Although Disney has had its fair share of success in 2025, and is poised to become the top-earning distributor for the year, it hasn’t been all slam dunks for the house of mouse. While Marvel prepares for a stacked 2026 that includes the first Avengers film in 7 years, and Avatar: Fire and Ash will march towards $1 billion in January, there is one sore spot in the form of Tron: Ares.
The third film in the Tron series, Tron: Ares is likely to go down as a major disappointment for Disney, which stands to lose close to $130 million on the Jared Leto vehicle. To say that Tron: Ares flopped would be an understatement, as the film couldn’t even match half of the global box office haul of its predecessor, Tron: Legacy, which many deemed to be a subpar sequel in its own right.
Tron: Ares By the Numbers and Compared to Legacy
Reports claim that Tron: Ares is going to cost Disney around $130 million in losses. As of this writing, Tron: Ares has grossed $142 million worldwide. With a split of $73 million domestic and $68 million internationally, it’s a rare Disney feature that has actually grossed more in the US than it has abroad. For a film like Tron: Ares, that’s not good at all. Deadline
Tron: Ares did not fare well with critics either, earning only 53% positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. It does have an 83% User Score, though, so audiences are enjoying the movie overall (more on that later).
By comparison, Tron: Legacy released 15 years ago and fared much better. It grossed $400 million Worldwide ($172M Domestic, $228M International) and is only really considered a financial disappointment because Disney was hoping for huge returns on the film. Surprisingly, Tron: Legacy’s Rotten Tomatoes scores are worse than Ares, with 51% of critics reviewing it positively and only 64% of users liking the movie.
The fact that Tron: Ares couldn’t match or exceed Legacy’s gross with the benefit of higher ticket prices says a lot about audience interest in the film. Yes, the moviegoing experience has changed dramatically since 2010, but there are plenty of 2025 releases that prove there is success to be had in the theater. Disney even has the highest-grossing film of the year (so far) in Lilo & Stitch, the only domestic-produced movie to cross the $1 Billion mark in 2025.
Perhaps the biggest strike against Tron: Ares, in my mind, is that it couldn’t even beat Morbius at the box office. I would be willing to concede that the Spider-Man connection and the memes worked in Morbius’ favor, but word of mouth was actively working against it. Tron: Ares, on the other hand, didn’t have that same negative buzz hovering over it.
What Went Wrong with Tron Ares?
Promoting the Film with Jeff Bridges
Even before its release, Tron: Ares seemed headed for disappointment, with buzz around the film extremely low. When the first footage debuted at D23 2024, I was in the audience and the enthusiasm around the film centered on two places: Jeff Bridges and the duo of Reznor and Ross.
Bridges has been a key player in the Tron series since the very beginning, first as the star and then reprising his role as Kevin Flynn for Legacy. His appearance in Ares was originally meant to be a surprise for fans, but apparently Disney felt that keeping it a secret might hurt the film’s appeal. So Jeff Bridges joined the marketing efforts for the film, including an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con this summer.
To match the incredibly popular Daft Punk soundtrack of Tron: Legacy, Disney sought out Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to create the music for its threequel. The Oscar-winning duo have a ton of fantastic soundtracks under their belt, and are even scoring Naughty Dog's Intergalactic, so enthusiasm was high when they were announced for Ares.
The Conundrum of Jared Leto
Notice how neither of the key selling points for Tron: Ares coming out of D23 were Jared Leto, the film’s star and a producer. After Morbius flopped, it seemed that Leto was not the blockbuster movie star capable of drawing in big numbers, and Tron: Ares’ box office once again proves that to be the case. It appeared even Disney knew that it had an uphill climb on its hands, and tried to position other elements from the film (Bridges, Reznor/Ross, the visuals) as the main draw.
While Leto isn’t solely to blame for Tron: Ares’ performance, there is a general sense that he wasn’t bringing audiences to the theater and may have actually kept them away. Morbius didn’t help his case as a leading man, and neither have reports about his alleged on-set behavior.
Do People Actually Like Tron That Much?
It was the Tron name that seemingly should have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but it feels like there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the IP’s appeal. The original Tron gained cult status in the time since its release, but Jeff Bridges even admits that it didn’t click with audiences when it first came out.
It almost felt like Tron: Legacy was Disney testing the waters to see who actually valued the Tron name, and the response was mild. So, doing another movie that doesn’t have a connection to either of its predecessors, has a completely new lead, and offers a different vibe, is a strange tactic.
Tron: Ares is Actually Not That Bad
And despite all that, I actually enjoyed Tron: Ares more than I anticipated. Visually, it matches what Tron: Legacy established as a modern interpretation of The Grid, and the effects are stunning when the digital world blends with reality. The score is completely different from Legac y’s, but I think Reznor and Ross did a great send-up of the original Tron, while still making it their own. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it’s the type of fun popcorn spectacle that I expected out of another Tron adventure.
But regardless of how anyone feels about Tron: Ares, it is going down as a failure for Disney in a year with a good amount of success. It’s a shame too, because there is a tease in Tron: Ares that would have brought things together in an interesting way. I guess we’ll have to wait another 15 years to see what’s next for The Grid.
- Release Date
- October 8, 2025
Cast
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Jared LetoAres -
Greta LeeEve Kim -
Evan PetersJulian Dillinger -
Gillian AndersonElisabeth Dillinger
WHERE TO WATCH
