Report: ‘Tron: Ares’ Stands to Lose Disney $132M+ as Actual Budget ($220M) Comes to Light

We already knew “Tron: Ares” would be a money loser for Disney, but things look far worse than initially reported.

Deadline’s sources say the film actually cost $220M, not the $170M originally reported. Yes — close to a quarter of a billion dollars for a movie nobody asked for. It’s set to become the third Disney film this year to lose over $100M alongside “Snow White” and “Elio.”

The trade’s calculations have the film headed for a $132M loss after all ancillaries, assuming it hits its projected $160M worldwide total. The current cume is $103M, with a second-weekend domestic drop of 70% plummeting to $11M.

One talent rep told the trade, “There was no specific vision, to be honest. The idea that Disney would spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a Jared Leto film in a franchise that hasn’t worked in four decades is insane.”

Apparently, director Joachim Rønning wanted a different script than the Jesse Wigutow–penned one Disney pushed to greenlight. He was lobbying for a script by Jez Butterworth (Ford v Ferrari), which was eventually vetoed and shelved by the studio. It got so bad that at the end of production, Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) had to step in for rewrites to “fix” Tron: Ares, resulting in about a month’s worth of reshoots.

Leto somehow convinced the world’s biggest studio to hand him a massive tentpole built around his character. Leto, whose last major outing (“Morbius”) became a meme rather than a movie, has never been a reliably bankable box-office name. Yet, through sheer persistence — and a well-placed ally in then-Disney live-action chief Sean Bailey — he managed to push ‘Ares’ through development hell.

It’s almost laughable in hindsight: a $220M sci-fi sequel built around an actor whose last few films (“House of Gucci,” “Morbius”) were punchlines, not hits. Disney knew the brand was niche, executives were openly concerned it wouldn’t appeal beyond die-hard fans, and yet, here we are.

Now, after back-to-back flops and a studio system weary of vanity projects with ballooning budgets, the writing’s on the wall. Disney is said to now quietly “retire” the Tron franchise for good.