Disney is having a rough summer.
One of their leading actresses is submarining an upcoming movie, attendance at their resorts is down, and now one of their blockbusters is a bust.
Two of the biggest films of the summer, Mission: Impossible: Fallout and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, haven’t fared quite as well at the domestic box office as had been anticipated.
As of Monday’s box office estimates, the filming for the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise has earned $164,626,507, while Harrison Ford’s return to the Indiana Jones franchise has earned $173,611,344. That’s not bad, but it’s not great when you compare it to the summer’s surprise hit—Sound of Freedom, which has earned a whopping $177,773,859.
On the flip side, a silver lining for both films is that they’ve both done considerably better internationally. The latest Mission: Impossible installment was released in July, earning $541 million at the end of the weekend. Meanwhile, the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, released in early June, pulled in $375 million over the same time frame.
There are reports that part of the reason the films are losing money is because of the mandates and protocols put into place while they were made. As such, Variety is reporting that both films are expected to lose close to $100 million, which would obviously be a huge blow for both the studios and the filmmakers. In order for Mission: Impossible to break even, it needs to earn $600 million globally.
It has been an embarrassing summer for Disney. Hollywood was hoping Cruise would bail them out like he did with Top Gun but that was not the case.
It’s a tough way to end a summer that promised to be ripe with some of the biggest blockbusters of the past year, and it’s a sign that the film industry will continue to struggle.
To add insult to injury, the strike is still on meaning that it’s going to be a long time before we see fresh movies.
