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The current campaign has been engineered to create excitement around the opening date, May 22 -- some billboards feature the date, in flame-colored letters, and little else -- without telling too much about the film. Last year the movie's producers went so far as to file a lawsuit against a bit player who had publicly discussed the film's plot, which involves the exploits of an aging archaeological adventurer, still played by Harrison Ford, now 65.

Looking at online sales

The campaign has been effective so far. Fandango, which sells film tickets online, said it was "seeing brisk advance ticket sales" to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," identified as the summer's most anticipated film in a poll Fandango conducted of moviegoers.

But a better gauge of success is likely to be the extent of online sales in the few days after the film screens at Cannes -- and after many reviewers have weighed in.

Tim Ryan, a senior editor at Rottentomatoes.com, which compiles film reviews, said he expected those of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" to surface "maybe an hour or two" after the Sunday afternoon press screening in France. His company will have someone on hand to post immediately.

As rated by Rottentomatoes, the earlier "Indiana Jones" films enjoyed strong reviews. The worst-reviewed of the three -- the second, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," released in 1984 -- was still the third-most-popular movie of the year.

Spielberg, Levy said, may not be the first to know if the aging Indy manages to wriggle past any negative early notices to score another hit. "When a movie opens, he usually disappears," Levy said. "He usually doesn't want to know all the details about how it's doing."

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