Indiana Jones’ box office destiny? A lukewarm weekend debut for Harrison Ford’s final Indy movie

Dial Of Destiny is the long-delayed fifth installment in the Steven Spielberg/George Lucas-created adventure series that began in 1981, and the first Spielberg himself hasn’t directed.

Veteran James Mangold stepped in to take the reins overseeing the Spielberg-approved script, which finds an older Dr Jones retiring from his university job and swept up on a new adventure with his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge).

The film made its splashy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, with a fitting celebration of Ford, who has said this was his last time playing the character.

But then it was hit with lukewarm reviews. This was an unexpected and unwelcome hurdle, considering it was coming after the maligned fourth film, 2008’s Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. Another contributing snag was that a significant portion of the target audience, older viewers, don’t tend to buy many tickets on opening weekend for big blockbusters. But even Crystal Skull, budgeted at a reported US$185 million, managed to gross over US$790 million.