Ares’ Disappointing Debut Spell Trouble for He-Man Next Year?

Tron: Ares had a spectacularly rough opening weekend at the domestic box office, taking in just $33.5 million in receipts. For a movie with a budget of $180 million, that’s a huge disappointment, to say the least. Rated just 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus seems to be that though it has impressive visuals and a killer Nine Inch Nails soundtrack, Tron: Ares doesn’t really offer much else. Did Disney rely too heavily on nostalgia to pull viewers in? Possibly, but there’s another elephant in the room that’s worth discussing when it comes to the failure of Tron: Ares: Jared Leto.

Let’s be honest: the Tron franchise has never really been a huge, mainstream phenomenon. Yes, it has its loyal fans, but it’s been built mainly on nostalgia. The 1982 film was a financial disappointment for Disney, which is partly the reason why it took them nearly 30 years to develop a sequel. When Tron: Legacy came around in 2010, they were hoping that the passage of time would be enough to entice fans back into theaters. Unfortunately, once word got out that it was a visual spectacle with a hollow center, Legacy suffered much the same fate as Ares this past weekend.

Disney Overestimated the Star Power of Jared Leto

You have to hand it to Disney for going back to the well a third time, but why they expected Tron: Ares to do any better than the first two movies is anyone’s guess. Especially when they cast Leto in the lead. Either they sorely overestimated his star power, or put on a set of blinders and hoped that the actor’s many controversies would be ignored by the moviegoing public. While they couldn’t have foreseen the exact moment the sexual misconduct accusations against the actor would finally be publicized, Leto’s behavior has been an open secret in Hollywood for quite some time. Everyone from James Gunn to Dylan Sprouse has called him out for his proclivity for underage girls, so there’s no way Disney couldn’t have known about what went on behind closed doors.

Beyond those allegations, Leto has been mired in controversy for years. His on-set behavior is the stuff of legend these days, as he’s been regularly known to cause disruptions due to his “immersive” style of acting, whereby he stays in character throughout filming and even sends co-stars “gifts” from his on-screen persona (remember the used condoms?). Then there’s the whole cult of personality thing going on with his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars. Anyone who encourages their fans to dress all in white during “retreats” and partake in communal activities that border on ritualistic behavior should raise some serious red flags.

Not for Disney, which, for some reason, looked at the critical and commercial disasters that were Morbius and Haunted Mansion and decided Leto was the guy to help produce and lead Tron: Ares. Go figure. As MovieWeb’s own Britt Hayes said on social media:

‘Tron: Ares’ Disappointing Box Office Spells Trouble for ‘Masters of the Universe’

If you’re Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures right now, you have to be looking at Tron: Ares and sweating a little. After all, they went ahead and cast Leto as Skeletor in the upcoming Masters of the Universe, which is set to hit theaters next year. Like Disney before them, this was before the sexual misconduct allegations came to light, so either they chose to ignore the stories, or just didn’t care. Again, taking that out of the equation, for some unknown reason, they still looked at Leto’s recent box office failures and decided to cast him in a key role. Baffling, to say the least.

The sad truth is no one cares about Jared Leto. He’s never been a big draw, and now that it’s out there that he possibly engaged in sexual misconduct with minors, he’s more toxic than ever before. Though he’s yet to speak out about the allegations personally, those representing him have expressly denied them. In the court of public opinion, however, justice has been swift, and many fans have already distanced themselves from the star.

All of that spells bad news for Masters of the Universe, which could end up suffering the same fate as Tron: Ares. It’s going to have to be pretty good to overcome the odds, and not rely heavily on the past to succeed. Unfortunately, that’s all He-Man is these days – nostalgia – so it already has two strikes against it if you include Leto’s casting. We’ll find out what the future holds when it hits theaters on July 5, 2026, but in the meantime, Tron: Ares is now playing everywhere courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.