Indiana Jones needs to crack that whip. The fifth and final installment in the fedora-wearing archaeologist’s franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is not performing as expected although it still debuted at the top.

Box office pundits reacted to Dial of Destiny’s $60 million opening as “disappointing,” way short of the $100 million earned by the movie’s predecessor, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when it bowed in 2008.

The analysts’ estimates for the action adventure’s Fourth of July weekend, a five-day period from Friday to Tuesday, are estimated to be $82 million.

The first Indiana Jones saga directed by James Mangold, taking over from Steven Spielberg who directed the series’ first four installments, is supposedly Ford’s adieu to his beloved swashbuckling college professor and archaeologist.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge (as Indy’s goddaughter), Antonio Banderas (boat pilot), Toby Jones (fellow archaeologist and professor), Shaunette Renee Wilson (US government agent), Mads Mikkelsen (former Nazi Officer) and Ethann Isidore (young Moroccan sidekick) are among the cast additions.

Returning actors include Karen Allen and John Rhys-Davis as Marion Ravenwood, Indiana’s wife, and Sallah, his old friend, respectively.

Slinging $11.5 million on its fifth weekend, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse placed second and became the third biggest-earning movie of 2023. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson’s well-received sequel to Into the Spider-Verse, with a voice cast led by Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld, has hit the $600 million worldwide benchmark.

Proving to be a box office winner, after all, despite its soft opening weekend numbers, is Pixar and Disney’s Elemental. Landing third on its third frame, the animated film voiced by Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie and Ronnie Del Carmen, has been catching fire.

As this story is being written, Across the Spider-Verse and Elemental are in a tight race.

The film set in a world populated by nature’s anthropomorphic elements, directed by Peter Sohn, made $11.3 million for a domestic tally of $88.8 so far.

Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelings captured the fourth spot after grossing $7.5 million.

In its week four, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts stayed in the magic five with $7 million. One of the year’s biggest hits, Rise of the Beasts, with a domestic cume of $136.1 million, has already surpassed the North American totals of Transformers: The Last Knight and Bumblebee.

Comprising the rest of the top ten were, in order: Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, an action adventure animation voiced by a stellar cast (Jane Fonda, Toni Collette and Lana Condor) which premiered with $5.3 million; Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid, another film that is proving to have a strong hold, $5.1 million; The Flash, continuing to be a dud with $5 million, and not able to cross the $100 million mark after three weeks; and Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, doing well for a specialty film, $3.8 million.

Making it to the ninth and tenth berths were Chris Pratt’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 ($1.8 million) and the horror mystery thriller The Boogeyman ($1.7 million).

Internationally, Dial of Destiny’s $70 million haul from over 50 territories did not live up to the projections. Combined with the movie’s North American revenues, the overall worldwide tally came to $130 million.

In China, the movie, the first one in the franchise to get a release date in that huge market, managed weak opening figures of $2.3 million. Among the countries where Indiana Jones still ruled were the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Australia.