Tron 3 Is Cancelled

Dave Knott writes: Tron 3 won't be coming to a theater near you. Disney had been developing a sequel to Tron:Legacy since the movie, made for $170 million, grossed $400 million worldwide. But now they have chosen not to move forward with a third installment in the sci-fi series, sources say. "Disney has had strong success with its live-action properties recently, including Maleficent and this year's Cinderella, which earned $527.4 million worldwide. But it recently had a stumble with the $180 million live-action film Tomorrowland, which underperformed at the box office this past weekend with a $33 million U.S. debut."

Comments

Of course it bombed

[cheesybagel]

Too much money wasted on big name actors and advertising. Ludicrous story. It goes on and on.

I do think it is too early for another Tron sequel though. If they had made one one year after the last one it would have been ok but not now.

Re:Of course it bombed

[iluvcapra]

With regard to Tron 3, it's not so important that Tron 2 bombed-- what really matters is Escape from Tomorrowland bombed, and Disney has decided if it's going to make fantasy films, it'd rather plow money into it's wholly-owned subsidiaries, Lucasfilm and Marvel.

America, you will be getting all your science fiction and fantasy in Avengers form in Galactic Basic. This is a win if you like big scifi movies that make billions of dollars, it's a loss if you liked a little bit of diversity in your movies. Disney will now double down on sequels and reboots.

Re:Of course it bombed

[JBMcB]

Big name actors like... George Clooney. And that's it. Hugh Laurie is the only other recognizable name and, while wildly talented, the last big live-action US movie he was in was Flight of the Phoenix.

I don't think they blew the budget on actors.

Re:Of course it bombed

[phantomfive]

Too much money wasted on big name actors and advertising. Ludicrous story. It goes on and on.

The same could be said of Pirates of the Caribbean, right?

Re:Of course it bombed

[ShanghaiBill]

I saw Tomorrowland. It sucked. The plot made no sense, and most of the special effects were pointless (other than helping to keep the audience awake). The moralizing "everyone should feel guilty" ending was anti-climactic. I am happy to hear that it is bombing, and I regret seeing it.

Re:Of course it bombed

[SeaFox]

>I do think it is too early for another Tron sequel though. If they had made one one year after the last one it would have been ok but not now.

You think it's too early for another Tron sequel to occur, and suggest it should have happened at an earlier time instead?

Re:Of course it bombed

[Maxo-Texas]

I felt tomorrowland was kind of a crap sandwich.

It had a confusing sucky start- a decent not terrible not awesome movie with some cool visuals in the middle- and the a stupid pointless tacked on kid's movie ending.

Re:Of course it bombed

[l0ungeb0y]

it's not so important that Tron 2 bombed

From the summary Tron:Legacy grossed $400 million from $170 million - that's a success even by Hollywood "hide the profits to avoid royalty payments" maths. Walking away from a franchise where the last installment gave a greater than 100% return isn't sound fiscal sense, it's a straight-up chickenshit cop-out. This is why the Music and Movie industries need to die -- no risk takers too many assholes looking for a "sure thing" and will rehash the "sure things" right into the fucking ground till they have nothing left.

Re:Of course it bombed

[Gadget_Guy]

I don't understand why Hollywood won't cast teenagers to play teenagers.

There are numerous reasons. The look of adults will remain more consistent throughout the filming of a movie and between sequels (not to mention a TV series), while no amount of contractual obligation can stop a child actor from growing. I heard on a director's commentary of a film (can't remember which one) that said that they had problems reshooting parts of an earlier scene because the child had changed between the start and end of the movie; probably no so noticeably as you watch the film sequentially, but when it they intercut shots into the same scene then it could be obvious.

Child actors also have limits on how long they can film and require schooling during the shoot. It's possible that trained actors are easier to direct and put in better performances, but that is just speculation and there are definitely examples of children doing some stunning work. Finally, teenagers can be right pricks sometimes (although so can some prima donna actors too).

Re:Of course it bombed

[tlhIngan]

America, you will be getting all your science fiction and fantasy in Avengers form in Galactic Basic. This is a win if you like big scifi movies that make billions of dollars, it's a loss if you liked a little bit of diversity in your movies. Disney will now double down on sequels and reboots.

That's everyone, actually. Sci-Fi is hard, and original sci-fi even harder.

