Original ‘Tron’ Star Bruce Boxleitner Urges Support for ‘Tron: Ares’: “Box Office Is Everything”
If Tron: Ares doesn’t do well, it could be game over for the franchise, which only boasts three films and an animated series over the course of 40 years. That’s not much, as beloved as the world of the grid is, but it doesn’t mean the time to give up has come.
There is an opportunity in front of Disney right now the way Bruce Boxleitner sees it. Despite the fact his character from the original film who is the namesake of everything won’t be in Ares based on everything we know, the actor doesn’t want the film to bomb.
YouTube channel Echo Base Network showed some recent comments by Boxleitner at a convention appearance where the actor spoke about the next upgrade in the grid. He realizes that the success of the sequel, which has taken over a decade to be made, could equate to more sequels and spinoffs.
“I’m not in it, but please go,” Boxleitner said at Retro Con. “I want you to support that movie because it has an interesting relationship here.” He expressed his hope that Ares will continue the series, and urged everybody to go see it in a theater. “Box office is everything,” he stressed.
Since Tron is an original Disney franchise that’s close to his heart, it’s easy to determine that Boxleitner would be more disappointed than the studio if Ares underperformed. However, his stoic yet plaintive-sounding plea may be too little, too late.
For one thing, he has already seen firsthand what little energy Disney will put into the thing they’ve had in-house all these years. The initial plans to follow Tron: Legacy were abandoned, as were its plot threads, and Tron: Uprising was not given a fighting chance.
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Moreover, Disney didn’t just give up on Sam Flynn, Garrett Hedlund’s character from Legacy. Based on available plot information, it looks like they emasculate and embarrass him by rewriting him into a screw-up who bankrupted his dad’s company.
He left in disgrace, not to be seen or heard from for the sake of Ares’s story, and made way for a more stunning and diverse CEO to fix his mistakes. This person I’m alluding would be Eve Kim, the new head of ENCOM played by Greta Lee.
Even if DEI doesn’t sabotage the film, its projections aren’t great either. They are middling at best, sitting at a baseline of a $44 million opening weekend. That’s the same number Legacy did 15 years and it was considered underwhelming at the time. Remember, we have to adjust for inflation and account for cheaper tickets.
Tron: Ares debuts a week from Friday, and could also do worse than $44M in a crashing system of 2025 dollars and cents.
NEXT: ‘Tron: Ares’ Could Be Setting Fans Up For Disappointment, And Itself Up For Box Office Failure
