Did Jared Leto Sink Tron: Ares? Insiders Doubt His Box Office Clout

The Tron series is one of those Hollywood puzzles: not hated, not beloved, just kind of... there. And yet Disney keeps circling back to it. The latest swing, 'Tron: Ares', stumbled out of the gate with a $33.5 million opening on a movie that cost at least $150 million. Not great math.

Quick refresher: the Tron track record

• The original 'Tron' (1982) underperformed. Cult status? Sure. Box office? Nope.
• 'Tron: Legacy' (2010) pulled in about $170 million in the U.S., but it basically only broke even after Disney hyped it like it was their next 'Avatar' and spent accordingly. The hook then was the upgraded visuals, with newcomer Garrett Hedlund fronting and Jeff Bridges returning for fans of the original.
• Now 'Tron: Ares' is attempt number three, and that opening number says the audience still isn’t showing up.

So what went wrong this time?

The Hollywood Reporter poses two possibilities: maybe nobody really wanted another Tron movie, or maybe the choice of star actively turned people off. In an era where everyone keeps saying movie stars don’t open movies anymore and IP is supposed to do the heavy lifting, THR wonders if the wrong name on the poster can still sink the boat.

How Jared Leto ended up driving the disc

Here’s the backstory. Disney had an early script that would have picked up right after 'Legacy', with Ares as a supporting character. The studio shelved it. Jared Leto, a Tron fan, pushed hard to get the project going anyway and signed on as a producer. That effort got the attention of Sean Bailey, who had just taken over Disney’s live-action division in 2010 and helped champion the movie. Leto had built a lot of goodwill off his dramatic work — 'Dallas Buyers Club' (which won him an Oscar) and 'Requiem for a Dream' — and Bailey handed him a producer credit. The plan shifted: instead of a direct 'Legacy' follow-up, the movie was retooled to put Ares at the center, with Leto as the star.

The star-power problem nobody can agree on

Here’s where it gets messy. Leto’s dramatic resume is legit, but his big franchise runs haven’t played well. His take on the Joker in 'Suicide Squad' drew plenty of criticism, and the on-set method-acting stories did not help his image. Accusations of inappropriate behavior surfaced and stuck around in the discourse. Then came 'Morbius', which got memed to death and fizzled at the box office. None of that screams: trust me with your $150 million sci-fi sequel.

"In a world where Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch are having a hard time getting lead roles, why would you even go to a person who can’t open a movie and who has question marks around him as a person?"

But there’s also the counterpoint: maybe no star was going to rescue this thing. Tron’s fanbase is small and loyal, but not exactly a stampede.

"You could have had Ryan Gosling, it wasn’t going to work. No one asked for this reboot. If you say, 'Tron: Ares is good, we just needed a different actor,' you’re deluding yourself."

Where this leaves Tron

Honestly, both ideas can be true at once. If the audience isn’t hungry for a third Tron movie, that’s a tough hill to climb even with perfect casting. Put a polarizing lead on top of that and the hill gets steeper. Either way, the result is the same: a pricey swing that didn’t connect, again.