Tron: Legacy no.1 in the American box-office
Following this weekend’s premiere (December 17), the sequel of the 1982 Tron movie has come out on the no. 1 spot in the American box-office, with an estimated $43.6 million. It outpaced by far the 3D film adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Yogi Bear, which premiered on the same day and managed to make it to the second place with $16.7 million. This is great news for Tron producers; however, considering the film’s $170 million budget and its status of “most anticipated” Sci-Fi film of 2010, the numbers are a bit of a let-down.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Jeff Bridges – who also played the main character in the 1982 Tron –, Garett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde, Tron: Legacy is a high-tech adventure featuring amazing visuals and a spectacular soundtrack by Daft Punk.
The film follows Sam Flynn (Garett Hedlund), the tech-savvy son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) – former CEO of ENCOM International and creator of the popular game Tron – as he starts looking into his father’s disappearance. As it turns out, Flynn senior has been trapped all this time into The Grid – a virtual world inside the game system which he created with the help of two programs, Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Clu (played by a much younger Bridges). Because the latter managed to take control of The Grid, Kevin Flynn could no longer return to the real world. During his investigation, Sam also gets transported and trapped into The Grid and thus, a clock-ticking adventurous escape race begins.
Last year’s Best Actor Academy Award winner – for his performance in Crazy Heart – seemed rather “at home” with his return to the role of computer genius Kevin Flynn: “It was like a long weekend in a way”, said 61-year-old Bridges. He admitted, however, that the technology used to make the movie was a new experience for him: “Odd, very odd! Of course, then there’s all this new motion-capture technology that I hadn’t experienced. That was completely different than the other [the original 1982 Tron movie].”
As the new Tron uses the same motion-capture technology as last year’s blockbuster, Avatar, one might think that world-wide positive impact and reviews would just flow in for this Sci-Fi flick. But, even though its producers aimed at achieving the success James Cameron’s movie registered last year, this seems a rather unlikely event. They can only hope for an overall domestic gross of $200-$250 million, as far as recent predictions go. In addition, the latest movie entry, Little Fockers – in theaters as of today (December 22) – is expected to unseat Tron: Legacy, coming in first in the Christmas holiday box-office.
We’ll just have to sit back and watch the box-office derby, and if that sounds boring, just root for one of the “competitors”!
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- ‘Tron: Legacy’ opens as No. 1 at box office (sfgate.com)
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