Harrison Ford first battled Nazis as the intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones in the 1981 film “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He again took on Nazis in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” in 1989, declaring in the film: “Nazis. I Hate These Guys.” And the third time’s the charm in the recently released (June 30) “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
In the 2023 film, an aging Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. is pitted in 1969 against a Nazi scientist working for NASA who seeks a time travel-enabling ancient artifact. The villain, Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), tries to travel back before World War II to implement a plan to reverse the Nazi defeat.
The film has received mixed reviews in its early days. It has a 68% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, with an 88% audience score. But Leonard Maltin, the famed film historian and critic, wrote that the film was a disappointment despite his going in without high expectations.
“The motto seems to be ‘more is more’ as the film piles on set-piece after set-piece in a full-throttle attempt to exhaust us in the audience,” he wrote. “Let’s revisit ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and remember when the premise was fresh and the picture was fun to watch.”
The film has also apparently failed to meet expectations at the box office in its debut weekend. It has brought in nearly $160 million worldwide. It reportedly cost Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures nearly $295 million and is said to be the 13th most expensive movie ever made. With marketing and other costs, the company would reportedly need to bring in $600 million to break even and $800 million to be a financial success.
In a release, Disney hailed the film’s success, particularly in certain overseas markets.
