The Walt Disney Company is usually quite alergic to releasing flops, but that doesn’t mean that they’re immune to it. This year alone, despite releasing Lilo & Stitch to the tune of over a billion dollars at the global box office, Disney also released the beleaguered live-action remake of Snow White, which capped out at $205 million globally, but a dissapointing $87 million in the US. The lumps didn’t end there though, as two of the studio’s three Marvel releases failed to match expectations; and now they’ve just released a sci-fi reboot that has entered the league of notorious Hollywood flops, losing them over a hundred million dollars.
This October’s TRON: Ares marked just the third feature film in the sci-fi franchise, but it contributed once again to the long-running tradition of the series by doing poorly with audiences and failing to reach expectations. According to a new report from Deadline, the cost to produce and promote TRON: Ares are really adding up now, especially as the film continues to flounder at the global box office. As the trade reports, the losses for the series have seemingly reached the nine figure range.
TRON: Ares Bombing at the Box Office Isn’t the End of the Franchise
Image via Disney
As of this writing, TRON: Ares has brought in $54 million at the domestic box office and has a global total of $102 million. In the US, the film lands directly between the John Wick spinoff movie, Ballerina, with $58 million and Paramount’s revival of The Naked Gun with $52 million. Considering the cost of the Jared Leto-lead sequel, which the trade reports was actually in the neighborhood of $220 million, as a result, this haul from audiences is far from an ideal one.
The cost for the sequel doesn’t end there though as promotion and advertising for TRON: Ares totaled well over $100 million as well. Tack on additional costs related to the production and promotion, plus residuals for the participants, and the film reportedly stands to lose $132.7 million, assuming their math stands the test of time. In its second weekend, TRON: Ares tumbled 66% from its opening, meaning the film has likely hit a wall with domestic audiences and its final totals won’t get much higher.
Despite all of this, there’s a key factor surrounding TRON that makes this box office failure an easier pill to swallow for Disney: the Tron Lightcycle Power Run rides at their theme parks. Two versions of this ride exist, one at Shanghai Disneyland and the other at Walt Disney World in Orlando, and both remain popular attractions in the parks. As of this writing, the ride in Florida currently has the highest wait time for any ride at Walt Disney World, clocking in at 70 minutes with no early reservation slots for later available. Suffice to say, Disney can easily take a flyer on a feature film losing them money when in the end it results in increased interest to the real money maker: the theme parks.
What’s unclear at this point is where the TRON franchise goes from here as far as non-theme park rides are concerned. With the three movies in the series ranging from “box office dissapointment” to “box office failure” it seems likely that TRON may sit out any future big screen adventures for the time being. That said, Disney seldom lets any of their franchises stay dormant for long, especially if it helps gain interest in popular attractions at their theme parks.