To summarize, Disney began work on a sequel to Tron: Legacy immediately. Legacy was meant to kick off a larger universe of movies and TV. As time went on, other expected hits flopped, and Disney acquired Star Wars and made it their new darling, the Tron sequel got shelved.
Jared Leto, who was going to have a minor role in Tron: Ascension, pushed to have a new movie made anyway, making his character the star. The result is that what was more of less going to be the third act of Ascension was fleshed out into a whole movie minus Sam Flynn, Quora, and Tron.
Imagine if Return of the Jedi was never made. Instead, the third act of the movie, the attack on the second Death Star, was turned into a whole movie but the continuation of the plots involving Han Solo, Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker were completely cut out. Then Wedge Antilles was made the star of the movie and he personally confronted Chancellor Palpatine and saved the galaxy. That’s pretty much what has happened to the Tron franchise. :(
The $170 million budget is just movie production, it doesn’t include marketing and distribution. The $410 million at the box office is gross, not net. It’s what the tickets cost the customers not how much made it back to the production company. They almost certainly made a profit, but not nearly as big of one as the $200 million you propose.
Nah, the film grossed 240 million. Even if they spent 100 million on marketing then the movie still earned 140 in profit. If you like you can even throw another 40 million in there to account for any other costs, and that means it still pulled in 100 million in straight profit. By every commercial measure the movie was a financial success.
You’re still confusing net and gross there. Let’s say they spent $70 mil on marketing and distribution. $170+$70=$240 million in costs. Let’s also say they get 75% of box office sales. 410*.75=$307.5. 307.5-240 = $67.5. $67.5 million in profit. Again, they almost certainly made a profit, but not nearly as big of one as the $200 million you proposed.