<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $1.978 billion </Td> </Tr> <P> The first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) is set in 1936 . Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is hired by government agents to locate the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis . The Nazis have teams searching for religious artifacts, including the Ark, which is rumored to make an army that carries the Ark before it invincible . The Nazis are being helped by Indiana's nemesis René Belloq (Paul Freeman). With the help of his old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and Sallah (John Rhys - Davies), Indiana manages to recover the Ark in Egypt . The Nazis steal the Ark and capture Indiana and Marion . Belloq and the Nazis perform a ceremony to open the Ark, but when they do so, they are all killed gruesomely by the Ark's wrath . Indiana and Marion, who survived by closing their eyes, manage to get the Ark to the United States, where it is stored in a secret government warehouse . </P> <P> The second film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) is set in 1935, a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark . Indiana escapes Chinese gangsters with the help of singer / actress Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and his twelve - year - old sidekick Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan). The trio crash - land in India, where they come across a village whose children have been kidnapped . A destructive cult led by Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) has also taken the holy Sankara Stones, which they will use to take over the world . Indiana manages to overcome Mola Ram's evil power, rescues the children and returns the stones to their rightful place, overcoming his own mercenary nature . </P> <P> The third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) opens in 1912 with a thirteen - year - old Indiana (River Phoenix) attempting to recover an ornamental cross belonging to Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, a task which he finally completes in 1938 . Indiana and his friend Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) are assigned by American businessman Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) to find the Holy Grail . They are teamed up with Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), following on from where Indiana's estranged father Henry (Sean Connery) left off before he disappeared . It transpires that Donovan and Elsa are in league with the Nazis, who captured Henry Jones in order to get Indiana to help them find the Grail . However, Indiana recovers his father's diary filled with his research, and manages to rescue him before finding the location of the Grail . Both Donovan and Elsa fall to the temptation of the Grail, while Indiana and Henry realize that their relationship with each other is more important than finding the relic . </P>

When does the second indiana jones movie take place