{"id":211766,"date":"2025-10-14T07:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T07:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211766\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T07:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T07:14:09","slug":"ares-didnt-become-a-mainstream-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211766\/","title":{"rendered":"Ares’ Didn’t Become a Mainstream Hit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Disney<\/a> film<\/a> chief Sean Bailey\u2019s first movie to be released upon taking the job at Disney was \u201cTron<\/a>: Legacy,\u201d a big swing based on the long-dormant cult property \u201cTron\u201d from 1982. That film, about a human who gets sucked into a computer, was a pioneer for digital effects and became a cult favorite<\/a> after its initial release, and \u201cLegacy\u201d aimed to be just as daring in its use of CGI, motion capture, and 3D, ultimately bringing in $400 million worldwide in 2010.<\/p>\n

Perhaps fittingly, one of Bailey\u2019s last project upon his exit last year<\/a> is \u201cTron: Ares<\/a>,\u201d which opened this weekend. But with underwhelming reviews, a tenuous connection to the original beyond a brief Jeff Bridges appearance, and a story that takes the \u201cTron\u201d light cycles into the real world rather than try and innovate further into the digital realm, are we surprised that this sequel to a niche, cult hit underwhelmed audiences? <\/p>\n

\"'F1:<\/a> \"David<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cTron: Ares\u201d made $33.5 million domestic and $60.5 million globally. It was an under-performance after it was expected the Jared Leto-starring film would make between $40-45 million at home and between $80-90 million worldwide. \u201cTron: Legacy<\/a>\u201d managed to open to $44 million back in 2010 which, with inflation, would be closer to $65 million today.<\/p>\n

Granted, a lot of things underwhelmed at the box office<\/a> this weekend. Paramount and Miramax\u2019s \u201cRoofman\u201d opened to just $8 million domestic. \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d brought in $6.6 million, a modest total but not the number you want to see<\/a> if it were to be a \u201cSinners\u201d level hit, and Roadside Attractions\u2019 \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman\u201d with Jennifer Lopez did not even crack the Top 10 and made a dismal $918K in its opening.<\/p>\n

But the \u201cTron: Ares\u201d number is especially dispiriting. \u201cTron: Ares\u201d is the latest in a string of not=terrible but-not-great Disney releases in 2025, the exception being \u201cLilo & Stitch.\u201d Both of the summer Marvel titles \u201cFantastic Four: First Steps\u201d and \u201cThunderbolts*\u201d are miles away from the high water mark of something like \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine.\u201d \u201cSnow White\u201d struck out early in the year, and \u201cElio\u201d is one of the lowest-grossing Pixar movies ever<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Again, tentpoles need to tentpole if the box office wants to see growth on 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cAres\u201d has a production budget of $180 million, so this will surely be headed to a loss. IMAX screenings accounted for $6.6 million of its domestic haul, or 20 percent of the total, so it will take an even bigger blow long term if it loses some of those premium screens. Audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore, which is fine, but doesn\u2019t necessarily inspire great word of mouth, especially when we\u2019re talking about what you would hope would attract a cult audience.<\/p>\n

What was one of the bigger selling points for \u201cTron: Ares\u201d? Not strictly its visuals, its cast, or its plot, but instead its industrial rock score from Nine Inch Nails, the first not billed to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross but instead to their band. Disney turned to NIN after the composers for the much ballyhooed \u201cLegacy\u201d score, Daft Punk, have long since broken up. I like \u201cHead Like a Hole\u201d as much as the next guy, but that alone does not a mainstream hit make.<\/p>\n

Up next for Disney, 20th Century Studios is releasing the music biopic and awards-hopeful \u201cSpringsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,\u201d it has another sequel\/spinoff in \u201cPredator: Badlands,\u201d the animated \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d and \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash.\u201d If any of those underperform the way \u201cTron: Ares\u201d did, then we have some problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Disney film chief Sean Bailey\u2019s first movie to be released upon taking the job at Disney was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6471,49,48,3494,75,1554,4707,4937,61975],"class_list":["post-211766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-box-office","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-disney","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-tron","tag-tron-ares","tag-tron-legacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}