The original was a flop, it just got a cult following because tech nerds felt recognized in a movie about ‘them’ and ‘computer stuff’ with delightful 80s cheese that appeals to that audience.
Why Legacy didn’t succeed though I honestly don’t know. I remember seeing it as a kid with my dad in the cinema, it was like the 2nd movie I ever saw in cinema and we both loved it, the ads for it were everywhere and it was pushed as the IMAX film to sell the format to the general audience, every TV played clips of it at the store to sell the FullHD television sets.
No clue why it didn’t catch on, I rewatched it recently as an adult and honestly it has the same general appeal of a simplistic hero’s journey in a unique and very visual sci-fi universe. It reminded me the most of a movie like Star Wars, and for a 2010 film, it felt as good as if it released 20-30 years prior, and even had a universe that hits at something bigger, just like Star wars, not to mention Daft Punk who were still fairly popular at the time because they still did stuff.
Can’t agree with that. Legacy traded the cool visuals and psudoreligious-techno story for the front of an apple store. The original is still inspiring today with the visuals. Its still one of the first things thought of when people mention computers, virtual reality, or anything that has to do with humanizing computer systems. It had a lot going for it which is why we are discussing it right now. The sequels all fail because they abandon the visuals and still tell a shit story. No one cares about Olivia Wylde’s character, nobody cares about Clu, nobody cares about making armies in the real world with code. Show us a digital planet again, show us a free system with programs using I/O towers. Sequels fail because they always abandon the original Tron.
This is so unabashedly against the grain and out of touch with reality you have my respect just for having this opinion.
I mean, seriously? Tron? The original Tron? “One of the first things thought of when people mention [insert any word here]?”
I would wager the vast majority of people have no idea there even is an original before Tron Legacy, and I don’t even blame them, and out of the people who do know of it, I can imagine only like a few of those people actually watching it.
Original was definitely far more niche than Legacy in terms of reach and appeal, and the visuals in Legacy are definitely more appealing and impressive and oft-cited as such from critics and general audiences.
I have a soft spot for the original as much as anyone can, I watched it as a kid on a Blu-ray after seeing Legacy in the theaters and then my autistic ass would tell my parents that I can’t do homework because “I’m just an accounting program” and honestly I wish I could do that at work too.
Buuut not only is it fairly obvious that the Legacy sequel is more popular, but it’s also quite frankly a far better movie overall, even if it’s less unique.
That said I’ve never actually heard anyone claiming anything contrary to this, so def big props for saying something so outlandish so brazenly.
Edit for the record:
Tron (1982)
Budget: $17mln
Obviously not a lot of butts in seats, but it made it’s money back, almost doubled.
Tron Legacy (2010)
Budget: $170mln
$400mln is a lot more reach. On a budget of $170mln it has more than doubled it’s money back.
Doesn’t seem like a flop, does it? But it makes sense they’d think of it that way when you wonder what Disney probably expected by pumping even more money into merchandising, video games (even for the PC and PSP), a wholeass animated kids show, it’s not too surprising they still wound up disappointed.
Plus this was from a time when studios would make ever-more expensive blockbusters and expect insane returns on even a small degree of IP recognition alone and so pump everything in for that magical one big hit.
Then of course, we got:
Tron: Ares (2025)
Budget: $180mln, yes - somehow more than Legacy, despite that movie looking like an OG fat PS3 if it was a movie, and this movie looking like the Tron video game for the PS3.
Sufficed to say it made a tron of money. That areshole Leto must have some pretty big dirt on somebody to get this made.
You got me, I wasn’t stating facts just opinions and fee fees. Maybe it is just me, who thinks of the original when I hear Tron, and not Legacy. Now, we can play the gross profit game all day but a lot of factors changed in daily life from 1982 to 2010. Including inflation. 1 dollar in 1982 is like 2.26 on 2010 money. We also see Disney gaining am unfathomable reach, with Tron Legacy releasing worldwide and in China, while Tron only released in 1000 or so American theaters. Is that a fair comparison? Enough to call me out as brazen and bat shit? Not really. I mean Tron was Disney’s highest grossing live action film for five years. It was nominated for multiple awards. I just dont believe your analysis takes in all facets surrounding the original release compared to the sequel. Quite literally a different production level with less interesting visuals, less unique, and just about the same sort of confusing story. If we could have some sort of comparison where people are exposed to the two and vote on it, you’d find the original has a lot of merit and is far more focused in scope than Legacy.
