Indy 5’s poor box office haul a disaster for Disney CEO Bob Iger

Released on June 30, Dial of Destiny earned a disappointing $60 million in its opening weekend in the domestic theaters, and interest dropped off sharply ever since. Just one week later, it surrendered the top spot at the box office, despite being one of the most expensive movies ever made, and now it has sunk to a distant fourth in the table. 

The new entry could no longer rely on the goodwill built up by the first three films after the critical disappointment of its predecessor, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Poor reviews and dreadful word of mouth look to now sink Lucasfilm’s first theatrical release since 2019.

Its $302 million global take has only matched roughly the reported costs of its production budget, which suffered from expensive reshoots after test screenings indicated audiences were less than thrilled with the initial ending.

Marketing and promotion are expected to have added easily another $100 million to that bill and Disney still has to pay the theaters their share of the receipts.

“It looks certain to fall short of the global total for 2008’s Crystal Skull: $786.6 million,” wrote Box Office Pro on Sunday. 

The situation is far more dire, according to The Hollywood Handle. Dial Of Destiny is not expected to even cross the $400 million mark in global box office receipts—half of what the fourth installment made 15 years ago when a dollar went a lot further than today. 

This seems a safe bet given the stiff competition it now faces in the form of spy thriller Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer. In reality, the Indy sequel needed to haul in around $800 million just to break even.

Should the grim predictions prove true, the Lucasfilm production could potentially rival John Carter as the Mouse House’s worst-ever live-action commercial bomb and call into question the future of studio boss Kathleen Kennedy, a former Fortune Most Powerful Woman.

Iger has made it clear financial responsibility now goes hand in hand with creative decision-makers.

But it may have consequences for Disney, as well. The share price has been trading near nine-year lows when excluding the 2020 pandemic dip, and speculation continues over whether Iger may be forced to sell the company to Apple.

Disney and Lucasfilm did not respond to a request from Fortune for comment.

Hulu cash call

Iger, who had his original two-year boomerang CEO contract extended last week by two more, can ill afford any box office flops.

He’ll need billions in cash next year to complete the buyout of Comcast’s minority stake in streaming platform Hulu. 

The problem is that Disney’s lineup this year, with the possible exception of Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume Three, has so far been middling at best.

Commercial disappointments include Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, the live-action remake of its animated classic The Little Mermaid, Pixar’s Elemental and now Dial of Destiny.

The upcoming slate looks little better: November’s The Marvels has little positive buzz going for it, especially after a recent string of superhero movies failing to make a profit, including Warner Bros. Discovery’s The Flash.

To drum up cash for Hulu, Iger is now exploring the potential sale of some of his linear networks—whether free-to-air or cable. The Disney CEO has said that the business model that has historically underpinned their distribution of content is ‘definitely broken’ thanks to direct-to-consumer streaming.