Tron: Ares Poised to Cost Disney $132.7 Million

Tron: Ares isn&apost just stumbling at the box office — it&aposs face-planting in a way that has everyone arguing about why. Is it Jared Leto? The long gap since Tron: Legacy? Disney trying to reboot a niche brand for the third time and expecting Marvel-sized results? Pick your theory. The only thing everyone seems to agree on: Disney botched the rollout and the math looks ugly.

The numbers (and they aren&apost pretty)

• Budget: roughly $220 million
• Last weekend drop: down 67% week-to-week, with just $11.1 million domestic
• Current worldwide total: $103 million
• Deadline&aposs modeling: if the movie taps out around $160 million worldwide — the 'Game Over' scenario — Disney could be out about $132.7 million after ancillaries

Quick clarifier: 'after ancillaries' means Deadline is accounting for the usual downstream money (home entertainment, TV, etc.). Even with that baked in, the film still looks like a deep red line on the ledger if it stalls at that $160 million finish.

What Hollywood is saying (and it isn&apost gentle)

The chorus from reps and managers isn&apost subtle. One talent rep told Deadline:

"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&apost worked in four decades is insane."

Another longtime manager didn&apost buy the idea that the star choice would ever save this thing:

"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&apost open a movie and who has question marks around him as a person?"

And then there&aposs the blunt counterpoint from an insider who thinks the problem goes way beyond casting:

"You could have had Ryan Gosling, it wasn&apost going to work. No one asked for this reboot. If you say, 'Tron: Ares is good, we just needed a different actor,' you&aposter deluding yourself."

Harsh? Yeah. But it tracks with the reality that Tron has a small, passionate fanbase — not a guaranteed global audience — and Disney spent like it was a sure thing.

So, is the movie actually bad?

Depends who you ask. Critics are split: a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes from 141 reviews. Audiences are kinder, with an 86% score. That gap is telling. The techno-action-thriller — starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, and Jeff Bridges — plays better for fans than reviewers, which isn&apost shocking for this franchise.

Critic Chris Bumbray landed in the middle. In his review, he wrote:

"As with Tron: Legacy, Ares is a mixed bag, but once the action kicks in and the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack goes into overdrive, I found myself having a great time. While a truly great Tron movie has yet to be made (I love the original, but I wouldn&apost call it great), Tron: Ares is still an entertaining return to The Grid."

The bottom line

This is the weird part: Disney spent close to a quarter-billion dollars chasing a property that&aposs never been consistently bankable. Waiting years to follow up Legacy didn&apost help. Rebooting instead of leaning into the last film&aposs momentum didn&apost help. And whether you think Jared Leto was the wrong lead or just the convenient scapegoat, the core issue feels bigger: Tron isn&apost a four-quadrant juggernaut, and the budget pretended it was.

Unless the movie suddenly finds legs — and a 67% drop suggests the opposite — Deadline&aposs projected $132.7 million loss is where this ends. Call it a lesson in expectation management. Or, more accurately, a very expensive one.