Including inflation. 1 dollar in 1982 is like 2.26 on 2010 money.
That still doesn’t really put it anywhere close. Plus it’s moreso about budget vs. return when we think of flops.
Idk it’s just extremely obvious that objectively speaking more people have seen Tron Legacy - a highly marketed high budget action blockbuster in IMAX 3D with state of the art visual effects, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges and a soundtrack done by one of the most popular and recognizable musicians of all time. and especially of it’s time than Tron, a fairly goofy low budget sci-fi B-movie from the 1980s starring Jeff Bridges before he was really all that popular featuring Wendy Carlos noodling on a synth.
This is obviously not to say that one is bad, or that one is worse than the other, those are completely unrelated concepts.
I am primarily interested in discussing why Legacy didn’t appeal to general audiences as a way of understanding what makes a mass-appeal successful movie, because while Tron 1982 is also a good movie - it is very obvious why it didn’t appeal to general audiences.
We also see Disney gaining am unfathomable reach, with Tron Legacy releasing worldwide and in China, while Tron only released in 1000 or so American theaters. Is that a fair comparison? Enough to call me out as brazen and bat shit?
That’s like my entire point though. Obviously more people saw Tron Legacy, compared to Tron. But it’s not just the reach either, as we can also see with Tron Ares.
I didn’t call you “bat shit” (one word btw), I expressed respect for having such a wild take because I’m also a huge contrarian on Lemmy at times.
I mean Tron was Disney’s highest grossing live action film for five years.
Because Disney didn’t make many live action films during that time.
The only one I personally even know of from this list is “Honey, I shrunk the kids”.
literally a different production level with less interesting visuals, less unique, and
That’s subjective, I prefer the visuals of Legacy by a mile, and I think they are far more unique, they’re just also more generally appealing because they don’t look so low budget (even for the time Tron 1982 released).
All of these things should’ve made Legacy even more of a success though even if you were right.
I also don’t think it’s even remotely reasonable to compare the story in Tron 1982 which is about something like stealing a video game’s code - incomprehensible to general audiences - and Tron Legacy, which is a pretty nice simplistic hero’s journey about a guy meeting his long-lost dad. Very human, very mass appeal, very star warsy. Should’ve been a bigger hit and idk why it wasn’t.
If we could have some sort of comparison where people are exposed to the two and vote on it, you’d find the original has a lot of merit and is far more focused in scope than Legacy.
No it wouldn’t.
You are saying that based on your opinion of the original. You do understand that not everyone shares this opinion? In fact what facts and figures we have indicated the opposite.
Heck I’m quite sure Disney did their research for Ares and found that copying the Tron Legacy aesthetic tested better by focus groups, because y’know - it’s the one thing everyone says was great about that film.
You do also understand what mass-appeal means, yes? It’s not really about merit. Art doesn’t become popular because it has merit, if anything above the level of what can be considered a “professional” or “competent” production of anything, I would wager that merit has an exactly inverse correlation to popularity.
Legacy is ass. The original is far more unique. I will die on this hill and thats fine. You can dissect each part of my comment but the fact still remains that Tron as an IP is fucking dying because of the choices of it’s descendants. “Mass appeal” was apparently not enough. You have to stand for something to be something, not just what you think everyone wants to see, and the original Tron was not trying to be something everyone wants to see.
I honesty think people just like the Daft Punk score I dunno, it’s not a very good movie at all, the first was far better and had a lot more substance. Somethings don’t need a sequel maybe, it was a movie for it’s time and place.
Tron was hardly even in Legacy. He had a little screen time as Wixler (or whatever the name was) and then near the end of the film we learn that one guy is Tron right before he crashes his plane.
If you’re going to make a Tron movie, you should include Tron in it.
I completely disagree. I was a kid when that came out and we all fucking LOVED it. It was unique, amazing to look at, a great score (which you probably know the melody), spawned several popular video games, and was forever printed into the minds of that generation. “Flops” don’t do that.
It didn’t make Star Wars money, but it didn’t lose money.
Nobody knows what to do with Tron because nobody knows what made the original a fucken hit. I dont think you can get that again.
