When Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hit cinemas last year, Disney and Lucasfilm were factoring on nostalgia to attract fans of the Harrison Ford-led film series that kicked off in the '80s.
However, that did not come to pass, as the picture grossed a meager $384 million at the global box office. Dial of Destiny had a $295 million production budget, so educated moviegoers were well aware that the newest Indiana Jones film would be in the negative.
It's somewhat baffling, given the fact that the film received favorable reviews from fans and critics alike.
Thanks to Forbes, who analyzed Disney's recently released financial statements, it's been revealed that Disney has told investors that the company lost $134.2 million on the pic.
That statistic makes sense when you consider that theater owners and film studios divide box office earnings, thus only $192 million of Dial of Destiny's box office total was returned to the studio.
Those financial statements also showed that a large percentage of the film's budget ($79 million) was spent on VFX, which is especially noteworthy given that the picture stars a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford.
The previous film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released in 2008 and grossed $790.7 million from a production budget of $185 million.
Prior to the Crystal Skull's release, there hadn't been an Indiana Jones film released since 1989. Maybe all the nostalgia points the franchise had left were swallowed up by that movie, because sentimentality clearly wasn't a winning ploy for Dial of Destiny.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Official Synopsis: Harrison Ford returns as the legendary hero archaeologist in the highly anticipated fifth installment of the iconic “Indiana Jones” franchise, which is directed by James Mangold (“Ford v Ferrari,” “Logan”).
Starring along with Ford are Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), John Rhys-Davies (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”), Shaunette Renee Wilson (“Black Panther”), Thomas Kretschmann (“Das Boot”), Toby Jones (“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”), Boyd Holbrook (“Logan”), Oliver Richters (“Black Widow”), Ethann Isidore (“Mortel”) and Mads Mikkelsen (“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”).
Directed by James Mangold, the film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel, with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas serving as executive producers.
John Williams, who has scored each Indy adventure since the original "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981, is once again composing the score.