Ugh.

Sometimes, it’s hard to be a nerd. Out of love for the franchise, I had been crossing my fingers for Tron: Ares to be able to overcome its projections and open somewhere in the $50 million range. Instead, it got derezzed with a very mediocre premiere of $33 million. Normally, I would hesitate before calling such a debut a disappointment–remember Mufasa: The Lion King opened to similar numbers before legging it out to more than $270 million stateside and $700 million worldwide. But that was fucking Lion King. Lion King is scientifically incapable of financial failure. For Tron, that’s been its legacy. Kind of.

Blah, blah, blah, the original Tron was a box office disappointment when it opened way back in 1982, but not an outright flop. The arcade game made it a very profitable investment for Disney. Flash forward a couple of decades, and Tron becomes a beloved cult classic, leading to the extremely hyped Tron: Legacy in 2010. It did…fine. $400 million worldwide is nothing to sneeze at for something which is ultimately considered a niche property, and since then, Legacy arguably has a bigger following than the first Tron. So why did Ares sell itself as a quasi-reboot? Outside of Jeff Bridges, no cast members from it were featured in the film’s marketing. Did Disney underestimate how beloved Legacy has become? Should they have moved forward with a direct sequel to that years ago?

Critically, Ares fared exactly the same as the first two Tron movies. These films have always had their supporters, but they never win everyone over. Does that mean word-of-mouth could still save it? That’s a coin toss, but next weekend Black Phone 2 will be taking away a good chunk of its potential audience, with Chainsaw Man: The Movie grabbing even more of it the following week. In any case, look for T4on to open in theaters in 2040.

All in all, it’s a lousy weekend for openers, since Ares is actually the only film ensuring cinemas didn’t stay completely empty. The well-reviewed dramedy Roofman failed to steal the hearts of moviegoers with only $8 million, which is a shame, as this is the sort of quirky concept which would’ve legged it out to $100 million back in the day. Streaming really has killed this sort of undefinable genre. Faring far worse is Kiss of the Spider Woman, the musical sequel to Madame Web which brought in just $1 million. How many people even knew this existed?

Anyway, the top ten, via The Numbers