INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY Ended Up Being a $130 Million Loss for Disney

One of last summer’s family blockbusters was Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, a long-awaited and seemingly well-received sequel in the popular Indiana Jones franchise. The film promised one last adventure starring Harrison Ford back in the title role for the final time. The movie received a 70% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an audience rating of 88%, but it looks like not enough fans streamed through the turnstiles to cover the film’s production costs.

A report from Forbes says that data from industry analyst Box Office Mojo shows that Dial of Destiny grossed $384 million, just 49% of the takings of its prequel, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which fans were largely not happy with. It just seems as though there were way more people going to the movies in 2008.

The report explains that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny failed to cover its costs at the box office, and according to financial statements released on Friday, Disney spent $134.2m more on making the movie than it is understood to have received in ticket sales.

One of the film’s coolest scenes was the dramatic train chase featuring a digitally de-aged Ford. It came at a cost as the filings reveal that $79 million was spent on post-production work in the year to the start of April 2023 bringing the movie's total budget to an enormous $387.2 million.

It’s sad to see that this fun film wasn’t able to gain a profit. When things like this happen in the box office, it sometimes makes studio executives less likely to lend a budget to a filmmaker. But we want to keep seeing great movies made! Not all of them big-budget, for sure, but when a blockbuster movie gets made, I’d love to see it made with this level of quality. So let’s get back to the theatre and make these movies worth the budget!