October 10 kicked off one of the bigger box office weekends in a while. Tron: Ares, Kiss of the Spider Woman, After the Hunt, and Roofman all came out that day. There was something for almost anyone! All that was missing was a romcom and a kids movie and we would have been dangerously close to a pre-2020 box office weekend. Despite all of the hype surrounding each of these movies, none of them did particularly well at the box office. Tron: Ares came out victorious, though, with a $33.5 million domestic total. The only problem is that Ares cost $220 million to make, and as of October 20’s box office tallies, it’s only made just over $100 million. When you factor in expenses, it’s projected to have a $132 million loss, which is a pretty big bomb for a movie with a big budget and an engaged fanbase.
Big losses: Deadline has learned from sources that the third chapter in the 43-year-old video game matrix protagonist story actually cost $220 million net, not the reported $170 million-$180 million that was floated out there. This means that the Jared Leto-Greta Lee-Jeff Bridges light cycle movie is headed for a $132.7 million loss after all ancillaries, that is if its final global gross smacks dead into a wall at $160 million. The Joachim Rønning-directed movie counted through its second weekend as of Sunday a running worldwide cume of $103 million, with a 67% second-weekend domestic plummet of $11.1M.
At a $160 million box office threshold, Tron: Ares triggers $72.2 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, $37.6M in global home entertainment, close to a $100M in global home television, with an extra $5 million from airlines for a total of $214.8M in revenues. Put this up against the $220 million net production cost shot with Vancouver, BC tax credits, a $102.5M global P&A spend with stunts at San Diego Comic-Con, touring light cycles, a laser light Nine Inch Nails laser-light concert at the Los Angeles premiere that closed down Hollywood Boulevard, $10.8M in others costs and $14.2M in residuals, which gets you to total costs of $347.5M. That gets us to a $132.7 million loss.
Jared Leto’s fault? Exclaimed one astute talent rep on why it was game over for Tron: Ares at this October’s box office: “There was no specific vision, to be honest. The idea that Disney would spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a Jared Leto film that is a franchise that hasn’t worked in four decades is insane.” Many would like to throw tomatoes at Disney for the casting, that there’s zero audience attraction for the likes of Leto, Lee, etc. First, despite tabloid headlines about Leto, such noise doesn’t factor into moviegoers’ decisions to buy or not buy a ticket; it could be argued most were not even in the know of the June Air Mail exposé on his alleged behavior. Tron is the star at the end of the day. Had the fan faithful declared it was a better movie than the last, perhaps we’d see an expansion of the audience and some box office momentum, rather than falling short of its $40M domestic opening projection with $33.2M.
Generationally speaking: Moviegoers gave Tron: Ares the same CinemaScore as Tron: Legacy, a B+, which indicates there was no reason to have any FOMO. Definite recommend was an OK 57% on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak; a score in the mid-60s- to 70-percentile range indicates a hopeful tentpole has electricity. Tron: Ares was older skewing with 70% over age 25, indicating both the Gen-X and Legacy millennial fans showed up. However, as far as making new fans, Tron: Ares had little appeal from the 13-17 crowd who showed up at 6%. While the core Gen X Tron fans gave Tron: Ares a very high 71%+ definite recommend, the 18-24 set gave it the lowest of any demographic at 44%. Not good.
There are a couple of things to note here. The first one is that while it did not do as well as projected and will lose the studio a sh-tload of money, Tron: Ares still won the box office during its opening week. The second-highest film was Roofman, which only made eight million. The second factor is that, as Deadline points out, the first Tron movie also did terribly at the box office and became more of a cult favorite. That’s why Tron: Legacy did so well. Fans were excited for a long-awaited sequel. It also came out in 2010, when people were actively still seeing movies in theaters.
Mr. Rosie saw Tron: Ares with some friends. He said it was a fun ride with an awesome soundtrack. When you look at the big picture, I think T:A’s performance is just another indication that theater-going as we know it is in trouble. People are looking for culturally-moving moments that give them a reason to spend the money to see a movie outside of the comfort of their own home. I bet Ares will do well in streaming. I don’t know what the entertainment world will look like a few years from now, but I would not be surprised if they make a fourth installment that goes straight to Disney+.
Photos credit: Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon, IMAGO/Gartner/Avalon