So, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, it looks like it may be some time before we see another Indiana Jones movie. Here’s a quote from Kathleen Kennedy from an exit interview conducted yesterday:
I don’t think anybody is interested right now in exploring it.
Couldn’t be more direct.
Kennedy goes on to lay the reason Lucasfilm went forward with the last instalment, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” squarely on Harrison Ford, who she says was very keen to do it:
I have no regrets about that because Harrison wanted to do that more than anything. He did not want Indy to end with the fourth movie. He wanted a chance at another, and we did that for him. I think that was the right thing to do. He wanted to do that movie.
In February last year, Harrison Ford said he didn’t care that “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” flopped critically and commercially: “Sh*t happens.”
Forbes recently cited, via Disney’s publicly disclosed financial filings, that ‘Dial of Destiny’ was 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 had led us to believe.
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. By that point, word of mouth had already spread about the initial reactions.
Additionally, some viewers may still have been soured by 2008’s divisive “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” directed by Steven Spielberg, while others were probably hesitant to pay to watch an 81-year-old Ford headline 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.