Box Office: ‘Tron’ Hits the Skids With $33.5M Opening, ‘Roofman’ No. 2 at $8 million

Disney’s reboot Tron: Ares malfunctioned badly in its box office debut, coming in well behind expectations with a domestic opening of $33.5 million from 4,000 theaters. Unless it can solve its problem quickly, it will once and for all end hopes of rebooting a franchise that began more than four decades ago when the first film became a cult classic.

Overseas — where sci-fi is an ever harder sell — Ares also disappointed with a debut of $27 million for a global start of $60.5 million. It unfurled everywhere save for China.

Heading into the weekend, the big-budget event pic had been tracking to open to $40 million to $45 million domestically (at one point, $50 million was even a possibility) against a hefty net production budget of $180 million before marketing. The threequel opens 15 years after Tron: Legacy started off in theaters with $44 million on its way to earning $409.9 million globally, not adjusted for inflation. Ares was shepherded…