More than 40 years after Indiana Jones first graced the screen with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford’s beloved adventure franchise is coming to a close. Ford’s titular explorer is gearing up for one last ride this weekend, with the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth film in the franchise. With a holiday on the way, and a couple of weeks since the last big blockbuster, Disney and Lucasfilm are hoping the love for Indiana Jones will translate to big money at the box office.
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Heading into the weekend, the projections for Indiana Jones 5 are solid, but nothing groundbreaking. Certainly less than one would hope given how big the film’s budget was. According to Deadline, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is looking at a $60 million to $65 million over its three-day weekend here in North America. The film is eyeing an opening around $140 million around the globe.
Indiana Jones will at least get a substantial boost through the week, seeing as how Tuesday is July 4th. This year has already seen multiple movies find solid success in the weeks and weekends after their opening, including Disney’s own Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
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.’”
Indiana Jones Spinoffs
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is still very much about Indy, but it does introduce a character who could lead a spinoff film or franchise sometime in the future.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Helena Shaw in the new film, the goddaughter of Indiana Jones. Fans have thought that this movie could be a passing of the torch from Indy to Helena, letting her lead another version of the series going forward. If that does happen, it will be without Mangold, who made it clear while speaking to that he doesn’t want to spin the franchise in a new direction.
“I’m not interested. I refuse. I just can’t do it,” Mangold admitted. “The amount of lore and Easter eggs and fan service starts to become antithetical to any of this stuff at a certain point. It isn’t storytelling anymore. it’s large-scale advertising.”
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.
