Walt Disney Pictures may not have a new movie coming out in theaters until March, but the Mouse House is looking to get its streaming wing off to a strong start in 2026 as it begins adding the late year blockbusters from the last few months. Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash aren’t arriving on Disney+ quite yet, but the streamer is currently preparing to bring Tron: Ares to home audiences.
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The Tron franchise returned to theaters last year for the first time since 2010, and the reception was mixed at best. Now, three months after that theatrical bow, Tron: Ares is making its way to Disney+. The best part of this news for Tron fans is that they don’t have to wait long at all for Ares to arrive at home, as the premiere is in just a couple of days.
The third installment in the Tron series, from director Joachim Rønning, is making its debut on the service on Wednesday, January 7th. That will put all three films in the Tron saga on the same streaming service for the first time, allowing fans to watch through the entire franchise in one place.
Will Tron: Ares End the Franchise?
The Tron franchise has been something of a roller coaster over the years. The original Tron broke ground with innovative filmmaking back in 1982, but it wasn’t a huge hit and only had a small fan base at the time of its release. That fan base grew over the years, resulting in the 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy. Despite some great visuals and all all-time great score from Daft Punk, Legacy also received a mixed response from both fans and critics, but at least delivered a solid box office return in the form of $409 million.
Tron: Ares, arriving 15 years after Legacy, kept the trend of mixed responses alive, hovering just over the 50% mark on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s on-par with the reception to Tron: Legacy, but the box office was nowhere near the already tepid levels of its predecessor. Ares hauled in just over $142 million across the globe, making it a substantial theatrical hit for Disney.
If the physical media industry hadn’t been hit so hard by streaming, perhaps Ares could have a shot at making its money back. The amount of dedicated Tron fans out there likely would’ve shown up for the physical release (quite a few still will), but Disney’s best hope now is getting some solid ad money from streams on Disney+.
With that in mind, it’s hard to think that another Tron movie is in the future. The existence of Ares was enough of a surprise, but its poor box office performance makes a fourth installment feel close to impossible.
Are you going to be checking out Tron: Ares on Disney+? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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