James Mangold spoke to Deadline on the promotional tour for his Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ about the mixed reaction to the 2023 blockbuster ‘Indiana Jones’ and the ‘Dial of Destiny.’ He said there was a disconnect between audience expectations of an ‘Indiana Jones’ movie featuring a star in his 80s and his own personal perspective on aging and finality. He also commented on the disappointing response to the movie.
“You have a wonderful, brilliant actor who’s in his eighties. So I’m making a movie about this guy in his eighties, but his audience on one other level doesn’t want to confront their hero at that age. And I am like, I’m good with it. We made the movie. But the question is, how would anything have made the audience happy with that, other than having to start over again with a new guy?”
For Mangold, the experience of working on ‘Dial of Destiny’ left him with conflicting feelings because of the audience’s reaction.
“It hurt in the sense that I really love Harrison and, I wanted audiences to love him as he was and to accept that that’s part of what the movie has to say—that things come to an end, that’s part of life.”
Despite mixed reviews, ‘Indiana Jones’ and the ‘Dial of Destiny’ received a better audience reception than the much-criticized ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.’ According to Rotten Tomatoes, ‘Dial of Destiny’ scored 70% from critics and 87% from audiences. This is significantly higher than ‘Crystal Skull’s audience score of 53%. However, this was not reflected at the box office, as it became the lowest-grossing movie of the series. It earned $383.96 million worldwide, resulting in a loss of about $130 million for Disney.
‘Indiana Jones’ and the ‘Dial of Destiny’ is now streaming on Disney+.
