After being released on October 10, the Joachim Rønning-directed “Tron: Ares” has only been able to come up with $103 million globally and is expected to fall short of studio expectations, according to industry reporting focused on the economics of the blockbuster outing, and it isn’t looking good for Disney.
A new report hailing from Deadline is spotlighting costs that ended up ballooning to $220 million after a previous budget reporting had the pic around the $170-180 million range, and due to audiences not coming out after an underperforming opening weekend that only saw the third installment (a soft-reboot/sequel) earning $33.2 million. Not the worst, but given the costs wasn’t what Disney was hoping for as they’ll be taking a loss of around $134.7 million.
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This all but suggests that Disney will not be looking to make “Tron 4” anytime soon or at all, for that matter. At the very least, Nine Inch Nails fans should be happy they ended up with new music from the band.
For some context, Disney had been trying for ages to make a follow-up to 2010’s “Tron: Legacy,” which ended up making $400 million. The project referred to as “Tron: Ascension” was going to have director Joseph Kosinski return (along with actors Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde), only for the production to shut down and be reworked into “Ares” years later, with Jared Leto set to lead it (Kosinski moved on to make on “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Spiderhead,” and “F1” instead). There is a good chance that some of those development costs may have folded into “Ares” alongside the production hiccups caused by the strikes and the industry impacts from COVID-19 (could explain the extra $40-50 million).
This isn’t the first time Disney has seen major losses with risky blockbuster swings, as “John Carter,” a sci-fi fantasy film based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs property (not exactly a series of books that kids of the time were really enthalled with) that took decades to be adapted to the big screen, ended up being an even bigger loss for the studio, said to be over $200 million and making history in the process.
Thankfully, this kind of box office hiccup won’t make or break a studio like Disney, considering they make billion-dollar hits all the time (their live-action “Lilo & Stich” is currently the top grossing Hollywood film of 2025 at $1.037 billion) and will likely cover any losses in 2025 with things like “Avatar: Fire & Ash” (assumed to make billions during its theatrical release).
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