Nobody really asked for another Tron movie. Well, nobody, except Jared Leto. And that’s probably where it all went wrong for the sci-fi blockbuster. Disney’s Tron: Ares was supposed to revive the neon-lit sci-fi franchise about the Flynns and The Grid. Instead, it became a $200 million Jared Leto project that crashed harder than a Light Cycle in the film’s fictional arena.
Over the weekend, Tron: Ares limped into theatres with a miserable $33 million domestic debut, nearly $11 million short of projections. Add another $27 million overseas, and you’ve got a worldwide total of $60.2 million against a production budget north of $180 million. You don’t need to be Kevin Flynn to see that’s a catastrophic system error. “Sources say Tron will likely retire from the big screen,” The Hollywood Reporter noted in a recent article. And it’s probably a good idea now.
The tragedy here is that Tron wasn’t supposed to be about Leto’s character at all. Screenwriter Jesse Wigutow admitted, “The first iteration of the [Ares] script was a different movie, but it had a character named Ares.” That version was shelved until Leto showed up. Determined to make his version of the film happen, Tron: Ares changed quite a bit. By 2017, thanks to then-Disney live-action chief Sean Bailey, Leto had muscled his way into the producer’s chair and reworked the story so Ares actually became the lead. Suddenly, the Tron universe wasn’t about the Flynns anymore; it was about Jared Leto’s digital messiah.
To be fair, Leto has always loved spectacle. This is the same guy who climbed from the 86th to the 104th floor of the Empire State Building to promote his band, 30 Seconds to Mars (who James Gunn clearly hates). “Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated with the Empire State Building,” he told Jimmy Fallon.
Behind the scenes, Disney executives were reportedly sweating bullets, though. And not just over the film’s budget, but over Leto himself. Earlier this year, Air Mail published nine allegations of sexual misconduct, which his representatives denied. Still, the studio feared more headlines might drop mid-promotion. They didn’t, and Leto went on to lead the global campaign. But as one insider told THR, “With Ares flopping, Leto’s currency in town has run colder than Morbius’ vampire blood.”
Ah yes, Morbius, the film that somehow bombed twice. Hollywood’s been side-eyeing Leto since its release. After that disaster, he became the poster child for big-budget misfires, following House of Gucci and now Tron: Ares. As one top talent manager bluntly put it, “In a world where Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch are having a hard time getting lead roles, why would you even go to a person who can’t open a movie and who has question marks around him as a person?”
You can’t say Disney wasn’t warned, though. The first two Tron movies barely turned a profit, yet they handed Leto the keys to The Grid for the 3rd one. The result is a big sequel no one wanted and a franchise now unplugged for good. Plus, Leto has committed a series of cinema sins over the years: Suicide Squad‘s Joker, Nick Lowell in The Outsider, Paolo Gucci in House of Gucci, Dr. Michael Morbius in Morbius, and Adam Neumann in WeCrashed.
Jared Leto, of course, still has Masters of the Universe lined up, where he plays Skeletor. Could the He-Man film already be doomed too?
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