Harrison Ford is not concerned with the commercial failure of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. In true Harrison Ford fashion, the 82-year-old used a two-word response when asked about the film’s poor box office result.
“S*** happens,” Ford told The Wall Street Journal Magazine.
Released in June 2023, Dial of Destiny grossed $384 million worldwide, falling well short of Lucasfilm’s expectations. For comparison, the fourth Indiana Jones movie, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, grossed over $786 million in 2008. Dial of Destiny carried a budget of $387 million, making it one of the most expensive films of all time. Disney later reported a $130 million loss on the fifth Indiana Jones movie.
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Despite the underperformance, Ford is proud that he donned Indiana Jones’ hat and whip one last time.
“I was really the one who felt there was another story to tell,” Jones explained in the same interview. “When [Indiana] had suffered the consequences of the life that he had to live, I wanted one more chance to pick him up and shake the dust off his ass and stick him out there, bereft of some of his vigor, to see what happened. I’m still happy I made that movie.”
Dial of Destiny’s director, James Mangold, gave a different reason for the disappointing box office haul, citing a disconnect between an aging hero and the younger audience.
“You have a wonderful, brilliant actor who’s in his eighties,” Mangold told Deadline about Dial of Destiny’s financial debacle. “So I’m making a movie about this guy in his eighties, but his audience on one other level doesn’t want to confront their hero at that age. And I am like, I’m good with it. We made the movie. But the question is, how would anything have made the audience happy with that, other than having to start over again with a new guy?”
Stream Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on Disney+.
