What Studios Can Learn From ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Barbie’ About Picking the Right IP

With a $60 million domestic opening and just $70 million more internationally,Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hit the ground struggling to justify its near-$300 million budget over the weekend.

If the film fails to gain traction through the rest of July, itll be another misfire at a time when much more prominent franchises are failing to draw audiences the way they used to.

But as tempted as you might be to throw the phrase franchise fatigue around, some IP remains durable this year, spelling out the trickiness studios face in trying to utilize their libraries as best they can.

While Marvels third Ant-Man film and Pixars Elemental did not deliver at the rates for which their respective brands are known, another Guardians of the Galaxy still delivered adequately for Disney this summer, and The Little Mermaid, while more of a domestic hit than a global sensation, has kept in line with Disneys penchant for live-action takes on animated classics doing well.

So, is this as much a turning point for franchise dependence as it is a clear sign that studios should have always been more selective about IP?

Mattels Barbie film for Warner Bros. is sure to answer this later this month. Studios have been flocking to the toy giant for licensing deals, with films and shows expected for He-Man, Hot Wheels and dozens of other IP.

After a years-long development process spearheaded by acclaimed filmmakers Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, both known for awards-season hits far more than studio fare, the Barbie cast is chock-full of bankable stars, including Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu and, of course, Margot Robbie in the titular role.

Its proof that the call to have Gerwig write and direct lent itself well to drawing significant talent to the production and that Warner Bros. decision to branch out from its own IP library could prove crucial if Barbie is a smash, as the film cost about half as much as DC flicks, such as Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash, that vastly underperformed in 2023.

Ultimately, the decision to pour nearly $300 million into Indiana Jones feels like a much-too-late strategy to make the most out of Disneys $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, as there havent been any Star Wars films to supplement the direct-to-consumer losses to which the franchises Disney+ series have contributed.

Huge acquisitions like Lucasfilm certainly justify the impulse to make a big-budget production out of each signature IP to maximize the value of the initial purchase, whether projects are greenlit immediately or take more than a decade to take shape, as The Dial of Destiny did upon Lucasfilm joining Disney.

Blanket licensing deals can also be just as tricky, as Universal learned the hard way when it entered into a six-year deal with Hasbro in 2008 to turn Candy Land, Monopoly and other board games into hit films following Paramounts success with Transformers. The partnership proved to be too much pressure, as Universal spent millions to nullify the deal in 2012, giving up the IP licenses it had acquired. More recently, Hasbro acquired Entertainment One only to announce a sale initiation of the company last year, citing a desire to solely focus on its own IP stable for further film and TV projects.

While not an identical market to toys, the move to partner with video game companies for adaptations of their IP proved as lucrative as its ever been this year due to Universal partnering with Nintendo for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the most successful film of 2023 so far and a billion-dollar grosser that did far better than Universals 10th Fast Furious film this summer. It goes to show that singularly crafted IP partnerships could be preferable to blanket buys or licensing deals.

After all, Sony Pictures is still getting its moneys worth out of Spider-Man, which remains technically licensed from Disney via subsidiary Marvel. Rather than continue to go all in on MCU-related projects, Sony has put as much effort into expanding its animated Spider-Verse film series.

Even though Comscore shows June 2023 weekends tracking under June 2019 at the end of the month, Across the Spider-Verse" was a big enough success that it drove the entire month of June to its best domestic box-office total since 2019, per The Numbers.

Studios may preside over impressive IP libraries, but it must be worth it to take some of the pressure off when it comes to turning every shelf on that library into a global success. If The Dial of Destiny is destined to go out with a whimper after new IPs like Elemental couldnt hit the ground running, it might be time for Disney to reembrace a singular third-party approach to its slate. Universal doesnt regret it, and Barbie could help shift the same priority just as much at Warner Bros.