The original was a flop, it just got a cult following because tech nerds felt recognized in a movie about ‘them’ and ‘computer stuff’ with delightful 80s cheese that appeals to that audience.
Why Legacy didn’t succeed though I honestly don’t know. I remember seeing it as a kid with my dad in the cinema, it was like the 2nd movie I ever saw in cinema and we both loved it, the ads for it were everywhere and it was pushed as the IMAX film to sell the format to the general audience, every TV played clips of it at the store to sell the FullHD television sets.
No clue why it didn’t catch on, I rewatched it recently as an adult and honestly it has the same general appeal of a simplistic hero’s journey in a unique and very visual sci-fi universe. It reminded me the most of a movie like Star Wars, and for a 2010 film, it felt as good as if it released 20-30 years prior, and even had a universe that hits at something bigger, just like Star wars, not to mention Daft Punk who were still fairly popular at the time because they still did stuff.
The original wasn’t a flop, it was a moderate success
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron
Can’t agree with that. Legacy traded the cool visuals and psudoreligious-techno story for the front of an apple store. The original is still inspiring today with the visuals. Its still one of the first things thought of when people mention computers, virtual reality, or anything that has to do with humanizing computer systems. It had a lot going for it which is why we are discussing it right now. The sequels all fail because they abandon the visuals and still tell a shit story. No one cares about Olivia Wylde’s character, nobody cares about Clu, nobody cares about making armies in the real world with code. Show us a digital planet again, show us a free system with programs using I/O towers. Sequels fail because they always abandon the original Tron.
This is so unabashedly against the grain and out of touch with reality you have my respect just for having this opinion.
I mean, seriously? Tron? The original Tron? “One of the first things thought of when people mention [insert any word here]?”
I would wager the vast majority of people have no idea there even is an original before Tron Legacy, and I don’t even blame them, and out of the people who do know of it, I can imagine only like a few of those people actually watching it.
Original was definitely far more niche than Legacy in terms of reach and appeal, and the visuals in Legacy are definitely more appealing and impressive and oft-cited as such from critics and general audiences.
I have a soft spot for the original as much as anyone can, I watched it as a kid on a Blu-ray after seeing Legacy in the theaters and then my autistic ass would tell my parents that I can’t do homework because “I’m just an accounting program” and honestly I wish I could do that at work too.
Buuut not only is it fairly obvious that the Legacy sequel is more popular, but it’s also quite frankly a far better movie overall, even if it’s less unique.
That said I’ve never actually heard anyone claiming anything contrary to this, so def big props for saying something so outlandish so brazenly.
Edit for the record:
Tron (1982)
Budget: $17mln
Obviously not a lot of butts in seats, but it made it’s money back, almost doubled.
Tron Legacy (2010)
Budget: $170mln
$400mln is a lot more reach. On a budget of $170mln it has more than doubled it’s money back.
Doesn’t seem like a flop, does it? But it makes sense they’d think of it that way when you wonder what Disney probably expected by pumping even more money into merchandising, video games (even for the PC and PSP), a wholeass animated kids show, it’s not too surprising they still wound up disappointed.
Plus this was from a time when studios would make ever-more expensive blockbusters and expect insane returns on even a small degree of IP recognition alone and so pump everything in for that magical one big hit.
Then of course, we got:
Tron: Ares (2025)
Budget: $180mln, yes - somehow more than Legacy, despite that movie looking like an OG fat PS3 if it was a movie, and this movie looking like the Tron video game for the PS3.
Sufficed to say it made a tron of money. That areshole Leto must have some pretty big dirt on somebody to get this made.
You got me, I wasn’t stating facts just opinions and fee fees. Maybe it is just me, who thinks of the original when I hear Tron, and not Legacy. Now, we can play the gross profit game all day but a lot of factors changed in daily life from 1982 to 2010. Including inflation. 1 dollar in 1982 is like 2.26 on 2010 money. We also see Disney gaining am unfathomable reach, with Tron Legacy releasing worldwide and in China, while Tron only released in 1000 or so American theaters. Is that a fair comparison? Enough to call me out as brazen and bat shit? Not really. I mean Tron was Disney’s highest grossing live action film for five years. It was nominated for multiple awards. I just dont believe your analysis takes in all facets surrounding the original release compared to the sequel. Quite literally a different production level with less interesting visuals, less unique, and just about the same sort of confusing story. If we could have some sort of comparison where people are exposed to the two and vote on it, you’d find the original has a lot of merit and is far more focused in scope than Legacy.