It's so bad that the reason Hollywood avoids original stuff is because it usually does badly. Either it doesn't click, or other thing. Either way, original stuff is risky, and despite everyone's call for "More originals less sequels!", that is not translating into asses in seats. Which is the only factor that matters.

Now, sometimes it's just bad (like Tomorrowland), but it's original. And it's probably Disney's attempt at trying something new to see if it works. Since it bombed, that just means more Avengers 3, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and other stuff. Stuff original - that doesn't make money and is far more risky. Or in general, the people who request "original" films generally don't belong to the set of people who buy tickets.

Even a rather decent movie like Edge of Tomorrow (rebranded as Live Die Repeat) failed to do "well" - which basically means the death of anything original.

It's useless to call for more original films - Hollywood believes that the two groups (people who call for original films instead of sequels and rehashed plots. and movie goers) are two distinct sets.

Re:Of course it bombed

[Pubstar]

Well, to counterpoint your Edge of Tomorrow - Pacific Rim did pretty damn good ($190mil budget, $441 Gross). That was en entirely new IP. Could just be that Edge of Tomorrow sucked... or people (like me) don't care to see Tom Cruise in movies because all I can think of is "That dude is a crazy scientologist".

Re:Of course it bombed

[cheesybagel]

I was actually quite enthusiastic about the movie. Remember all the early promos we saw of the movie, people even made their own light bikes and the like? The original Tron had a lot of fandom despite not doing so good on its original screening. The guys who worked on the movie exploited this brilliantly. Especially their promo on Comic-Con. They also made a movie that fans liked. You could also tell it was done by people who actually liked Tron.

Re:Of course it bombed

[jellomizer]

Tron, Star Trek, Star Wars...
These were from different times, rebooting and adding sequels wile makes money, hurts the brand over time.

The charactors and plots become less relatable to newer generations.

Let's take Star Wars, today we relate more with the empire then with the rebels. With terrorist following extremist versions religions, the idea of a small band of Rebels fighting a winning against an army is more scary from our current point of view. We are no longer worried about the Communists with big nations sucking up other ones. We have a new sets of issues where we need a new set of science fiction universes to explore.

Re:Of course it bombed

[necronom426]

I don't see how Tron 2 bombed:
"...made for $170 million, grossed $400 million..."

Re:Of course it bombed

[LWATCDR]

Actually I loved Tomarrowland. The extreme left hate it and says it is full of Ayn Rand references and the extreme right says it supports the global climate change hoax that alone makes it worth watching for me. Anything that drives those two groups into a tizzy must be good.
Actually it is a fun movie that is beautiful to look at and the story is pure fantasy. Of course it is hated by a lot of people because it actually attacks the current love of dark depressing "gritty" movies and frankly culture. It was also an ode to Walt Disney's dream of what EPCOT was supposed to be, his gift to mankind and not what it because a place to eat.

Re:Of course it bombed

[TaliesinWI]

From the summary Tron:Legacy grossed $400 million from $170 million - that's a success even by Hollywood "hide the profits to avoid royalty payments" maths.

Eh, it's closer than that. Studios see 50-55% of the domestic box office and anywhere between 15-50% of the foreign box office (depending on how much of a cut the distributor in a particular country takes.)

Tron 2 did $172 mil domestically (so figure the studio got $86-$95 mil) and $228 mil internationally (so that take isn't going to be any higher than $114 mil MAX, and probably a lot lower.) So that's $209 million at the very top end, against a production budget of $170 mil. If that $170 mil includes marketing costs (everyone reports that differently) then you're looking at anything from a mild profit to a mild loss overall. If you figure an additional $10-20 million was spent on marketing, we're a lot closer to "losing money no matter what" territory. Yes DVD sales will help them profit in the long run, but a success or failure is generally measured at the box office.

I can see them doing this - there's no indication that Tron 3 would make _more_ money than Tron 2 did at the box office, and it could very well make less. They've weathered the nuclear bombs of John Carter, The Lone Ranger, and now Tomorrowland all in the past couple of years - it makes sense that they're going to stick with franchises where they can print money.

Re:Of course it bombed

[Piata]

But that's where you're wrong. Edge of Tomorrow is fantastic and if you don't like Tom Cruise you get to watch a cowardly version of him be shot, burned, sliced, crushed, ran over and die in more ways than I can remember for the first 2/3rds of the film. The problem with Edge of Tomorrow was the marketing. They never really got across what kind of movie it was or why it was worth watching. They also should have kept the original name (All You Need Is Kill). The exo skeletons may have also been a hard sell as they just appear cubersome and awkward.

