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Tron: Ares carries the same uneasy air that once surrounded Disney’s troubled The Lone Ranger reboot. The film arrived in theaters during a time when Disney is again facing questions about its expensive productions and uncertain direction.
Similarly, years ago, The Lone Ranger became a symbol of excess, released in the midst of a disastrous phase for the studio, which saw costly flops prompting Disney to retreat into safer bets. Soon after, both its leads, Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp, were dropped from major projects following serious controversies. At the same time, director Gore Verbinski, once the studio’s golden name behind the Pirates of the Caribbean hits, faded into the background.
Tron: Ares Disastrous Box Office Performance
Despite its heavy losses, The Lone Ranger still performed better than Tron: Ares. With a budget of more than $180 million, the new Tron film was designed to revive the franchise for a modern audience while appealing to fans of the 1982 original and the 2010 sequel, Tron: Legacy. The plan looked strong on paper, but when the numbers came in, the movie failed to connect, as the film has garnered $135.6 million so far, as per Box Office Mojo.
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Its opening was weak, and its final box office is projected to fall short of $100 million in the US, and possibly under $150 million worldwide. By comparison, Tron: Legacy, which was long regarded as an underperformer, made $170 million domestically and over $400 million worldwide.
Tron: Ares Box Office Summary
- North America – $69.4m
- International – $66.1m
- Worldwide – $135.6m
Why Tron: Ares Took So Long to Be Made
Tron: Legacy arrived in the same Disney era that saw the release of The Lone Ranger, Mars Needs Moms, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, John Carter, and Tomorrowland. All those films carried ambition and hefty budgets but failed to generate returns. Their collective collapse made a direct sequel to Tron impossible at the time. It took more than a decade of slow cult buildup before Tron: Ares was finally approved. Directed by Joachim Rønning and starring Jared Leto, whose track record at the box office remains uncertain, the film has managed only about $135.6 million worldwide so far.
The Lone Ranger’s Expensive Lesson
The Lone Ranger had faced similar challenges despite having Johnny Depp at the height of his fame. With a budget of $250 million, it earned around $260 million worldwide, resulting in a loss of close to $190 million for Disney.
The Lone Ranger Box Office Summary
- North America – $89.3m
- International – $171.2m
- Worldwide – $260.5m
Critics tore it apart, giving it a 31% score on Rotten Tomatoes while calling it a bloated and bland mess despite the efforts of its leads. Over time, it has not garnered the kind of nostalgic reevaluation that some flops receive, even as Westerns have seen a renewed life in recent years. Yet one thing survived from it, and that is the film’s grand train sequence, which Quentin Tarantino praised as one of the finest action scenes of the decade.
For Disney, both The Lone Ranger and Tron: Ares mark points on the same line – ambitious projects that failed to find an audience large enough to justify their scale, each leaving behind an expensive reminder of how risky originality can be.
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