Ares flops at the box office

The weekend was neither too good nor too bad for Disney at the box office, as the expensive and flashy “Tron: Ares” flopped. Although these things are often viewed as marathons rather than springs, it’s pretty clear after the blockbuster’s theatrical premiere that this is going to be a profound disappointment and, in all likelihood, a huge money loser for the Mouse House. It’s bad, and it could get much worse before it’s all said and done.

“Tron: Ares,” directed by Joachim Rönning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), grossed just $33.2 million in its opening weekend domestically. That was far Below pre-release estimates, which had “Ares” opening in the $40 million range. Granted, that’s still a low-profile debut for a franchise film that cost $180 million to produce (and that’s before marketing costs). To make matters worse, the latest “Tron” film also had a quiet opening overseas, earning $26.7 million for a global start of $59.9 million. That is, in a word, bad.

So, what went wrong here? How did Disney miscalculate the return of “Tron” after 15 years? Is there any hope for the film on a longer schedule? We’ll take a look at the biggest reasons why “Tron: Ares” failed at the box office during its opening weekend. Let’s get into it.

until It dates back to the original “Tron” in 1982this franchise has always been an item of special interest. The other problem is that Disney tends to wait too long between installments, so it never builds a loyal, generational fan base for the property. In this case, Ares largely had to stand on his feet, relying on good buzz to fill the seats. This did not happen.

As of this writing, “Ares” has a critical approval rating of 55%. Rotten tomatoes. Although the audience score is better (currently at 87%), that’s not enough to move the needle for average moviegoers. Even with a decent B+ CinemaScore, these numbers represent modern-day “wait for streaming” numbers. The standard for people to leave the house and pay folding money for a ticket at the cinema is higher than ever, and this clearly does not meet that requirement for most people. The exciting ‘you need to see it to believe it’ word of mouth may have got more people off the couch. But that’s not what happened here.

In his review of “Tron: Ares” for /FilmWhitney Sebold described it as a “reckless sequel”. Disney is now facing a massive failure, perhaps rivaled only by Disney The colossal mistake that was “Snow White” ($205 million worldwide / $250 million budget) after the dust settles. As of now, there’s little reason to believe that Ares will rebound in the coming weeks, with a finish in the range of $200 million to $300 million in the cards, depending on how that turns out.

While dazzling visuals can be a driver for certain films, like Apple’s “F1” or Reckoning’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final,” they still have to offer more than just style to hold viewers’ interest, especially when it comes to a film’s success after its opening weekend. When it comes “Tron: Ares,” Disney really went for style over substance in the trailers. However, the method only goes so far. Yes, something that may have looked great was sold to the masses, but what else did it accomplish? This question has not been answered well enough.

Sure, Jeff Bridges had a brief cameo as Flynn from the original “Tron” movie, but for the vast majority of potential ticket buyers out there, that means almost nothing. Nine Inch Nails also did the soundtrack for the song “Ares”, Which was actually a pretty cool idea and caused some buzz. But a good outcome is more of a value-added item and not something that will usefully get people out of the house. Individual mileage will always vary, but for fans, there just wasn’t enough in terms of selling points in the marketing to make “Ares” matter.

“Tron: Legacy” was released in theaters in 2010 and grossed $400 million against a budget of $170 million. It was barely It was a huge hit, which is why Disney is in no rush to produce a direct sequel, even though the studio still very much wants to turn this into a huge franchise. More importantly, 57% of the money for this film – $228 million to be exact – came from overseas markets. This split actually looks very different for Ares, where 55% of its sales come from North American audiences. Nowadays, Hollywood blockbusters like this can’t rely on international audiences to bail them out anymore.

In the pandemic era, it has been difficult to get a strong total overseas. this A big reason why superhero movies struggle at the box office late. From the war between Russia and Ukraine to countries increasingly favoring domestic titles, a growing number of factors have seen Hollywood hits like “Ares” decline at the overseas box office since 2020.

China, in particular, is one of the most important factors. It is, along with the United States, one of the largest moviegoing countries in the world, and that has meant big revenues for Hollywood. But in recent years, It has become clear that Hollywood can no longer rely on China. The country shows fewer American films, relying instead on local films, such as… Huge hit for “Ne Zha 2” ($2.1 billion). Another time, Chinese ticket sales might have saved “Ares.” But that is unlikely to be the case this time.

There are very few movie stars these days who, just by being in a particular movie, can get people to show up in theatres. Tom Cruise is one of them. Dwayne Johnson can often be, Although The Smashing Machine failed at the box office He proved that even The Rock’s star power only goes so far. Really, star power alone generally can’t turn a movie into a hit anymore, but it can help. However, one problem with “Tron: Ares” is that it didn’t have a single meaningful “butts in seats” movie star, even though it had a great cast overall.

Case in point: The cast of “Ares” includes Oscar nominee Greta Lee (“Past Lives”), Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”), Evan Peters (“American Horror Story”), Jodie Turner-Smith (“Queen & Slim”), and Cameron Monaghan (“Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order”), and the aforementioned Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges. At the top of the call-up list was Oscar winner Jared Leto, an actor who increasingly looks like a bane on the film’s financial prospects.

From the huge Marvel flop that was “Morbius” ($167 million worldwide) To his inclusion in the disastrous Haunted Mansion ($117 million worldwide/$150 million budget), Leto’s failures in recent years have been many, with almost no successes to counter them. So, as much as Leto is seen as a celebrity, the public has not indicated that they care about him in any way. If anything, it appears to be a deterrent at this point (and that’s without getting into the misconduct allegations against him). To say the least, it didn’t help this film’s cause. This is unfortunate in light of the impressive and diverse cast that Ronning and Disney have assembled for this film. They deserved much better.

Perhaps above all else, the hard truth of the matter is that people, by and large, don’t care about “Tron” as a franchise. a period. The original 1982 sci-fi film was ambitious and ahead of its timebut it also didn’t meet Disney’s expectations when it arrived in theaters. Decades later, the studio thought they could turn the idea into a hit movie. Legacy made enough money to avoid becoming a disaster, but by 2010 standards, it was far from a major success.

Instead, the combination of Daft Punk and stunning IMAX visuals allowed “Legacy” to tour at a time when blockbusters were thriving on the big screen. But that was then, and this is now. Frankly, Disney got away with this problem when it came to “Legacy.” But this led the studio to believe that the “Tron” property could be the next big thing. Instead, the Ares story is now a cautionary tale, no different “Blade Runner 2049,” which also overestimated its potential audience On his way to disaster (and co-starring Leto, no less).

Moreover, viewers are increasingly turning their backs on 1980s nostalgia. These moviegoers have aged out of care and are content to stay at home. What we see instead is nostalgia for the early 2000s, as evidenced by ‘Lilo & Stitch’ remake grosses $1 billion Even “A Minecraft Movie” won the day. This is just another example of the thinking that 15 years ago succeeded in polluting the waters of today. Disney and Hollywood in general need to learn to let the past die to avoid future mistakes like this.

“Tron: Ares” is now in theaters.