Despite becoming the first – and so far – only studio to rack up $4 billion at the global box office this year, Disney hasn’t exactly been swimming in profits, with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny endemic of the studio’s repeated failure to deliver blockbusters that live up to critical or commercial expectations.
Harrison Ford’s swansong as the iconic archeologist was an eye-wateringly expensive movie to produce, setting the company back an estimated $295 million before marketing and distribution costs had even been factored in, leaving it in an unfortunate position where it needed to make a staggering amount of money simply to break even, never mind turn a profit.
Suffice to say, that hasn’t happened, and to rub even more salt into the wound, Dial of Destiny has been surpassed at the domestic box office by a contentious thriller that cost $277 million less to make. Sure, the margins are fine, but $18 million thriller phenom Sound of Freedom – which was ditched by Disney and sat on the shelf for five years, lest we forget – has pulled ahead of the fifth and final Indiana Jones adventure after edging $200,000 in front.
On a global scale, Dial of Destiny has only rustled up $370 million, while Sound of Freedom has recouped its modest budget almost 10 times over from home shores alone. These are strange times we’re living in, with nobody genuinely believing for a second a faith-based title made on a relative shoestring would even be capable of earning more than an all-time cinematic icon… until it did.