Despite its woeful underperformance at the box office, Tron: Ares has just raced past one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. At the time of writing, Tron: Ares has accumulated $57.7 million at the domestic box office and $48 million internationally for a global total of just over $106 million. This $57.7 million in American markets is just enough to push it past Godzilla Minus One, which grossed $57.1 million and is considered to be one of the best entries in the sci-fi genre, ever. It’s also pushed back Vin Diesel’s Chronicles of Riddick and Alien 3 in the past few days.
Despite it’s climbing past several notable classics since its debut, Tron: Ares is still poised to be one of the biggest failures of the year at the box office. The film opened with only $33 million domestically, which is unlikely to be sufficient for a major sci-fi epic boasting a nearly $200 million budget. Even now, its $106 million total is still around $250 million short of its break-even point, and heading into its third week in theaters, things are going downhill fast. It dropped an abysmal 67% between its first weekend and second in theaters.
Disney tried to bring back franchise veterans like Jeff Bridges to put people in theater seats, but the truth is Jared Leto isn’t capable of leading a massive franchise anymore. He may have been once, but he’s proven time and time again in the last few years that his leading performance and marketing draw doesn’t justify being a big-budget hopeful franchise-starter. Greta Lee, Even Peters, Cameron Monaghan, and Jodie Turner-Smith also star in Tron: Ares.
