The film premiered in the United States on May 23, 1984. Thirteen million people happily were waiting for Indy's new venture in its first week; more than had attended Return of the Jedi in the same period the previous summer. What none expected were children fleeing out of the theaters crying and parents complaining for great violence. Moral groups complained that the horrors on show were too strong for its PG rating.
Spielberg, at first tried to defend the film by saying that "the picture is not called Temple of Roses, it is called Temple of Doom. There are parts of this film that are too intense for younger children but this is a fantasy adventure. It is the kind of violence that does not really happen and can not be perpetuated by people leaving the cinema and performing those tricks on their friends at home". Shortly, he admitted on live TV that the temple sequences, in particularly, were unsuitable for children under the age of ten. In the years to come he would admit that there was nothing personal of him in the picture and state, "Indy II will not go down in my pantheon as one of my prouder moments."
