan fears that we’ve got another Crystal Skull on our hands (even if the film has been reassessed in the years since). When the more positive reviews hit, they still weren’t praising it as a must-see.

Dedicated Indiana Jones fans wouldn’t have been put off, but the wider audience who could have seen a new blockbuster would have been. Adding the belief that it will be on Disney+ soon, it’s not really a surprise that the film failed to strike box office gold.

Significant blockbuster competition comes this week with the new Mission: Impossible film, ahead of a Barbie and Oppenheimer double bill on July 21. Indiana Jones 5 was supposed to make hay when it was the only blockbuster in town and it couldn’t. I do not do that.

Even without the massive budget, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny would still have been seen as a box office disappointment given the numbers, but it certainly adds to the sense of failure.

Indy deserved a big send off, but it will end up buried among other notable 2023 flops.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is now in theaters.

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