A de-aged Harrison Ford battling Nazis and a double helping of Batmen in The Flash have not proved sufficient for either of these ‘tentpole’ releases
It is thought that the Antikythera mechanism, rebranded the “dial of destiny” in the latest Indiana Jones movie, was a device invented by the ancient Greeks to predict eclipses and monitor the movement of the sun. Whether its prescience can be applied to box office takings isn’t known: some estimates date the contraption to as early as 200BC, when there was a dismaying lack of interest in domestic grosses and opening weekends. But, if it could, it might have revealed that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was heading for a full-on Temple of Doom scenario. If you want to imagine what the studio executives looked like when they received word of the dismal grosses for their $300m (£235m) movie, cast your mind back to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark: eyes popping, faces melting, that sort of thing.
“Tentpole” releases, as summer blockbusters are known, are no longer the guaranteed behemoths they were in the pre-Covid era: the marquee is sagging, the tentpole in danger of snapping. Last month, the DC superhero adventure The Flash took a catastrophic dive into the red, and is now on course to become one of the biggest flops in Warner Bros’ history. Expectations were high for the movie, though maybe there should have been a shade more scepticism when James Gunn, co-CEO of DC Studios, announced that it was one of the best superhero movies he’d seen. As scoops go, “Executive Claims His Company’s Product ‘Better Than Everyone Else’s’” lacks a certain rigour, not to mention novelty value.
