Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny dug up $24 million at the Friday box office for a projected weekend debut in the $60 million range. That would put the opening on the low end of projections.
Friday’s haul includes $7.2 million in previews.
Disney and Lucasfilm’s long-delayed final and fifth installment in the adventure-action series will easily top the domestic box office chart heading into the long July Fourth weekend. The filmmakers are still hoping for a debut closer to $65 million, but a B+ CinemaScore and tepid reviews could hamper word of mouth. One bright spot is the 88 percent positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Indiana Jones movie series once again returns Harrison Ford as the swashbuckling archeologist. The 80-year-old actor stars opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore and Mads Mikkelsen in the James Mangold-directed film. (Steven Spielberg helmed each of the previous four Indy films.)
The movie is a sequel to 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which posted a three-day debut of $100 million 15 years ago.
Keeping the film series’ ongoing Nazi theme alive, Dial of Destiny’s storyline revolves around an ancient device being chased by Jones and a villain played by Mikkelsen.
Indiana Jones 5 is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel, with Spielberg and George Lucas serving as executive producers. John Williams, who has scored every Indiana Jones film since the original Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, once again composed the score.
Also opening over the pre-July Fourth weekend is DreamWorks Animation and Univeral’s Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, which earned $2.4 million on Friday, including $725,000 in Thursday previews. The family film appears DOA with a projected weekend opening of $6 million and a sixth-place finish.
July 1, 7:45 a.m.: Updated with Friday grosses and revised weekend estimates.
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