Jared Leto’s ’Tron: Ares’ Trails ‘Legacy’ In So-So Box Office Debut

Despite middling reviews and star Jared Leto‘s divisive relationship with the audience, Disney’s Tron: Aresis falling slightly short of expectations in its debut weekend at the domestic box office. The movie arrives 15 years after Tron: Legacy grossed over $400 million globally but was deemed unsuccessful by Disney’s lofty standards. The new film is a soft-reboot that only brings back original star Jeff Bridges, but flips the script by being mostly set in the real world, as opposed to the digital universe of the previous two installments. Tron: Aresgrossed around $14 million on opening day, which includes the nearly $5 million it made in Thursday previews.

The film is projected to gross under $40 million over its first weekend of release, although this number could also settle at around $35 million. By comparison, Tron: Legacymade $44 million in its first weekend, while the more recent Alien: Romulus grossed $42 million, Blade Runner 2049 made $32 million, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga grossed $26 million. Disney experienced a particularly difficult period in the next half-decade, with big-budget bombs such as Mars Needs Moms, John Carter, Tomorrowland, and The Lone Rangershaking the studio to its foundation. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Tron: Legacy concluded its run with over $170 million domestically, and earned a middling 51% score on Rotten Tomatoes. That said, it has developed into something of a cult classic in the years since.

Tron: Ares is directed by Joachim Rønning, who previously worked on the mega-budget Disney films Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which made over $1 billion in combined global box office revenue. Like its predecessor, Tron: Aresearned mixed reviews, and is sitting at a 57% score on the aggregator website, where the critics’ consensus reads, “A sensory feast of vivid neon hues and a hypnotic soundtrack, Tron: Ares is gorgeous to behold but too narratively programmatic to achieve an authentically human dimension.”

‘Tron: Ares’ Is Reportedly More Expensive than ‘Tron: Legacy’

The clincher here could be its 86% audience score, and the B+ that it received from opening day crowds on CinemaScore. Both these markers bode well for its future. The movie is aimed at a new generation, with neither Garrett Hedlund nor Olivia Wilde reprising their roles from Tron: Legacy. The new movie features Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, and Gillian Anderson in supporting roles. Produced on a reported budget of $180 million, the movie is looking at around $80 million worldwide this weekend. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.