Henrick Vartanian
TRON Legacy was the undisputed winner at this weekend’s box office race. American moviegoers went out (especially in such rainy weather) to see the sci-fi follow up starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, and Olivia Wilde.
The Disney publicity machine has always been on top it when it comes to generating buzz for their films. The showmanship behind the marketing campaign and the film’s multi-country premieres did not hurt either. It is therefore, no surprise that TL hit No. 1 in making its mark on the “grid”. The film earned $43.6 million, in the studio estimated box-office trackers, Hollywood.com.
TRON’ s look famous for its computer-generated effects was the main appeal of the original – and back then, it was all done on one computer with 2 MB of memory.
The limited appeal of the sci-fi flick was the main cause for concern with analysts who projected the film making $40 million over the weekend, but after 28 years and with a budget 10 times more than its original 1982 movie, the $200 mil which to be earned by the franchise during this holiday season is a very warm “welcome back” message from Tron lovers.
TL brought in $10.3 million of its opening dollars on just 234 IMAX screens. Now, one wonders if pre-production (oh, we don’t even want to hear they are not talking about one) on a Tron sequel…, let’s call it “Tron Dominance” is underway – fingers crossed.
-H. Vartanian
TRON LEGACY official movie page: http://disney.go.com/tron/