Let’s face it. Even though ‘TRON: Legacy’ racked in $400 million worldwide (not counting DVD/Blu-Ray sales), Disney isn’t jumping up and down and skipping all the way to the bank. With an estimated production of $170 million and a rumored $150+ million in marketing, TRON: Legacy while made made a lot in the box office, didn’t turn a large profit. Even though that is the case, TRON: Legacy and first time director, Joseph Kosinski broke some records. Kosinski is now the highest grossing first time director of a live-action film (beating out J.J. Abram’s $397.5 million take on ‘Mission Impossible III’. Even though its not a huge feat, Disney believes that Kosinski and TRON: Legacy has created the building blocks into making a new movie franchise for Disney similar to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.

For a franchise that was idle since 1982, TRON: Legacy out performed other movie franchises first pictures such as Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ ($337 million), J.J. Abram’s ‘Star Trek’ ($386 million), and 20th Century Fox’s ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ ($373 million). TRON: Legacy also gave birth to a new interest in the franchise for all demographics and was able to capitalize on the popularity with apparel, toys, character goods, etc. Even the soundtrack saw some success. The soundtrack created by the infamous duo, Daft Punk was received with praise by critics and sold over 615,000 copies worldwide with more “remix” albums to come in the future. TRON: Legacy also brought forth “ElecTRONica” attraction in Disney California Adventures theme park and even a TRON: Legacy roller coaster in the new Disney theme park being built in Shanghai, China.

Now with the brand set and recognized worldwide, Deadline is reporting that Disney is working on the treatment/script for ‘TRON 3′ (or ‘TR3N’ as the cool kids call it these days). It is reported that Kosinski is currently working on a possible sequel alongside Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz who wrote TRON: Legacy. It is already well known that Legacy left open-ended plot points that can serve as a lead in to a sequel. However, with Legacy under performing in the box office, Disney may re-strategize what they are willing to fork over for production and marketing. It wouldn’t be surprising if Disney decides to take less of a financial risk on the film even though they are sitting on a mountain of cash from what they made on Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 3′ ($1.06 billion) and Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ ($1.03 billion). Even with a script and the go ahead from the studio, it is also the question of whether Kosinski will be available to helm the sequel. Kosinski is already up to direct a remake of ‘Black Hole’ for Disney (with Travis Beacham attached to write) and also ‘Oblivion’ (rumored to have the interest of Tom Cruise) which Kosinski is shopping around to different studios.

Considering a lot of people said that Legacy was set to bomb in the box office and that Disney will be losing money hand-over-foot on the reboot, I do think that Disney, Kosinski, and the TRON franchise did come out on top. Even though it received mediocre reviews, I have a huge fan of the film and thought that Kosinski’s vision was unique and a breathe of fresh air compared to everything else that has been coming out of Hollywood lately. I enjoyed the movie immensely and though the movie feature some of the 3D I have ever seen. Maybe my opinion is bias, but I do think there are opportunities for Disney to grow the TRON franchise even more and I do think it does deserves at least one more film. At least give the fans some closure and a clear ending to the story about the “house that Flynn built”.

[cbm]