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how many indiana jones movies are there

There are 5 main Indiana Jones movies in the core theatrical series.

How Many Indiana Jones Movies Are There?

For most fans and official lists, when you ask **“how many Indiana Jones movies are there”** , the answer is:
  • 5 theatrically released feature films starring Indiana Jones.

These are:

  1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
  1. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
  1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
  1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
  1. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

So if you’re just looking for the straightforward, cinema-released Indy adventures: it’s 5.

Quick Scoop

  • Core theatrical Indiana Jones movies: 5.
  • Franchise launched in 1981 with Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Most recent film: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).
  • There are also “Young Indiana Jones” TV/TV-movie adventures, which can boost the count if you include them.

Wait, What About Young Indiana Jones?

Here’s where the fan debates start to get fun. Beyond the 5 Harrison Ford theatrical films, there was a TV series called **“The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,”** later re-edited into a set of feature-length TV and direct‑to‑video films under the banner **“The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.”**
  • This re-edited collection consists of 22 feature-length Young Indy movies (TV/direct-to-video), each combining episodes into movie-style stories.
  • Some fans, especially deep‑dive “Jones-heads,” like to count these as additional “Indiana Jones movies,” which makes the total number of Indy movies (5 theatrical + 22 Young Indy) 27.

On forums, people sometimes joke that there are “only 3 Indy movies” (ignoring later entries they dislike), or riff on weirdly inflated counts. But in terms of official, big-screen Indiana Jones films, the accepted number is 5.

Different Ways Fans Count Them

Here’s a simple breakdown of the main “how many Indiana Jones movies are there” viewpoints you’ll see in discussions: [5][3] [3] [4][2]
View What They Count Total “Movies”
Official theatrical view The 5 big-screen Indiana Jones films released in theaters. 5
Young Indy completist 5 theatrical films + 22 Young Indy TV/direct-to-video movies. 27
“Only 3 movies” meme Fans who jokingly only accept the original trilogy. 3 (joking/fan stance)

Release Order vs. Story Timeline

If you decide to watch them, you can go either by release date or story chronology. For the 5 main films, the **chronological** order of the story is slightly different from release order: some guides place _Temple of Doom_ before _Raiders_ in the in-universe timeline.
  • Many fans recommend watching in release order to preserve the intended build‑up and references.
  • Chronological-order guides exist for people who like the story timeline as it “happens,” including Young Indy.

Trending & Ongoing Discussion

Even after _Dial of Destiny_ (2023), fans are still debating:
  • Whether the series should have stopped after the original trilogy.
  • How much the fifth film changes the “feel” of the franchise compared with the 1980s movies.
  • Whether the Young Indy movie edits count as “real” Indiana Jones movies or just extended TV content.

Forum threads frequently revisit “how many Indiana Jones movies are there” as a running in‑joke, but if you’re just trying to get a clear, practical answer for what to watch, you can safely say:

There are 5 main Indiana Jones movies, plus a larger set of Young Indiana Jones TV movies if you want to go deep.

TL;DR:

  • Core, theatrical Indiana Jones movies: 5.
  • With Young Indy TV movies edited into film-length adventures: 27 total Indy “movies” for completists.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.