There’s every reason to be concerned about the current state of cinema when not even Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is guaranteed to arrest the decline of Disney’s biggest blockbusters.
It would have sounded unthinkable as recently as a couple of years ago, but comic book adaptations and Mouse House-backed movies have been struggling a great deal more than usual when it comes to convincing audiences to part with their hard-earned cash, and the return of a genuine cinematic icon may not be able to plug the leak.
Of course, you can make the argument that it’s disappointing, unnecessary, or poorly-marketed releases that tend to be the ones dropping off a cliff as soon as they arrive in multiplexes – with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Flash, Elemental, and more falling into plenty of the same traps – but Dial of Destiny is more on a par with something like The Little Mermaid.
Reviews have improved, but are still miles away from being overwhelmingly positive, while there’s not really a justifiable reason for the project to exist in the first place other than maximizing the worth of a well-known brand and dipping it in the warm and fuzzy tones of nostalgia to appeal to multiple generations.
With a $65 million domestic debut and global opening in the $140-150 million range on the cards, Dial of Destiny is tracking a lot closer to Black Adam than it is Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and it doesn’t even need to be mentioned how polarizing Indy’s last outing proved to be.
