The movie is projected to make a modest $60 million in its opening weekend, falling short of 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'.
Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny might be staging a critical resurgence, but it’s too early to tell if it’ll be able to defy expectations at the box office. The fifth film in the iconic adventure franchise — the first in the series to not be directed by Steven Spielberg, or have a story by George Lucas — is poised to deliver a relatively modest opening weekend of around $60 million, after grossing $24 million on its first day of release. This includes the $7.2 million that the movie grossed in Thursday previews. More worrying projections put the movie’s opening weekend at around $55 million, which is what The Flash debuted with a couple of weeks ago.
Budgeted at an astronomical $295 million, making it one of the
most expensive movies of all time, Dial of Destiny was touted as star
Harrison Ford’s last adventure as the legendary character, which he began
playing in the early 1980s. In-franchise comps are difficult when the movies
have been spread across so many decades, but the fourth installment — 2008's
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — grossed $1 million more
than Dial of Destiny on day one, which happened to be a Thursday. It made
$100 million in its four-day opening weekend and concluded its domestic run
with a fantastic $317 million. Directed by James Mangold, Dial of Destiny is
currently aiming for an $85 million haul across the five-day extended
weekend.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull remains a divisive movie, but it
was a bona fide box office hit. Just some weeks ago, however, initial
reviews that came out of its Cannes Film Festival premiere foretold a
concerning future for Dial of Destiny. But domestic audiences have been
slightly kinder to the movie, which currently sits at a borderline “fresh”
68% score from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Collider’s
Therese Lacson called it an “uneven, bonkers, but thrilling final ride” in
her review, and opening day viewers awarded it a middling B+
CinemaScore.
The Top Five Was Dominated by Holdovers
Continuing its comeback after a disappointing opening weekend,
Pixar’s Elemental once again finds itself in a tight race for the number two
spot with Sony’s hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which added $3.4
million on its fifth Friday, pushing its running domestic haul to $331
million. Elemental is expected to settle for the number three spot this
weekend, after also grossing $3.4 million on Friday. The movie was all but
written off after delivering the second-lowest opening weekend haul in
Pixar’s history, but it eventually found its audience, dropping by only 39%
in its second weekend. The original animated film isn't a success by any
stretch of the imagination, but it will come within touching distance of the
$100 million mark by Sunday.
The fourth spot was claimed by
Sony’s raunchy R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings, which added $2.2 million on
its second Friday after a strong $15 million opening weekend. This takes the
film’s running domestic total to just under $25 million. Paramount’s
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts rounded out the top five with $1.9 million
on Friday, which takes the film’s running domestic total to an underwhelming
$131 million. The film is struggling globally as well, as it limps past the
$350 million mark. Both No Hard Feelings and Rise of the Beasts were
outperformed by newcomer Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken — the DreamWorks film
grossed $2.3 million on its opening day, but is projected to finish outside
the top five in its first weekend.
