The last time Indiana Jones was on the big screen was 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Harrison Ford returned to this beloved character after a 19-year absence (from a movie called “The Last Crusade”). Karen Allen reunited with him. Shia LaBeouf co-starred, just one year after his triple-header of hit thriller “Disturbia”, Oscar nominated animated feature “Surf’s Up” and blockbuster “Transformers”. And Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett went along for the ride as well.
Paramount distributed “Crystal Skull”, opening it on Memorial Day Weekend ’08, just three weeks after the studio’s “Iron Man” kicked-off the summer movie season. Isn’t it amazing that now both Marvel Studios films and LucasFilm movies are no longer at Paramount? They’re under the Disney umbrella.
“Crystal Skull” made $152 million in its first five days, totaling $317 million domestically and $791 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. It was the third highest grossing movie of the year domestically, only behind “Iron Man” by $1.5 million. (“The Dark Knight” dominated with $533 million.)
Paramount had a very good 2008 in addition to “Indiana Jones” and “Iron Man”, with DreamWorks “Kung Fu Panda” and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”, and awards season favorite “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, comedy “Tropic Thunder” and LaBeouf thriller “Eagle Eye”.
15 years later, Ford headlines his fifth and final outing as Indy in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”. It opens on June 30th, with The Mouse House expecting a big extended weekend (with Independence Day on a Tuesday) and all the way through July 11th. Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning: Part One” comes out on Wednesday the 12th.
For Disney, “Indiana Jones” is at the center of a major summer. “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3” has done very well and “The Little Mermaid” is definitely making money. Pixar’s highly anticipated “Elemental” opens June 16th and the new “Haunted Mansion” comes out on July 28th. I’m sure Disney hopes “Dial of Destiny” makes more than the $317M of “Crystal Skull”. I think that will happen, but we’ll see just how high it can go during the second half of the summer season.