Custom image for an interview of Greta Lee as Eve Kim on a Light Cycle in Tron: Ares.Image by Jefferson Chacon
After a largely disappointing year at the box office, Disney was saved by the one-two punch of Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash. The two franchise films opened within weeks of each other, and have grossed nearly $3.5 billion in combined global box office revenue so far. However, Disney had suffered from a worryingly long streak of underperformers over the course of 2025. Aside from the Lilo & Stitch remake, which sidestepped a direct-to-streaming release and grossed over $1 billion worldwide, the Snow White remake, Pixar’s Elio, and as many as three Marvel Cinematic Universe movies all fell short of expectations. One film, however, had such a poor box office run that it reportedly lost Disney as much as $132 million. The movie redeemed itself when it debuted on the Disney+ streaming service, but was finally replaced at the number one spot by a blockbuster that had been snapping at its heels for weeks.
The movie in question is Tron: Ares, which ended its theatrical run with just over $140 million worldwide, against a reported budget of $220 million. Headlined by Jared Leto, who was coming off the critical and commercial duds Morbius and Haunted Mansion, Tron: Ares also featured Greta Lee as the co-lead and Evan Peters as the villain. Jeff Bridges, who starred in the original Tron back in 1982 and reprised his role in Tron: Legacy, returned as Kevin Flynn. But the mix of nostalgia and timely themes wasn’t enough to pull audiences. The movie ended up falling short of even Tron: Legacy, which was itself considered an underperformer despite grossing $170 million domestically and more than $400 million worldwide in 2010.
Here’s the Movie that Overtook ‘Tron: Ares’ On Disney+
Directed by Joachim Rønning, Tron: Ares holds a so-so 53% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads: “A sensory feast of vivid neon hues and a hypnotic soundtrack, Tron: Ares is gorgeous to behold but too narratively programmatic to achieve an authentically human dimension.” The film’s 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes explains how it has been able to do so well on streaming. According to FlixPatrol, Tron: Ares was the number one movie on the global Disney+ charts until this week, when it was overtaken by James Cameron‘s $2.3 billion-grossing Avatar: The Way of Water. Both the first and second films in the Avatar series saw a spike in interest recently, owing to the theatrical release of the third installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash. You can watch Tron: Ares at home. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
October 8, 2025
Runtime
119 minutes
Director
Joachim Rønning
Writers
Jesse Wigutow, Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird, Joachim Rønning, David DiGilio
Producers
Jared Leto, Jeffrey Silver, Sean Bailey, Steven Lisberger, Emma Ludbrook, Justin Springer
