There he stood, in a red raincoat draped dramatically over a white suit, perched 30 feet above Piccadilly Circus for the Oct. 1 London premiere of Tron: Ares. What was Jared Leto doing up there, greeting his public like some interstellar overlord?
Drumming up excitement for his latest blockbuster release, of course. The stunt was straight out of the Leto playbook — involving bombast, tall buildings and shoulder-length hair jostled by the elements — but didn’t succeed at its primary mission: driving audiences to theaters.
Like a Light Cycle slamming into a Jetwall, Tron: Ares was savagely derezzed at the box office this weekend, bringing in at least $10 million less than its projected opening gross. The Disney sci-fi tentpole pulled in a dismal $33.2 million from 4,000 theaters against a net production budget of at least $180 million. Overseas, the sci-epic also failed to connect, grossing $27 million for a global start of $60.2 million. Some at Disney were always concerned only die-hard fans should show up, which isn’t a Leto issue but an IP problem. They were right; 18- to 24-year-old males, the sweet spot, badly underindexed. Combined with a bland B+ CinemaScore, sources say Tron will likely retire from the big screen.
Leto appreciates spectacle. How else would you describe an actor who scales the Empire State Building, climbing from the 86th floor observatory to the 104th floor, all to promote his band 30 Seconds to Mars? Why? “Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated with the Empire State Building,” Leto told Jimmy Fallon.
But stunts might not be enough to distract from a spate of negative headlines after Air Mail collected nine allegations from women who described disturbing conduct, ranging from flirtatious overtures when they were minors to episodes of exposure. His representatives denied everything. But alarmed Disney executives had no idea whether other accusations might emerge.
It didn’t happen, and Leto embarked on a global promo tour. He was the face of the Ares: Tron campaign and was a consummate professional throughout, studio insiders say. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter he earned high seven figures for the role, plus a seven-figure producing fee.
He next stars in MGM/Mattel’s Masters of the Universe as He-Man’s high-pitched antagonist Skeletor. It could be a good career move — embodying the iconic, skull-faced fantasy villain who walks a line between genuine menace and camp.
Yet likely over are the days where Leto could, through sheer willpower and in-the-room charisma, push through a greenlight as he did with Tron. Ares originally was conceived as a straightforward follow-up to 2010’s Tron: Legacy, itself a modest success, having grossed $400 million worldwide against a $170 million net production budget. “The first iteration of the [Ares] script was a different movie, but it had a character named Ares,” screenwriter Jesse Wigutow told Polygon for an Oct. 11 story.
The version ultimately was shelved by Disney. But Leto wouldn’t give up. It didn’t hurt that he had a powerful ally in his corner — Sean Bailey, who was hired to run Disney’s live-action studio in 2010 by former Disney topper Rich Ross after he produced Tron: Legacy. (Bailey was shown the door last year, but has a production deal with the studio that includes Tron: Ares.) And he also had goodwill from his lauded earlier dramatic work in Dallas Buyers Club (winning him a supporting actor Oscar) and Requiem for a Dream. The pitch worked, and by 2017, Leto was elevated to producer, and the movie’s narrative was reframed so that the protagonist became Ares, his character. Leto not only got his Tron movie — he was now the star. (Bailey, the movie’s chief proponent within the studio, was shown the door last year, but has a producing deal at Disney.)
But now the kinds of hefty paydays Leto earned for Ares could be in the past, as an agency partner says that studios already had stepped away from the actor as a leading-man choice after the failure of Sony’s Spider-Man universe spinoff Morbius, which opened to $39 million stateside en route to a not-good $167 million globally in 2022. “In a world where Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch are having a hard time getting lead roles, why would you even go to a person who can’t open a movie and who has question marks around him as a person?” asks one top talent manager partner.
With Ares flopping, the insider says Leto’s currency in town has run colder than Morbius’ vampire blood. To be clear, the flameout of Tron isn’t Leto’s burden alone. “You could have had Ryan Gosling, it wasn’t going to work,” says the first agency partner. “No one asked for this reboot. If you say, ‘Tron: Ares is good, we just needed a different actor,’ you’re deluding yourself.”
This story first appeared in the Oct. 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
