Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull brings in $126million

Indy is back and the boxoffice seems to love him even if the critics are not singing praises – well not singing loudly.

ComingSoon Reports:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earned an estimated $126 million from 4,260 theaters domestically in its first four days, while its international box office total has already reached $143 million from 8,300 locations (the sixth-biggest foreign debut of all-time). The worldwide total stands at $269 million with still another day to go in the four-day Memorial Day weekend.

I found it very puzzling how people thought somehow this movie wouldn’t be a hit. A lot of naysayers were barking this would bomb considering the reviews.

Even with the luke warm reviews people still said it was a good time at the theater even if it wasn’t the best Indiana Jones film of the series. I expected nothing less from this franchise.

This puts Indy up on the list as potentially the second largest Memorial Day Boxoffice pull. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End raked in $153 million domestically on a similar time frame (partial Thursday through Monday) just last year.

The big question falls on the Hollywood formula. This made a TON of money. Do we make another?

Could you see another Indy film, or is this a graceful ending for an aging adventurer?

Spinoff movies with Mutt? Tv series with fan favourite Nathan Fillion?

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25 thoughts on “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull brings in $126million

  1. Final Box-Office Summer 08…Domestic Number / World Wide Totals

    Indy 4 – $337 Million / $759
    Wall-e – $308 Million / $521
    Iron Man – $306 Million / $589
    KungFu Panda – $286 Million / $488
    Dark Knight – $279 Million / $521

    Look for Indy to be number one for the next two weeks…Will hit 275 million quickly then have solid numbers until mid July…don’t see it out of the top five per week until after July 4th…

  2. if they had no press screenings @ all, Rods, that would’ve really driven the stake home on their reps cos us geeks know that no screenings at all means Kiss Of Death for most films.

    @Chris. it ain’t a theory. if you look at recent or not-so-recent cinema history, the tentpole films have bigger numbers with the folllowing installment coming off a great previous movie.
    eg : Jedi making bigger bank Empire
    eg2: X3 had a bigger opening weekend than X2.

    btw the jury is still out on how Indy did at it’s once-only run @ Cannes when films at that festival play multiple times. yeah a lot of faith.

  3. Jig-a-Lot, they released the movie with PLENTY of time for reviewers to slam this movie and hurt it. If they had no faith in it they wouldnt have had advanced screenings at all.

  4. That’s right Sir Jig-A-Lot they obviously had no faith in it at all being as they premiered it at Cannes, which has been known to have people boo and hiss at films they disliked. Yeah…. no faith at all.

    And you know exactly what I meant by the internet chatter (blogs and message boards), RT compiles reviews from all over (major print and internet outlets combined).

    Your theory on what people go to see doesn’t quite explain the success of Pirates 2 (it explains the opening weekend but not the insanity that followed) though does it?

  5. @Chris
    Indy only hit that number on Rotten T after it’s release. it was a paltry 30+% prior. and what the fuck is Rotten if it ain’t an internet site? pfft!
    Critics in general had 2-4 days to cobble their reviews together as most of em did not screen it until the weekend before it’s release. shows you how much faith lucas n stevie had in it.

    shitwipes like Pirates 2 & Spider-Man 3 made huge bank as they came off the back of the great movies that preceded them in their respective series. anyone notice how Pirates 3 drew the diehards the first week out but dropped like a motherfucker from week#2 outwards? basically it’s a case of: make-a-great-movie-and-anticipation for-it’s-sequel-will-have-huge-opening-numbers. this is why TDK & HB II will have bigger numbers.

  6. “i knew regardless of the advance mostly negatory reviews by critics….”

    Sir Jig-A-Lot, reallly? Last time I checked a 79% on rotten tomatoes is pretty damn good, the equivalent of 4 in 5 critics liking it. It seems the negative word of mouth is generally coming from the internet and I think we have all seen that internet jibber-jabber means nothing to box office results. If you want further proof of that explain Pirates of the Caribbean 2, which was generally panned but still made a ton of money.

    I wouldn’t doubt that Indy 4 keeps its crown as box-office champ until the June 6th weekend, against Kung Fu Panda, and even then I only see it slipping to #2. It won’t really drop off until June 13th when it faces stiffer competition. Indy 4 is going to make a crazy amount of money, most likely finishing as the top grossing film of the year.

    Are they going to make another film? Probably because money talks and that’s just the way it is. I happened to like Indy 4, it was the weakest of the four films but it delivered what I want from an Indiana Jones movie. I have no problem with them making another one as long as it delivers a fun adventure flick.

  7. they absolutely should make one more before ford gets to old. the did a poor job catching up with the last 19 years, now we can just have a fun story with indy being indy and could even bring back the kid. no aliens though. im suprised lucas didnt try putting jar jar binks in there

  8. In my opinion, most of the people that didn’t like this movie are either comparing it to Raiders (the only REALLY good Indy flick) or are snooty, out of touch, elitists. Just my opinion.

    Also, I don’t mean to be rude by singling you out Kristina, but what movies DO you like? I haven’t read you say you really liked any movie on here. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

    Lastly, I thought the film was as good as all the other sequels.

    Temple had the asian kid sidekick, annoying screaming woman, and weak mulligan.

    Crusade had the sillier disposition, Nazi retread, weak female lead, and generally messy ending sequence.

    Kingdom had the CG prairie dogs, swinging Mutt, and a “that’s it?” ending.

