• by Wayne Friedman , 5 hours ago

Mid-October pre-holiday season doldrums -- and low critic scores -- hit Walt Disney’s sci-fi sequel “Tron: Ares,” which could only muster $33.5 million in its U.S./Canada opening weekend, according to IMDb Box Office Mojo.

Analysts were expecting $40 million to $50 million for the sequel in the longtime sci-fi franchise. The global theatrical box office also underdelivered at only $27 million.

Critics-focused site Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 57% score, although the audiences gave it high marks.

The movie has been estimated to have a big expense tag of $180 million.

Disney spent $17.45 million on national TV advertising, according to EDO Ad EnGage, coming from 2,540 airings garnering 1.6 billion impressions.

A little over half that amount -- $9.2 million -- was spent on NFL football, with around $2.0 million for college football programming.

Other non-sports programming spend -- “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers” -- was part of the campaign targeted to mostly male TV viewers, especially young men.

Paramount film “Roofman” was next, with $8 million in its debut. The movie about a charismatic criminal on the run had a modest budget of $19 million for a mid-October crime-romance drama.

IMAX’s “One Battle After Another” added another $6.7 million to the Leonardo DiCaprio action-crime thriller in its third week, now totaling $54.5 million and $138 million globally.

For the year-to-date -- through October 13 -- the U.S./Canada 2025 domestic box office is now slightly ahead (3.9%) versus 2024 -- but down 8% from 2023.

Through October 12, total theatrical movie national TV advertising revenue media spend is down 8% from a year ago to $682.4 million, with national TV airings up 15.3% (177,070) and impressions improving 14% (96.8 billion).