20 Recent Box Office Flops Everyone Saw Coming

20. Tron: Ares

Despite the passion of its fanbase, the Tron franchise has always firmly been a cult IP with a limited broader appeal, which, in business terms, seems fundamentally incompatible with a sky-high budget.

The original 1982 film grossed a decent $50 million against a $17 million price tag, while 2010's Tron: Legacy grossed a middling $409.9 million on a $170 million budget.

It was easy to be skeptical, then, about the commercial prospects of the third film, Tron: Ares, which, in addition to costing up to $220 million, had the albatross around its neck that was Jared Leto's polarising casting in the lead role. Mediocre marketing that failed to emphasise the film's must-see event appeal didn't help, nor wildly mixed reviews that ensured it failed to attract many beyond die-hard Tron fans.

Tron: Ares ultimately fell far short of box office predictions in its opening weekend, and after three weekends is currently sitting at a brutal global total of barely $120 million, making it one of the biggest blockbuster flops of recent years. And yet, so, so many saw this one coming a mile off, and word indicates that Disney will now be putting the big-screen Tron franchise on ice for the foreseeable future.