After what was considered to be an underwhelming opening weekend, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has managed to dig up a decent $11.8 million at the Monday box office, which puts it on par with the amount earned by fellow Disney tentpole pictures Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Thor: Love and Thunder. The film was on track for a $130 million opening worldwide after its debut last week.
The film, from director James Mangold, sees Harrison Ford don the fedora and crack his whip one last time in the titular role as he bids farewell to the archaeologist and adventurer. It also cost a staggering $295 million to produce. Ford stars opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen.
Dial of Destiny serves as the follow-up to the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The sequel made an astounding entrance in North America, raking in a remarkable $100 million within its first three days, without accounting for inflation. With today being July 4, Monday was seen as a de facto holiday for most Americans, which accounted for the larger-than-usual taking. By the end of Tuesday, forecasts estimate the film will have made around $82.5 million domestically. That’s good news for Disney, because the film bombed in China where it had a catastrophic $2.3 million opening weekend.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny finds our titular hero on the brink of retirement, a man well beyond his sell-by date whose life has taken a turn for the worst, and adventures are a thing of the past. However, that all changes when his long-lost goddaughter Helena rocks up with an ancient artifact known as the Dial of Destiny, created by Archimedes.
Indy’s old foes, the Nazis, aren’t far behind and before long a race against – and across – time ensues as Indy endeavours to keep the device, which the Nazis want to use to alter the course of history for their own benefit, out of the wrong hands. A jaw-dropping finale sees our hero encounter things he never thought he could dream of witnessing in his lifetime.