That still doesn’t really put it anywhere close. Plus it’s moreso about budget vs. return when we think of flops.
Idk it’s just extremely obvious that objectively speaking more people have seen Tron Legacy - a highly marketed high budget action blockbuster in IMAX 3D with state of the art visual effects, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges and a soundtrack done by one of the most popular and recognizable musicians of all time. and especially of it’s time than Tron, a fairly goofy low budget sci-fi B-movie from the 1980s starring Jeff Bridges before he was really all that popular featuring Wendy Carlos noodling on a synth.
This is obviously not to say that one is bad, or that one is worse than the other, those are completely unrelated concepts.
I am primarily interested in discussing why Legacy didn’t appeal to general audiences as a way of understanding what makes a mass-appeal successful movie, because while Tron 1982 is also a good movie - it is very obvious why it didn’t appeal to general audiences.
That’s like my entire point though. Obviously more people saw Tron Legacy, compared to Tron. But it’s not just the reach either, as we can also see with Tron Ares.
I didn’t call you “bat shit” (one word btw), I expressed respect for having such a wild take because I’m also a huge contrarian on Lemmy at times.
Because Disney didn’t make many live action films during that time.
https://www.thegibsonreview.com/blog/disney-through-the-years-the-1980s-live-action-features
The only one I personally even know of from this list is “Honey, I shrunk the kids”.
That’s subjective, I prefer the visuals of Legacy by a mile, and I think they are far more unique, they’re just also more generally appealing because they don’t look so low budget (even for the time Tron 1982 released).
All of these things should’ve made Legacy even more of a success though even if you were right.
I also don’t think it’s even remotely reasonable to compare the story in Tron 1982 which is about something like stealing a video game’s code - incomprehensible to general audiences - and Tron Legacy, which is a pretty nice simplistic hero’s journey about a guy meeting his long-lost dad. Very human, very mass appeal, very star warsy. Should’ve been a bigger hit and idk why it wasn’t.
No it wouldn’t.
You are saying that based on your opinion of the original. You do understand that not everyone shares this opinion? In fact what facts and figures we have indicated the opposite.
Heck I’m quite sure Disney did their research for Ares and found that copying the Tron Legacy aesthetic tested better by focus groups, because y’know - it’s the one thing everyone says was great about that film.
You do also understand what mass-appeal means, yes? It’s not really about merit. Art doesn’t become popular because it has merit, if anything above the level of what can be considered a “professional” or “competent” production of anything, I would wager that merit has an exactly inverse correlation to popularity.
Legacy is ass. The original is far more unique. I will die on this hill and thats fine. You can dissect each part of my comment but the fact still remains that Tron as an IP is fucking dying because of the choices of it’s descendants. “Mass appeal” was apparently not enough. You have to stand for something to be something, not just what you think everyone wants to see, and the original Tron was not trying to be something everyone wants to see.
Yeah that’s why most didn’t see it.
Idk personally I think both movies are good for totally different reasons. G’day to you
I honesty think people just like the Daft Punk score I dunno, it’s not a very good movie at all, the first was far better and had a lot more substance. Somethings don’t need a sequel maybe, it was a movie for it’s time and place.
Tron was hardly even in Legacy. He had a little screen time as Wixler (or whatever the name was) and then near the end of the film we learn that one guy is Tron right before he crashes his plane.
If you’re going to make a Tron movie, you should include Tron in it.
I completely disagree. I was a kid when that came out and we all fucking LOVED it. It was unique, amazing to look at, a great score (which you probably know the melody), spawned several popular video games, and was forever printed into the minds of that generation. “Flops” don’t do that.
It didn’t make Star Wars money, but it didn’t lose money.
Yes I like it too, I mean in terms of success
just make it look cool, sound cool, and give it a vaguely sensible story.
“Oh shit. I’m stuck in the computer! Hey, how do I get out of here?”
“Just go over there.”
Then just fill in what happens on the way over there.
Tron/Wreck-It-Ralph crossover.
It’s a less stupid idea than casting Jared Leto.