Indiana Jones (franchise) and Lucas made a deal with Paramount Pictures for five Indiana Jones films. Spielberg and Lucas aimed to make "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" much darker, because of their personal moods following their respective break-ups and divorces. Lucas made the film a prequel as he did not want the Nazis to be the villains again. He had ideas regarding the Monkey King and a haunted castle, but eventually created the Sankara Stones. He hired Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz to write the script as he knew of their interest in Indian culture. The major scenes that were dropped
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ranked it as the second-biggest Memorial Day weekend release, behind "". It was the third-most successful film of 2008 domestically, behind "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man", respectively, and the year's second-highest-grossing film internationally, behind "The Dark Knight". In February 2010, it was the 25th-highest-grossing film of all time domestically, and 44th-highest-grossing worldwide, as well as the most financially successful "Indiana Jones" film when not adjusted for inflation of ticket prices. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" received strongly polarized but mostly positive reviews; as a result, it has been nominated both for numerous "best of" and