Dial of Destiny Set to End Up Even Bigger Box Office Flop Than The Flash

Major movie studios tend to milk once-successful stories for as long as they keep making money. That's how we've ended up with such 'forever franchises' as Star Wars, Twilight, and Fast & Furious, much to the dismay of many fans. As studios keep offering up more of the same in a bid to make only safe bets, people are feeling more and more hesitant about spending money on movie theatre tickets and are increasingly turning their backs on the franchises they once loved.

That seems to be the case with the Indiana Jones films. The first film, Riders of the Lost Ark, premiered in 1981 and became an immediate global sensation. Produced on a $20 million budget, it made a killing at the global box office, raking in $390 million and becoming an action movie classic in the process.

However, the recently released fifth instalment has been an epic fail: on a budget of about $300 million, the film only made $60 million in its opening weekend. With the international box office factored in, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's total earnings add up to $150 million.

Compare that to the latest DC offering, The Flash, also generally considered a flop: that movie made $55 million in its opening weekend on a budget of $200 million. If we turn these numbers into percentages so we’re comparing apples to apples, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny recouped 20% of its production budget in its opening weekend, while The Flash made 27.5% of its budget over the same length of time.

Now, the DC movie wasn't promoted as hard as Indiana Jones. Furthermore, historically, superhero movies have always attracted smaller, more niche audiences, while long-running franchises like Indiana Jones have generally tended to have a much broader appeal.

And yet, The Flash, despite falling short of expectations, has already made back the money the studio spent to make it after only being in theatres for eighteen days. Meanwhile, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is still struggling to attract viewers. It is expected to eventually recoup its budget and make a marginal profit. However, it probably won't outperform its predecessor, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which made over $100 million during the opening weekend, despite also being considered a flop at the time of its release.

In the long run, the Dial of Destiny is bound to turn a profit for the studio. We can only hope that Disney, which now owns Lucas Films, the company behind the Indiana Jones and Star War franchises, will refrain from torturing us with more instalments of these classic much-cherished franchises that are now being turned into caricatures of themselves as every new instalment further undermines their once stellar reputation.

The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny are currently showing in theatres.

Source: The Numbers.