Following the theatrical debut of TRON Ares, it appears the film is already on track for a low opening weekend that barely covers a third of the film’s estimated cost.
TRON: Ares
TRON Ares debuted in theaters on October 10, 2025. The film follows “a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.”
Ares is played by Jared Leto. Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn. The film also stars Greta Lee as Eve Kim, Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger, Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, Gillian Anderson as Elisabeth Dillinger, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, and Sarah Desjardins.
GRAMMY Award-winning rock band Nine Inch Nails composed the film’s score. The film is directed by Joachim Rønning; produced by Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer, Leto, Emma Ludbrook, and Steven Lisberger; and executive produced by Russell Allen.
Disney has been heavily promoting the film, both online and at its various theme parks. Both versions of the Tron Lightcycle Run attraction at Magic Kingdom and Shanghai Disneyland debuted an Ares-inspired red overlay, with the usual ride soundtrack replaced by the music of Nine Inch Nails from the new film. Disney has also released a new Ares merchandise collection, themed beverages, a Lightcycle photo-op, and more.
TRON Ares Struggles at Box Office
According to new reports, TRON Ares is struggling at the box office and is currently tracking to have an opening weekend below estimates. The Hollywood Reporter first posted that the film had a domestic opening of $33.5 million from 4,000 theaters, putting it “well behind expectations” that were in the $40 million to $50 million range.
For comparison, the last film in the franchise, TRON Legacy, started off with a $44 million debut and earned over $409.9 million globally, not adjusted for inflation (considering Legacy premiered 15 years ago).
TRON Ares also debuted overseas, but it only added another $27 million to it’s box office numbers, for a final global total of roughly $60 million through Sunday, October 12.
Importantly, TRON Ares has an estimated budget of $180 million, which Variety notes does not include “the many millions the studio spent on marketing.”
Variety also quotes David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, saying that Ares “was tracking well, but interest stalled during the last 10 days and the opening dropped.”
The biggest film rivals of TRON Ares this weekend include Channing Tatum’s Roofman and Jennifer Lopez’s musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. However, Roofman also debuted on the “lower end of expectations” with only $8 million, and Kiss of the Spider Woman didn’t break $1 million over the weekend.
Other Disney Box Office Numbers
The latest run of Disney films has been something of a mixed bag at theaters. Some films, such as this summer’s release of Lilo & Stitch, were released to massive demand and record breaking box office numbers. Other films, such as the recent Marvel release Fantastic Four: First Steps, started off with a strong opening weekend before slowly fading into more moderate numbers. Finally, Pixar’s latest film, Elio, suffered the worst opening weekend ever for a Disney-Pixar film in history.
You can watch our complete nighttime ride video of TRON Lightcycle Run with the red Ares overlay below:
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