Indiana Jones 5 Delivers Big Monday at the Box Office After Lackluster Weekend Debut

The fifth and final film in the Indiana Jones saga — Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — arrived in theaters everywhere this past weekend and failed to impress at the box office. While 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull debuted to more than $100 million in its opening weekend, Dial of Destiny took in just over $60 million this past weekend, a disappointing first result for a movie that cost nearly $300 million to produce. Fortunately for Indy 5, Monday’s box office performance showed some great signs of life.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny earned $11.8 million at the domestic box office on Monday. That total is on par with the first Monday performances from films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Thor: Love and Thunder. 

The 4th of July holiday certainly has a lot to do with the success of Indiana Jones on Monday. The holiday itself fell on Tuesday, but Monday was a de facto day off for many, sitting between the weekend and Independence Day. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Indy post impressive numbers on Tuesday as well.

Monday’s success could be the start of a long run for Indiana Jones 5, potentially following in the footsteps of a movie like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which overcame a modest opening weekend and became a major win at the box office.

Indiana Jones Series Ending With Dial of Destiny

The fifth installment of the Indiana Jones saga is meant to be its last. Harrison Ford is the only actor to have played the titular character in feature films over the years, and there are no plans to recast Indy in order to make more movies. At 80 years old, Ford as made it clear that he’s not planning to play Indiana Jones again. 

While this will be the final installment of the Indiana Jones series, director James Mangold made a point not to indicate as much with the title. Since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade already included a word hinting at an ending, Mangold and the production team had a rule against using that terminology.

“Because Last Crusade. You couldn’t say last because Last Crusade did it and wasn’t,” Mangold explained during a recent interview with Uproxx. “‘Final’ is in every movie from Halloween. Every movie has, at least, the 17th installment called ‘Final’ something. So you think, you can’t go ‘final.’”

The iconic Harrison Ford returns for one last adventure when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres in theaters on June 30th. Lucasfilm’s latest film in the long-running franchise sees Dr. Jones team up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a race against nefarious forces to secure a powerful artifact. The duo will go up against the mysterious former Nazi-turned-NASA scientist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and the film also features stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and John Rhys Davies. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold and is set to be Ford’s final appearance as the iconic archeologist.