As a life long Indiana Jones fan, it wasn’t that long ago that after being burned for almost 20 years by false promises and dashed hopes, that I predicted they would never actually do another Indiana Jones movie. I had always hoped… nay… DREAMED that they would do it, but nearly 20 years of on again, off again… we’re almost ready… we’re ready… we’re not quite ready… we have a script… we’re working on a script… we’re talking to new writers… yadda yadda yadda… finally turned me off and I gave up all hope that it would ever actually get done.
Well, it is getting done, and make no mistake about it my international friends, Indiana Jones 4 will end up being the #1 film of 2008 (box office wise anyway). Some people are putting their money on the new Batman film… but they’re wrong (it will probably end up being a BETTER film).
Indiana Jones transcends the generational barriers in a way no other film this year has the power to do. Indiana Jones 4 obviously will appeal to the older crowd better than, say… Batman will. The only question is will Indiana Jones be able to capture the imaginations of the younger audience? Well… the answer appears to be a resounding YES! The folks at Yahoo Movies give us this:
The trailer for the May 22 release has drawn highly enthusiastic responses in theaters. But it may have had its biggest impact online, on a younger audience that may not think of Ford, 65, as equal to today’s spry action heroes. After premiering Feb. 14 on “Good Morning America,” Lucasfilm and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures sent the trailer to the Web, plus movie theaters and TV stations around the world. Paramount estimates the trailer was seen more than 200 million times worldwide in the first week alone.
Paramount is reporting these numbers are a record, and that it blows away the number of times The Transformers trailer was viewed in its first week. The younger audience is indeed excited about Indy returning… people who weren’t even alive when he first went after the Ark of the Covenant.
When all is said and done, Indiana Jones 4 may end up sucking as much as Phantom Menace, or be as amazing as Raiders of the Lost Ark… we simply don’t know yet. But what we can say is that theaters will be beyond packed as we all race to the theater to find out the answer to that question. Young and Old are on board the Indy train, and nothing in 2008 is going to touch its performance at the box office, simply because too many people are waiting, and HAVE BEEN waiting nearly 20 years for this damn thing to come out. Other films may be better this year, but nothing will come close to the anticipation level of this project. We can only hope it will be worth the wait.
