The price tag for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” was repeatedly reported by the trades as $290M. However, one should almost never take those budget figures at face value — they usually come directly from the studios, and why wouldn’t the studios downplay the numbers?
Now Forbes, citing Disney’s publicly disclosed financial filings, confirms that “Dial of Destiny’ has officially gone down as one of the most expensive movies ever made. The final production cost came in at a whopping $419M — more than $100M higher than industry estimates led us to believe.
Released in 2023, ‘Dial of Destiny’ brought back Harrison Ford’s archaeologist for one last adventure, this time chasing an ancient artifact before it could fall into Nazi hands. The film leaned heavily on cutting-edge de-aging technology from Industrial Light & Magic to make Ford look like his 1980s self. Despite all that, the movie grossed just $384M worldwide.
Earlier estimates pegged Disney’s loss on the film at around $134M based on the $290M budget figure, but with the actual production costs now revealed, it’s entirely possible the losses rivaled Disney’s most infamous misfires “The Lone Ranger” and “John Carter,” both believed to have dropped over $200M.
So, what went wrong? It didn’t help that ‘Dial of Destiny’ world premiered at Cannes, where it received a lukewarm reception. Reviews improved slightly afterward — settling at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes — but it was too little too late at that point, word of mouth had spread about initial reactions.
Additionally, some viewers may still have been soured by 2008’s divisive “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” directed by Steven Spielberg, and others were probably hesitant at paying to watch an 81-year-old Ford headlining an action film.
Don’t get me wrong, ‘Dial of Destiny’ wasn’t without merits — the opening train sequence was striking, and the first half worked reasonably well — but the second half faltered, and the ending baffled many. As for rumors of a Phoebe Waller-Bridge–led reboot? That seems increasingly unlikely.