Disney confirmed that the budget for Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny set a new record for Lucasfilm.
For the first time, Disney is about to release an Indiana Jones movie as this summer's Dial of Destiny marks the first entry in the franchise since the House of Mouse acquired Lucasfilm.
As everybody knows, Disney is renowned for churning out blockbusters with huge budgets, having been nine of the 10 highest-grossing movies of all time, with flicks from the MCU, Star Wars, Avatar, and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises.
Indiana Jones 5 Reveals Insane Budget
According to Forbes, Disney confirmed this June's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will have a shocking budget of $294.7 million.
The revelation regarding the adventure blockbuster makes Indiana Jones 5 the most expensive Lucasfilm movie ever and the eighth highest-budget film of all time, surpassing Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The highest budgets in Lucasfilm's history can be seen below:
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - $294.7M
- Solo: A Star Wars Story - $275M
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - $275M
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi - $262M
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens - $259M
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - $248M
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $233M
The updated list of the 10 most expensive movies ever made can be seen below - with nine of those having been released by Disney:
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - $379M
- Avengers: Age of Ultron - $365M
- Avengers: Endgame - $356M
- Avatar: The Way of Water - $350M
- Avengers: Infinity War - $325M
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - $300M
- Justice League - $300M
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - $294.7M
- Solo: A Star Wars Story - $275M
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - $275M
Why Indiana Jones 5 Might Fail at the Box Office
Disney is known for making movies on huge budgets, with immense amounts of money being dedicated to creating grand-scale projects with major stars. But even for the House of Mouse, Indiana Jones 5's budget comes across as a massive gamble.
Looking at its highest investments, most have generally paid off by crossing or coming extremely close to a billion. In fact, the only one to truly flop came with Solo, which struggled to succeed coming off The Last Jedi controversy with a measly $393.2 million.
As of now, while the trailer for Dial of Destiny garnered positive reactions, the hype doesn't appear high for the sequel. Disney will need to up its marketing game in the coming months if it wants to see major returns on its record-breaking investment.
This figure doesn't even include marketing, driving up the cost behind Indiana Jones 5 even higher. With theaters taking around half of the ticket sales and likely another $100 million, at least, being shelled out for marketing, just how much does this movie need to make?
Well, from the sounds of it, to produce a reasonable profit, Indiana Jones 5 will need to fly well past the $800 million mark and close to $1 billion. For context, the current highest-grossing in the franchise stands as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with $790 million worldwide.
With this being marketed as the end of Harrison Ford's final outing as Indiana Jones and the end of the character's story, while also being his comeback after 15 years of absence, Dial of Destiny could certainly beat that but likely not by much.
The marketing campaign for the Indiana Jones comeback will also have some obstacles to contend with, including a much older Ford and the absence of original director Steven Spielberg, who has been replaced on this go-around by Logan's James Mangold.
Not to mention, it's not like the Disney sequel will be without competition, with DC's The Flash dropping just two weeks before, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One two weeks later, and both Oppenheimer and Barbie the week after that.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hits theaters on June 30, 2023.
