This Sci-Fi Action Movie Is Costing Disney Over $100 Million

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Despite a generally successful 2025 and being on track to be the year’s highest-grossing distributor, Disney has faced some challenges. While Marvel is gearing up for a strong 2026 with a new Avengers movie – the first in seven years – and Avatar: Fire and Ash is expected to reach $1 billion in January, the film Tron: Ares has underperformed.

Disney is expected to lose around $130 million on its new film, Tron: Ares. The movie has been a significant disappointment, earning far less at the box office than the previous Tron film, Tron: Legacy, which itself wasn’t considered a big success.

Tron: Ares By the Numbers and Compared to Legacy

According to reports, Disney is expected to lose approximately $130 million on the film Tron: Ares. While the movie has earned $142 million globally – $73 million in the US and $68 million internationally – it’s unusual for a Disney film to perform better domestically than overseas. This is considered a poor result for a movie like Tron: Ares. (Source: Deadline)

Critics weren’t impressed with Tron: Ares, giving it a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, audiences seem to like it, with an 83% score, and we’ll discuss why a bit later.

Compared to that, Tron: Legacy, which came out 15 years ago, performed significantly better, earning $400 million globally ($172 million in the US and $228 million internationally). It’s often seen as a letdown financially only because Disney had very high expectations for its profits. Interestingly, Tron: Legacy actually has lower ratings on Rotten Tomatoes than Ares – critics gave it a 51% positive rating, and only 64% of viewers enjoyed it.

Despite higher ticket prices, Tron: Ares didn’t perform as well at the box office as the original Legacy film, which suggests audiences weren’t as interested. While going to the movies is different now than it was in 2010, other films released this year have proven that success is still possible in theaters. In fact, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is currently the highest-grossing film of the year and the only domestic film to earn over $1 billion so far.

What really hurts Tron: Ares, for me, is that it performed worse at the box office than Morbius. While Morbius benefited from its connection to Spider-Man and all the memes, it actually had bad word of mouth. Tron: Ares didn’t have that problem – people weren’t actively discouraging others from seeing it, yet it still failed to succeed.

What Went Wrong with Tron Ares?

Promoting the Film with Jeff Bridges

Before Tron: Ares even came out, it didn’t seem to be generating much excitement. I was at D23 2024 when the first clips were shown, and the main things people were excited about were Jeff Bridges’ involvement and the film’s score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Jeff Bridges has been central to the Tron films from the start, first starring in the original and then returning as Kevin Flynn in Legacy. While his role in the new film, Ares, was initially intended as a secret reveal for fans, Disney decided that publicizing his involvement would actually help the movie’s success. As a result, Bridges participated in promoting the film, including an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con this summer.

Following the huge success of the Daft Punk soundtrack for Tron: Legacy, Disney asked Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails to compose the music for the third film in the series. The pair, who have won an Oscar and have a strong track record of creating excellent soundtracks – including work for the game Intergalactic – generated a lot of excitement when they signed on to work on Ares.

The Conundrum of Jared Leto

It’s interesting that Disney focused on aspects of Tron: Ares other than its star, Jared Leto, in their promotion. After his previous film, Morbius, didn’t perform well, it became clear Leto wasn’t a guaranteed box office success, and Tron: Ares‘ results seem to confirm that. Disney appeared to recognize this challenge and instead highlighted the film’s other strengths, like the return of Jeff Bridges, the music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and the visual effects.

Although Jared Leto isn’t the only reason Tron: Ares didn’t do well, many believe he wasn’t a big enough draw for audiences and might have even discouraged people from seeing it. His previous film, Morbius, didn’t establish him as a reliable lead actor, and reports of difficult behavior on set haven’t helped his reputation either.

Do People Actually Like Tron That Much?

The name ‘Tron’ should have been a major draw, but it seems like the filmmakers didn’t quite understand what made the original movie so appealing. While the first Tron film eventually became a cult classic, even Jeff Bridges has said it didn’t initially connect with viewers.

As a fan, it felt like Disney was cautiously testing the waters with Tron: Legacy – seeing how much interest there really was in the Tron universe, and the reaction wasn’t huge. That’s why this new approach – making a movie completely separate from the previous two, with a brand new lead character, and a totally different feel – seems really odd to me.

Tron: Ares is Actually Not That Bad

Surprisingly, I enjoyed Tron: Ares quite a bit. It looks fantastic, continuing the sleek, modern style of Tron: Legacy, and the visual effects – especially when the digital and real worlds combine – are really impressive. The music is different from Legacy, but Trent Reznor and Ross did a great job referencing the original Tron while still making it their own. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s exactly the kind of exciting, fun movie I was hoping for from a new Tron film.

No matter people’s opinions on Tron: Ares, it’s unfortunately going to be considered a box office disappointment for Disney, despite the studio having a generally successful year. It’s a shame because the movie hints at a compelling future direction for the series. It looks like fans will have to wait a long time – possibly another 15 years – to find out what happens next in The Grid.

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2025-11-30 00:05