In hindsight, the box office performance of Tron: Legacy in 2010 doesn’t seem all that disappointing after all. The movie, directed by Joseph Kosinski in his grand debut, was deemed unsuccessful upon release, even though it made $170 million domestically and more than $400 million worldwide. It was only after it emerged as a cult hit over the next decade that Disney decided to green-light a long-awaited third installment. But, instead of continuing the story introduced in Tron: Legacy, the studio went about soft-rebooting the franchise for the second time with Tron: Ares. The movie emerged as one of the biggest box office bombs of the year. It recently debuted on PVOD platforms, where, after a burst of success initially, it has been in a free-fall. According to FlixPatrol, it’s on the verge of dropping out of the Apple TV charts entirely.
Starring Jared Leto, whose box office struggles have been well documented, the movie also featured Greta Lee and brought back Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn. Tron: Ares was directed by Joachim Rønning, who had previously worked with Disney on the big-budget sequels Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Those movies did considerably well, which perhaps prompted the studio to trust Rønning with re-launching the Tron series.
The new movie didn’t bring back the now-retired French electronic music duo Daft Punk to compose the score, which was one of the highlights of Tron: Legacy. The musical responsibilities, instead, were given to The Social Network‘s Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who chose to work under the admittedly exciting Nine Inch Nails name for the project. While their score was acclaimed, the movie itself received mixed reviews. It’s now sitting at a 53% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “A sensory feast of vivid neon hues and a hypnotic soundtrack, Tron: Ares is gorgeous to behold but too narratively programmatic to achieve an authentically human dimension.”
Disney Is Staging a Major Comeback
The film’s cinematography was overseen by another past David Fincher collaborator, Jeff Cronenweth, who also received praise. However, the movie made just around $140 million worldwide against a reported budget of $220 million. It was the final movie in a streak of Disney underperformers this year that also included Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, Snow White, Elio, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The streak ended with Zootopia 2, which has grossed over $1 billion worldwide. The positive momentum will likely continue with this week’s Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
October 8, 2025
Runtime
119 minutes
Director
Joachim Rønning
Writers
Jesse Wigutow, Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird, Joachim Rønning, David DiGilio
Producers
Jared Leto, Jeffrey Silver, Sean Bailey, Steven Lisberger, Emma Ludbrook, Justin Springer