<P> Released on June 12, 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark became the year's top - grossing film and remains one of the highest - grossing films ever made . It was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1982, including Best Picture, and won four for Best Art Direction, Film Editing, Sound, and Visual Effects with a fifth Academy Award: a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing . The film's critical and popular success led to three additional films, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), with a fifth slated for 2020; the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992--1996), and 15 video games as of 2009 . In 1999, the film was included in the U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry as having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". </P> <P> The film was ranked as one of the greatest action - adventure films of all time by The Telegraph . </P> <P> In 1936, archaeologist Indiana Jones braves an ancient booby - trapped temple in Peru and retrieves a golden idol . He is confronted by rival archaeologist René Belloq and the indigenous Hovito people . Surrounded and outnumbered, Indy surrenders the idol to Belloq and escapes aboard a waiting floatplane . </P> <P> Jones returns to his teaching position at a New England college, where he is interviewed by two Army Intelligence agents . They inform him that the Nazis are searching for his old mentor, Abner Ravenwood, under whom Jones studied at the University of Chicago . The Nazis know that Ravenwood is the leading expert on the ancient city of Tanis in Egypt, and that he possesses the headpiece of the Staff of Ra. Jones deduces that the Nazis are searching for the Ark of the Covenant--the Nazis believe that if they acquire the Ark, their armies will become invincible . The Staff of Ra is the key to finding the Well of Souls, a secret chamber in which the Ark is buried . </P>

When did raiders of the lost ark take place