‘M:I – Dead Reckoning’ & ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Reportedly Could Lose Up To $100 Million At The Box Office

This year has been pretty wild as far as box office goes. We’ve seen massive successes, such as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Barbie,” and “Oppenheimer,” but we’ve also seen some spectacular fails, such as “The Flash” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.” However, coming into 2023, it felt as if there were a few safe bets. Films like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Mission: Impossible —Dead Reckoning Park One” seemed like guaranteed hits. However, as we take a look at those two films and their respective box office runs, it looks like they were anything but guarantees and could stand to lose quite a bit of money.

READ MORE: Paul Schrader Calls ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ “Tiresome Claptrap,” Says AI Could’ve Written The Script

According to a report from Variety, after the completion of their respective box office runs, the newest ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Mission: Impossible’ films could lose upwards of $100 million each. Obviously, when discussing modern, post-pandemic box office, it’s clear that these films were never going to be billion-dollar hits. However, when you factor in ridiculously high budgets for both (reportedly around the $300 million total each), as well as marketing costs, the current box office projections point to losses for their studios.

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” currently sits at a worldwide gross of only $375 million, which is well below the biggest earner in the franchise, ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,’ which earned more than $790 million globally. 

READ MORE: Christopher McQuarrie Convinced Studio To Keep Expensive ‘Mission Impossible’ Sub Scene & Then Feared He Had To Cut It

When you look at “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” the news isn’t as terrible, with the film currently sitting at $522 million. That total is well below the previous film, ‘Fallout,’ which earned $791 million globally.

Of course, when talking about box office, you have to take into account the fact that post-COVID, numbers haven’t gone back to that pre-pandemic glory where we regularly saw films hit $1 billion. Also, we have to take into consideration that Russia and China aren’t nearly as profitable for Hollywood films nowadays. But, when push comes to shove, the real issue seems to be the ballooning budgets for these massive blockbusters. 

When you make a film for $300 million and then spend another $100 million to market it, quick math tells you the film needs to earn roughly $750 million to sniff profitability during its theatrical run. Obviously, when these film leave theaters, they still earn money with cable deals and ancillary income, but we’re at a point where these films are struggling to turn a profit before they leave cinemas, which is not how things typically go.

It’ll be interesting to see how recent box office performance factors into future decisions. Will we see Tom Cruise get $300 million to make a film in the future? Will Disney not spend so much on legacy sequels? We’ll just have to wait and see.