The latest chapter in the Tron franchise experienced a rough opening weekend. Tron: Ares took in $33 million domestically, despite being released in 4,000 theaters nationwide. The movie also failed to woo foreign audiences, earning only $27 million abroad.
The $60 million opening weekend comes against a movie budget of $180 million, underlining that Tron: Ares didn’t even recoup its production expenses. The $180 million price tag reportedly does not include the marketing budget for the movie, reducing its profit even further.
The special effects spectacle performed well on large screens such as 3D and IMAX, and was rated well overall by audiences, gaining an 87% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it failed to gain a new audience outside of fans of the franchise, even among its target demographics. It was projected to make almost $50 million domestically, and there was a lot of optimism about the foreign box office.
Despite doing so dismally, Tron: Ares blew away the competition. The next highest-grossing new release this past weekend was Channing Tatum’s Roofman, which only took in $8 million from being on 3,340 screens nationally. The third, Kiss of the Spider Woman, starring Jennifer Lopez, didn’t even break $1 million. Overall, it was just a bad weekend for new releases.
If there is anything that will save Tron: Ares from obscurity, it will be the loyalty of franchise fans. The other Tron movies didn’t do well at the box office either, but the 1982 original collected such a cult following that it helped propel Tron: Legacy when it came out in 2010.
The latest installment has all the things that make a Tron movie: incredible special effects, a deep philosophical question about man versus machine, a killer soundtrack by a notable electronic composer (in this case, Nine Inch Nails), and Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn. The series has endured and been able to generate sequels because it tells a good story with a lot of depth, one that keeps fans coming back for more, even 43 years after the original came out in theaters. The audience response to Tron: Ares indicates that despite not performing at the box office, the movie will take its place in the franchise with aplomb.
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