Mark Harris is the author of Pictures at a Revolution, a book about Bonnie and Clyde and the other radical 'New Hollywood' dramas that took over in the mid-1960s when the traditional studio system was faltering. Ever since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Avengers: Endgame came out in 2019, Hollywood seems to be in some sort of endgame itself. But there are too many 'flopbusters' coming out these days to ignore. Bucking the trend, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has done even better than the first film in the series, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Both DC's Black Adam and Marvel's Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania fared badly, leading to claims that audiences might have 'superhero fatigue'. And before the summer, things were hardly overwhelming, either. Overall, said Rubin, this summer has so far had 'a series of underwhelming tentpoles'. In his review of Elemental in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw pondered 'the question of whether Pixar's golden age is irrevocably behind us' – the film was Pixar's worst US box office opening weekend since their very first film, the original Toy Story. According to Rubin, DC's beleaguered superhero blockbuster, The Flash, had an 'embarrassing' showing DreamWorks and Universal's Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, 'cratered' and another animation, Elemental, 'hasn't lived up to Pixar standards'. But he wasn't the only hero to fall short last weekend. The sad fact is that The Dial of Destiny didn't deserve to do any better: the film is a dour, dreary, and largely pointless rehash of Indy's other escapades.

New Indiana Jones is 'like fan fiction' Mission: Impossible 7 is ideal escapism Anthony D'Alessandro at Deadline went further.

This is, she pointed out, 'one of the most expensive movies ever, $295m before marketing', so it is unlikely to make a profit in cinemas. The film made $130m (£102m) at the global box office on its opening weekend, which may sound impressive, but which is actually 'underwhelming', Rebecca Rubin wrote in Variety. Fifteen years on from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Harrison Ford's whip-cracking archaeologist is back in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but, so far, audiences haven't come back with him. Indiana Jones might be able to unearth the Ark of the Covenant, but can he fill cinemas? Apparently not.

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