  9. Edvin I agree with you completely about this nonsense that Nathan Fillion could in anyway substitute for Harrison Ford. Its absolutely ridiculous. Hey I like Fillion. He is fine but he does not have that extra little thing that sets guys like Harrison ford apart from other actors. There is a reason some guys become superstars and some guys wind up in a small role on desperate housewives. He just does not have that extra bit of x factor sorry guys.

  10. I don’t think anypne doubted it would have a big opening weekend. Weak marketing or not, it’s still Indiana Jones back on the screen after 19 years. The question was, and is, how strong will it’s legs be now. Is the film going to bring people back a second or third time.

    Given how Pirates 2 made over a billion dollars, i’m not going to try anymore to gauge what the rest of the world will go back and see multiple times but i have no desire to see Indy IV again on the big screen.

  11. Everyone knew this would have a good opening weekend, but that will be it. I’m pretty sure it will drop off after a few weeks. Dark Knight is going to rule this summer.

  12. Edvin, for the record, I’m not a psycho Indy fan, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t scour the internet for information, and I didn’t like it. Didn’t analyze the trailer frame by frame, didn’t like the movie. By your account, people who didn’t do those things would love the movie. I disliked it. By all means, please explain.

  13. I actually didn’t really like INDY 4. As a HUGE fan of the series, I’m a bit disappointed. It didn’t suck completely, but the story had “Written by George Lucas” written all over it. That’s right Lucas, I’m blaming you!

    However, everybody knew that this would make crazy money. Which it did. So everything is fine in the universe.

  14. You know, word of mouth from guys like many of you are.

    You are those guys that scour the internet for every goddamn tidbit of information on the movie in question, read all the goddamn spoilers that are posted on the Internet.
    Every interview.
    Analyze the trailers to death frame by frame.
    Speculate on what the movie will be like before hand.
    So between you guys a movie like this will always end up being a tad disapointing.
    When I left the theater from seeing the movie on a midnight screening, all the people were pumped how good the movie was.
    Every person I have talked to about the movie called it the best movie of the year.

    You see this movie was not made for Critics, it was not made for over obsessive movie nerds ( like me, though I absolutely loved this movie ).
    It was made for the average Joe.
    It’s a goddamn PopCorn movie, a good one at that, but non the less a popcorn movie.

    And to those people that think that the reigns to the Fedora should be handed over to an actor that played in a 3rd rate sci fi show called firefly ( don’t get me wrong it was an ok show, but just like Buffy and Angel, Dumb and Nerdy )
    And you want him to be Indiana Jones ?

    Plz just shut your whiney traps. Somehow some fans think that they are owed something from their favourite directors.
    That the movie people owe them something, just because you spent 5-10$ on a movie ticket.

    You know what happens to films when directors listen to fans?
    I’m the juggernaut bitch, that’s what happens.

  15. $269 Million in 4 days Worldwide?

    This series is not done for sure!

    I dont care if you liked this movie or not, I am certain there will be another Indy. It may be bad, and it make take a while for it come out but there but sooner or later it will be here.

  16. I think the series is done.

    Skull was, at best, a serious guilty pleasure….but I’m stretching here.

    At worst, it just felt lazy to me. So many good concepts within it, but warped sensibilities by the beards, coupled with CGI overload, made it come across as a cheap knockoff…..not up to the standard.

    Leave the further adventures of Indy to the printed page…

  17. I’m all for it, sure, but only with Ford.

    I think the second weekend’s going to surprise people by still being strong. Notice, if you look at the revenue the movie brought in over the weekend, it got stronger the longer it was out. That’s word of mouth in action. Indy’s gonna have a long ride on the big screen this summer.

  18. I’m glad the movie made buckoo bucks, mostly because I love the character so much and “Raiders” is one of the greatest movies of all time! As far as I am concerned I enjoyed the Trilogy with Raiders being the first and the best and the others follow according to their Chronological order.

    “Skull” I did enjoy. Maybe it was due to my expectations being so low. But it was a joy seeing Harrison in the hat Jacket with whip in hand! And seeing Marion (Karen Allen) back and resolving their relationship! Indy will always be a great Character in my heart created by two men in their prime, both Spielberg and Lucas! Yeah the “Skull” movie was not perfect, and is the weakest of the bunch but like Rod said this not the Phantom Menace! That movie was a mess! I enjoyed this installment and would recommend it to people! Indy Lives!

    But I will say bring on Nathan Fillian!!!! He would be a perfect Indy! I like Shia and enjoyed him in the movie but he is no Indy! And I cannot see him continuing the series. It must be handed over to Nathan Fillian! Please Lucas listen to your Fans once!!!

  19. I liked it. Had a couple of odd moments and cocked my head a bit at the story, but liked it nonetheless. Indy is Indy. And as such there will be fanboys that will NEVER be happy no matter what they produced. But this isn’t Phantom Menace-itis, it’s a decent film.

    I’d be game for more (Harrison Ford) movies, if they do it quickly, but down the road I’d be more partial to Nathan Fillian as Indy series than a Lebouf as Indy III continuation. Fillian can channel Indy…Lebouf will change the movies too much.

  20. i knew regardless of the advance mostly negatory reviews by critics, people would want to check it out for themselves as they have fond memories of the original 3 films so it was gonna make some bank the first weekend. i guarantee that there will be a huge drop in week 2 or 3 as something more powerful than critics is getting out there: Negative word of mouth from the audiences.

    As an aside, There was nothing graceful about the way 4 ended. The graceful ending came in ’89 as they rode off into the sunset before the credits on Last Crusade.

    Spielberg & Lucas are their own worst enemies when it comes to tarnishing what they create.

    I’m gonna pretend Kingdom Of The Ca$h Grab doesn;t exist.

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