Even Ryan Gosling Wouldn’t Have Saved Tron: Ares — Why Fans Already Forgot His 9-Year-Old Flop

Quick pulse check on a very loud question: would Tron: Ares have fared any better with Ryan Gosling on the poster? Depending on who you ask, either absolutely yes (by a cool $20–$30 million on opening day), or absolutely not (maybe a front-loaded pop, then the same crash back to earth). The noise got louder thanks to one blunt take from a power agent, and it cuts to something bigger about how star power does and doesn’t work right now.

The blunt industry read on Tron: Ares

"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."

That’s the quote making the rounds. Fans, predictably, split into camps. Some swear Gosling would have front-loaded the movie by tens of millions on day one. Others argue that even if he did goose the opening, that doesn’t fix word of mouth, legs, or, you know, the actual movie. The harsher crowd says Ares whiffs on most of the basics a modern blockbuster needs, so swapping leads wouldn’t change the long game.

Is Ryan Gosling still a box office draw?

Here’s the uncomfortable part: Hollywood is stuffed with A-listers who only want to sign on if the job comes with a capital-L Lead, and we’re drowning in shiny-but-creative-meh projects as a result. From Jacob Elordi to Gosling, plenty of big names have been fronting expensive bets that struggle to convert into sturdy ticket sales.

Gosling’s recent wins are clear but specific: La La Land and Barbie hit big. Outside of those, the story gets murkier. The Fall Guy didn’t light the domestic box office on fire, and The Gray Man was a streaming splash, not a theatrical proof of bankability. If you’re remembering the run from Blue Valentine, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Ides of March, Drive, and The Place Beyond the Pines, you’re not wrong — the early 2010s were his sweet spot. A lot of the executive-level faith in him feels like the afterglow of that stretch.

The Blade Runner 2049 case study

If you want a reality check on star power vs. audience appetite, Blade Runner 2049 is the cautionary tale. It did almost everything the pedigreed way — and still didn’t catch fire.

"It’s a mystery. All the indexes and marketing tools they were using predicted that it would be a success. The film was acclaimed by critics. So everyone expected the first weekend’s results to be impressive, and they were shocked. They still don’t understand."

That’s Denis Villeneuve on the film’s commercial faceplant, even with Roger Deakins shooting, Hans Zimmer scoring, Villeneuve directing, and Harrison Ford returning. The simplest explanation? People just weren’t craving a new Blade Runner in the same way they were hungry for, say, Top Gun: Maverick — which had two huge advantages: actual demand and a once-in-a-generation movie star in Tom Cruise guiding the ship.

2049 also wasn’t kneecapped by a brutal release-date dogpile. It had strong reviews, bullish projections, and still disappointed. Maybe the 163-minute runtime and glacial pacing didn’t help — Ridley Scott has floated that theory — but even the pros still shrug at the exact why.

• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Screenplay: Hampton Fancher, Michael Green
• Based on: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• Preceded by: Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982)
• Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto
• Runtime: 163 minutes
• Oscars: 5 nominations, 2 wins
• Budget: $150–185 million
• Box office: $276.6 million
• Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
• IMDb: 8

So, would Gosling have 'saved' Tron: Ares?

Short answer: probably not. Could he have nudged the opening? Maybe. But the bigger picture hasn’t changed — audiences are picky about which legacy titles they’ll rally behind, and no single actor can fix a movie people don’t really want. That’s not a Gosling thing; that’s the market right now.

Sound off

Curious what you thought of Jared Leto’s turn in Tron: Ares. Do you buy the idea that swapping in Gosling would have markedly changed the outcome, or just the first 24 hours?

Tron: Ares is now playing in theaters worldwide.

Blade Runner 2049 is available to buy or rent on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango At Home.