For a while, it seemed that the key to box office success — apart from superheroes and comic book properties — was the return of franchises on the big screen, especially by invoking a sense of nostalgia alongside updated special effects.
That was certainly the case with Jurassic World and Star Wars, both becoming billion-dollar IPs within the past decade.
So if nostalgia worked just a few years ago, then why are this summer’s blockbusters flopping? Surely the return of the ’80s action and adventure hero Indiana Jones would attract everyone to theaters, right? But according to box office numbers, the answer is no.
Harrison Ford’s final return to the fedora in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is, unfortunately, considered a flop.
In order to understand why it failed financially, one can look no further than to what most movie studios have been largely riding the coattails of: nostalgia.
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