Jared Leto’s Tron: Ares Just Joined Hollywood’s Most Embarrassing Box Office Record

October was supposed to be a solid month for theaters. It wasn’t. Domestic box office tapped out around $425 million, which is about as grim as it gets for this time of year. The last time October looked this weak was 1997, when the month did $385 million — roughly $779 million in today’s dollars. And before you say, well, what about 2020, yes, that October was bleak too, but that was when a lot of theaters were still closed. This time, the screens were open — the audiences just didn’t show.

Tron: Ares was meant to save the month. It didn’t.

Disney positioned Jared Leto’s Tron: Ares as one of October’s big swings, and on paper it had the goods: a recognizable brand, a glossy sci-fi look, a stacked cast, and Disney’s marketing muscle. It opened October 10 and, after three weeks, has pulled in a little over $65 million in the U.S. (per The Numbers). That’s not a faceplant, but it’s nowhere near the tentpole lift October needed.

Quick snapshot: Tron: Ares comes from director Joachim Ronning and runs 1 hour 59 minutes. The cast includes Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. The Rotten Tomatoes score is sitting at 53% so far. All respectable, none of it translating into must-see momentum.

And Ares wasn’t alone in underdelivering. Other October titles feeling the chill: Black Phone 2 and Blue Moon.

Yes, it hit a milestone. No, that doesn’t fix the math.

Worldwide, Tron: Ares just crossed $126 million — a little over $65 million domestic and around $60 million from overseas — which makes it the 27th movie of the year to clear $125 million globally. That’s a nice line for the resume and proof there’s an audience out there, somewhere.

• Tron: Ares — $126 million worldwide
• Karate Kid: Legends — $117 million
• The Accountant 2 — $103 million
• The Naked Gun — $102 million
• Black Phone 2 — $88 million
• The Monkey — $68 million

But here’s where reality bites: Ares reportedly cost about $180 million to make. With marketing and the theater split, you typically want roughly 2.5x the production budget to break even, which puts the safe zone around $450 million. Right now, the film isn’t sniffing that number. Unless something changes fast, it’s likely to wind up short of its production cost.

Jeff Bridges isn’t panicking

Jeff Bridges returned as Kevin Flynn in Ares — his first big-screen outing since some major health challenges — and he’s taking the long view. In an interview with EW, he downplayed opening weekend panic and brought up a famous example of a movie that was crucified at first and later reappraised.

I don’t really know about that. It’s interesting, though, how movies are received at opening weekend. I remember Heaven’s Gate was considered, you know, very disappointing or a flop, but nowadays it’s considered kind of a masterpiece... And next month there’s gonna be a screening of Heaven’s Gate that everyone’s invited to. And it’s the director’s cut, you know, Michael Cimino — it’s gonna be great. So it’s interesting how things can grow on you. Even as an individual, often, I have not liked a movie. And then a couple weeks or months later, I’ll see it again. I’ll say, "What was I thinking?" [Laughs] As the Dude would say, "That’s just like your opinion, man."

His point: the first weekend isn’t destiny, and sometimes a movie finds its audience later. Fair enough. That said, in business terms, Tron: Ares needs more than patience — it needs a sharp second wind.

Where this leaves October (and Ares)

Bottom line: October 2025 lands as one of Hollywood’s worst in nearly three decades, and Tron: Ares — the month’s would-be anchor — couldn’t steady it. The film has eked out a global milestone and outgrossed a handful of other titles this year, but the budget-versus-revenue gap is still wide.

Could Tron: Ares grow into a cult favorite down the road the way Bridges suggests? Maybe. In the meantime, it’s playing in theaters worldwide if you want to see what all the fuss — or lack thereof — is about.