Box Office Report: Did Anyone See That Movie Tron?

Bless Disney. They really do keep trying to make Tron happen. I wish I were as committed to anything in my life as Disney is to reviving this franchise that audiences just don’t seem to want. Tron: Ares certainly looked gorgeous, but reviews were mixed-to-negative, and viewers had little interest in this threequel starring Jared Leto (gee, I wonder why people don’t like that dude.) The movie did take the top spot at the box office this weekend, but the numbers are not good. It grossed $33.5 million from 4,000 theatres. That’s less than Leto’s last big IP flop, Morbius. No, seriously, It’s Morbin’ Time made $39 million domestically, and that movie isn’t real. It’s a meme we willed into the world. Hey Disney, if you want to keep making legacy sequels to a cult hit, why not revive The Rocketeer?

At number two is Roofman, starring Channing Tatum and based on a true story of a petty crook who lived in a Toys R Us for several months. Reviews were also mixed but more positively so, but it still only brought in $8 million from 3,362 locations.

One Battle After Another is still doing well. Its $54.5 million domestic gross is equivalent to a billion-dollar payday for Paul Thomas Anderson, and even though it lost a lot of IMAX locations to Tron: Ares, I think we’ll see it returning to the bigger screens in the coming weeks as its Oscar campaign ramps up.

The faith-based movie Soul on Fire landed at number five with $3 million. I don’t have much else to add here.

Things aren’t so good for The Smashing Machine. It slid from number three to eight in its second week, with a sharp 69.2% drop from its opening. It’s scraped to $9.8 million in a fortnight. Are audiences just not into Dwayne Johnson’s serious actor ambitions? Were the good but not raving reviews not enticing? Sometimes, you just can’t explain the whims of the general public. It’s both a gift and a curse.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a musical adaptation of the Manuel Puig novel that was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Raúl Julia and William Hurt. This one has Jennifer Lopez in the title role, with music by the iconic Kander and Ebb. Reviews have been great for J.Lo, but a musical based on an unfamiliar story is a tough sell. Sadly, this one only landed at number 12 with $918,775 from 1,330 cinemas.

Luca Guadagnino is a prolific one. His latest drama, After the Hunt, stars Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri, and it promised to be a provocative take on hot-button issues of campus life, #MeToo, and cancel culture. The reviews said otherwise. But Guadagnino is an indie darling and Roberts is a star, so it still grossed $154,467 from six locations. I don’t see it holding onto those highs as it expands to more theatres, though.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You stars Rose Byrne as a woman on the edge. It earned her an award at the Berlin Film Festival and a hell of a lot of Oscar buzz. Also, Conan O’Brien is in it! Critics are extremely on board for this one, and A24 is giving it a slow-burn release during the peak of Oscar season. Will it pay off? Well, its $89,164 opening weekend from four cinemas is promising.

Also looking promising is Urchin, the directorial debut of Harris Dickinson, which made $42,236 from three places.

This coming week sees the release of horror sequel Black Phone 2, Aziz Ansari and Keanu Reeves’ angel comedy Good Fortune, and Richard Linklater’s biopic Blue Moon.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.