The Indiana Jones films have grossed more than US$1.18 billion worldwide since the first movie in the trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, opened in 1981.
Hollywood is going back to the future by resurrecting several much-loved characters despite the advancing years of the actors who made them legends.
A 60-year-old Sylvester Stallone clambered into the ring again last month for the latest movie in the Rocky franchise, while a 51-year-old Bruce Willis is getting ready to reprise McClane in the fourth Die-Hard film this summer.
Not content with bringing Rocky back to cinema screens, another Stallone character — gung-ho Vietnam vet John Rambo — is coming out of hibernation, 19 years after the third film in the series.
According to UCLA professor Howard Suber, author of The Power of Film, the recent crop of revived movie franchises is nothing new. In fact, it says more about the battle of the sexes than the passage of time.
"There's nothing different going on now," Suber said. "It's a truism of the industry, women have trouble going on working past their thirties, certainly past their forties, Cary Grant was playing romantic leads into his sixties.
"The history of Hollywood is full of male actors that continue to work into their sixties."
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