About
Tron: Ares (2025) is the third installment in the Tron[1] franchise directed by Joachim Rønning and produced by Disney[2]. The film stars Jared Leto[3] as Ares, a sentient program sent from the digital Grid into the real world. The film underperformed at the box office and earned mixed reviews online, leading to discussions that Disney may permanently table the Tron franchise. Several internet[4] users cited Jared Leto’s presence in the film and his history of box office failures (see: Morbius[5]) as the reason for the film flopping, prompting memes[6] and jokes about how the Tron franchise was “sacrificed” in order to end Jared Leto’s career.
History
Tron: Ares is a 2025 American science-fiction action film directed by Joachim Rønning, with a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow, based on a story by David DiGilio and Wigutow. It is the third theatrical installment in the franchise after Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010) and stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Jeff Bridges (returning as Kevin Flynn). The film premiered in Los Angeles on October 6, 2025, and was released widely in U.S. theaters on October 10.
The trailer for the film was released on YouTube[7] on July 17th, 2025, where it gathered over 12 million views in three months.
Reception
Tron: Ares underperformed upon release. It opened to approximately $33.5 million domestically and has grossed around $69 million worldwide against a production budget of about $180 million, leading many to label it a box-office disappointment.
Online Reactions
On October 7th, 2025, X user @TheDisInsider posted images from the red carpet premiere of Tron: Ares, highlighting AI-generated posters adorning the walls. The post read, “AI slop on full display at the ‘Tron: Ares’ premiere,” gathering over 20,000 likes in a week.
Several internet users speculated as to whether the box office disappointment of Tron: Legacy could be credited to Jared Leto’s prior box office struggles, with X user @ScaredChris tweeting a Piracy It’s a Crime[8] meme on October 13th that read, “You wouldn’t watch a Jared Leto movie,” gathering over 19,000 likes.
On October 15th, X user @girldrawsghosts commented on speculation that Tron: Ares may have performed better at the box office if Jared Leto did not star in it, writing, “Buddy you’re out of your god damn mind if you think Ryan Gosling in a Tron movie wouldn’t have easily added $20-30mil to the opening weekend.” The post gathered over 80,000 likes in two days.
On October 16th, 2025, Redditor[9] /u/Roids-in-my-vains tweeted a meme to the subreddit /r/okbuddycinephile jokingly showing that Tron: Ares earned over a “quadrillion” dollars, gathering over 4,000 upvotes in a day.
Various Examples