Re:Of course it bombed

[Pubstar]

So what you're saying is the selling point should have been "We know you think Tom Cruise is crazy... watch him die in hundreds of ways in this great film!" Humm... Maybe I will have to go see it.

Re:Of course it bombed

[tehcyder]

Tomorrowland was directed and partially written by Brad Brad, whose previous movies (the Incredibles and Ratatouille) were known for philosophy that sometimes branched into Ayn Randian Objectivism

I don't think so. Both the Incredibles and Ratatouille had elements of humour, which is something entirely alien to Randroids.

Yeah sure

[ArcadeMan]

Tron was a great sequel and I've heard good things about Tomorrowland, but they'd rather make things like princess movies. They're Disney, after all.

When can we expect yet another cute puppy-centered live movie?

Re:Yeah sure

[captjc]

You do realize that Disney is one of the largest multimedia conglomerates in the world, right? While the word Disney gives rise to images of cartoon princesses they also own ABC, Marvel, and the Lucasfilm properties, among many other things.

To say they only make princess movies is like saying Kraft only makes crappy cheese products or Pepsi only makes cola.

Re:Yeah sure

[russotto]

F'n princess movies, like that damn Star Wars flick.

PRINCESS Leia, PRINCESS Amidala...

Re:Yeah sure

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize that Disney is one of the largest multimedia conglomerates in the world, right? While the word Disney gives rise to images of cartoon princesses they also own ABC, Marvel, and the Lucasfilm properties, among many other things.

To say they only make princess movies is like saying Kraft only makes crappy cheese products or Pepsi only makes cola.

Disney makes only one thing : homogenised culture to be consumed around the world.
It's the McDonalds of films. Insipid to the very core.

Re:Yeah sure

[Brulath]

Disney makes only one thing : homogenised culture to be consumed around the world. It's the McDonalds of films. Insipid to the very core.

Remarkably, not everyone on this planet wants to spend all of their movie-viewing time on art-house pieces with complicated themes; sometimes you just want to be exposed to a universe that hadn't existed previously in your imagination, whether it's a reworking of an old story or not. Same as a good chunk of the population doesn't mind some McDonalds every now and then; sometimes you just want a cheap burger.

Re:Yeah sure

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

That's like calling Casper a Ghostbusters movie because Akroyd had cameo.

Good

[Anonymous Coward]

Let Flynn and Quora ride off into the sunrise, and let it be OVER. Stories end. How about you come up with new ones?

this sucks

[Limitless_Potential]

guess I'll just have to wait another 30 odd years for another one

Re:this sucks

[The Grim Reefer]

guess I'll just have to wait another 30 odd years for another one

That will be an exciting movie. Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner will be in their mid nineties. They can do battle with the MCP pushing around their "light-walkers" and tell the younger cast how their identity disks were the size of a Frisbee instead of these new dime sized ones.

The entire plot will end up being them trying to get their stolen identity disk back from the evil megabit or something. But then they discover that they accidentally used it in a soda machine by mistake. Everyone will get a good laugh out of it. Then when they return to the real world, it'll be completely destroyed because of a decompression error that will cause their oxygen tanks to explode upon materialization.

Re: this sucks

[MTEK]

^^^spoiler alert

Nooooo! Not Tron 3!

[Greyfox]

Wait... there was a Tron 2?

Hey, it's the only Blu-Ray I own

[drinkypoo]

I got it for two bucks at my local Grocery Outlet :p

I thought it was an excellent music video, with some slow parts.

Re:Hey, it's the only Blu-Ray I own

[mysidia]

Seeing as Tron: Legacy grossed $400 million and was considered a success, as 11th highest grossing film in 2010, then I would say more than "four people" watched Tron 2.

Re: Hey, it's the only Blu-Ray I own

[TheDarkMaster]

Uhhh... repeat after me:

Professional critics = shit;

Paying public opinion = Is all that matters;

North-american public = only likes "amerikacentric" films with many bimbos and car explosions sequences (with few exceptions), so do not take their opinion too seriously;

And finnaly world wide public = paying public too, so they are as important (or more) as north-american public. And note that the global audience is much more numerous and diverse than the north-american public.

Re:There was a TRON 2?

[Livius]

Maybe there'll be a TRON III - The Search for TRON 2.

