Disney’s biggest flop of 2025 finally finds a streaming audience

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Box office isn’t everything, but for a movie that cost over $200 million to make, it’s certainly extremely important. Such was the case with “Tron: Ares,” Disney’s long-awaited sequel to 2010’s “Tron: Legacy,” itself a sequel to the cult ’80s film “Tron.” Unfortunately, it failed to live up to expectations, becoming arguably Disney’s biggest failure of 2025, perhaps only rivaled by Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s “Snow White.” Even if it is only a consolation prize, the long-awaited sequel to “Tron” finds its audience in streaming.

After debuting on Disney+ on January 7, “Tron: Ares” has soared to the top of the streamer charts, currently holding the No. 1 spot, according to FlixPatrol. It currently sits above “Avatar” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which viewers are apparently watching to catch up before seeing “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which recently crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office.

For director Joachim Rønning’s “Ares,” it was a very different story. The sequel follows a highly sophisticated program, Ares (Jared Leto), who is sent from the digital world to the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humanity’s first encounter with AI beings. It completely blew up at the box office on opening weekend, cementing Jared Leto as veritable box office poison.

The film only grossed $142 million worldwide, largely failing to recoup its production costs. As a result, Disney can only hope that the film will generate revenue elsewhere in the coming years to help offset losses. At the very least, it becomes a streaming success for them, satisfying subscribers. However, it is difficult to quantify to what extent this actually reduces pain.

Disney and Rønning have assembled an impressive cast for the film, including Greta Lee (“Past Lives”), Evan Peters (“American Horror Story”), Jodie Turner-Smith (“Queen & Slim”), Cameron Monaghan (“Gotham”), Gillian Anderson (“Sex Education”) and Jeff Bridges reprising his role as Flynn from the previous “Tron” films. “Ares” also features a soundtrack by Nine Inch Nailsas an additional call.

All of this didn’t matter too much upon initial release, as reviews were mixed at best on the final result. In Witney Seibold’s review of “Tron: Ares” for /Filmhe called it a “thoughtless sequel”, saying “the movie is pretty bad”. Whether or not audiences watching the film at home will agree is a moot point. The marketing and critical response failed to convince people to see it in theaters, which is essential for a blockbuster of this scale.

Unsurprisingly, Disney Reportedly About to Kill the ‘Tron’ Franchise for Now following the failure of this film. There may have been a chance to capitalize on the relative success of “Legacy” in 2010, but that time has passed. Or, at the very least, the movie we got wasn’t one that enticed many people to see it. While streaming success is welcome for Disney, it still has a long way to go to truly redeem itself, given its failure.

You can also grab “Tron: Ares” on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.