I might actually go see that.

Re:The Trailer Was Astoundingly Awful

[pr0t0]

It looks amateurish because it was made by amateurs. It's a fan-made trailer. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt40...

Is it all about the Chinese box office these days?

[jphamlore]

Here's another movie that was said to be a disappointment in its first weekend US domestic box office and that never reached number one in that market. But it did fine overall, helped considerably I suspect because it managed $121+ million USD in China. What is also interesting is this movie actually removed all references to China's space program between the rewrites of its script, and at least in the version shown in the US, had multiple displays of the US flag on the astronauts' space suits, and even showed in the final scene a US flag flying over the new settlement's base camp.

Not surprising after Tron: Uprising was gutted

[RubberDogBone]

There was another Tron mostly nobody saw, an animated series called Tron: Uprising which ran on various Disney cable networks.

It was.. excellent. Beautiful art, great music (improved versions of Daft Punk plus new stuff), really good casting and decent writing and plotting. All in all, one of the best animated anything that the American animation industry has yet produced. It was rather similar to an anime. Nobody would have been surprised if it had in fact come from Japan, but it didn't: it was Disney.

And of course a show like this made no sense to Disney so they killed it after one season. Boom.

Highly recommended viewing. Only 19 episodes so go for broke and watch them all at once. It will probably make you sad this was the last Tron, perhaps forever.

Re:Not surprising after Tron: Uprising was gutted

[firex726]

Yea, I have been rewatching uprising in light of this news. If they had let it keep going it likely could have been a another hit animated show on par with Avatar.

Seems it had everything going against it. From the cost, to the demographic, to corporate wanting things to remain "kid" friendly. FFS you had Tron being tortured and being left with life altering disfigurements, makes for great storytelling but five year olds and the advertisers are not going to be interested in "PTSD Mutilated Tron Action Figures".

Re:Not surprising after Tron: Uprising was gutted

[Anonymous Coward]

All they had to do was re-run Tron Uprising after Star Wars Rebels, and they would have had two hits on their hands. What a programming block that would be. Introduce the SW audience to how good Uprising is, and the Tron franchise would have a chance to become more valuable. Someone at Disney hates Tron. Uprising is the best animated show to come out of the USA in... I can't remember a stronger show with such stunning design, voice actors etc. To think the fate of Tron as a franchise is somehow tied to the success of Tomorrow Land is just the type of logic I would have expected of Disney before they began to understand the goldmine of franchises like SW and Marvel. Maybe after the next regime change at Disney, Tron will get another chance, but I won't hold my breath.

Because of Tomorrow land?

[Karmashock]

... Sigh. Read the synopsis of Tomorrow land and you'll see that whomever greenlit it was tripping balls when they okayed that project.

Terrible. That was Batman Forever levels of stupid.

Tron 3 could be good. The tron movies are simple action fun.

Preach at me in the dumbest way possible though... and I'm changing the channel.

I don't know... I think a lot of the people that write these scripts should just write art house movies that no one watches. Just fill your movie with more kids with cancer-aids and crying puppies.

We don't need any more Day After Tomorrow bullshit. Just make me an action movie with some big Michael Bay explosions and shut up.

Re: Tomorrowland is excellent

[meerling]

Don't forget that Avengers:Age of Ultron is still in theaters, and Mad Max opened the same time. Too much known competition for an unknown property unless it's something that will totally blow peoples minds, which are exceedingly rare.

Re:Will be highly upset?

[CaptQuark]

"will be highly upset." What's that?

Oh, I get it. Another user that thinks the subject and incomplete comment make up a complete post. I don't know who started that practice, but it should stop.

~~

Re:Tron could be a very good series

[mccalli]

" However, if Disney would actually give it to a good director and writers and take it darker..."

No. No. No.

Enough with the silly darker trend. Have you actuallyseen the original Tron? You know with the talking silly Bit in it? It's adventure certainly, but it's not dark. Tron 2 went more philosophical and arguably darker as well, and I happen to really like the film, but I would argue that's also part of what killed it.

Everyone time I hear of a reboot it's "we'll take the original and make it grittier", or "we'll take the original and make it darker", or sometimes we're treated to both gritter and darker at the same time. Bah. Enough of this - it's an adolescant's version of what makes a grown-up film. Give me varied films with a mix of emotions in them please. Relentless dark and misery is not what I want to be offered all of the time.