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Disney's Tron 2 Also Going to Cost $300 Million to Make?!

by Alex Billington
April 9, 2009

Who said the economy is hurting Hollywood? A few weeks back we ran article about how the cost of James Cameron's Avatar was pushing $300 million, but that came from a quote in Time which was later disproved by both the writer and Fox. Now today, found within an article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper (via SlashFilm), is this tidbit about the budget of Disney's highly anticiapted Tron 2, which is now shooting. "Vancouver post-production units are salivating at the prospects presented by the Disney remake of Tron, which carries a whopping $300 million budget and opportunities aplenty for effects and digital polish."

Are we going to get an update from Disney by the end of the day on this one, too? Fox was very quick to alert us that the budget on Avatar was actually a lot closer to $200 million, not $300. Who knows whether the Vancouver Sun is accurate this time, though, since it's too early to confirm with other sources (it only just started shooting). Above all else, though, is that this isn't bad news by any means. In fact, I'm glad to hear it might have a $300 million budget, because that means Disney is sparing no expense in hopes of really pushing the boundaries of filmmaking like original Tron did in 1982. Sounds like a good decision to me.

So why is this news at all then? Well, according to officially released information (see Wikipedia), the most expensive film ever made is still Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at a cost of $300 million; and in second is Spider-Man 3, which supposedly cost $270 million, even though some say it was closer to $350 million. Besides those two, no other movie has ever crossed the $240 million mark, which means if both Avatar and Tron 2 are indeed at $300 million, then we've got some truly epic movies on the horizon. I do think, however, that this is just a sign of the times just in terms of what goes into a movie these days.

What I mean is that with productions like Avatar and Tron 2, they shoot for a few months on expensive sets, but then work on post-production and visual effects for two whole years. As we all know, time is money, and it costs a lot to have a full staff of visual artists working on these projects for years at a time. It's all a sign of our times because movies created by computers are commonplace nowadays, and it just takes a lot of time and a lot of money to develop and use this technology and to pull it off. Bring on some Tron!

Explore tags: Hype, Movie News, Opinions

jason

the studio better hope it doesn't cost $300m, or else it'll lose a ton of cash. Tron 2 will be lucky if it makes $100m domestically. I don't see much of an interest in this film. Nobody under the age of 30 really remembers the first one.
Richard

I just don't get it, Tron wasn't even very good, and I saw it in its Heyday. That doesn't mean this wont be but I'm pretty skeptical.
Darunia

300$? What can Tron do that Speed Racer didn't? It's completely insane to even reach such budget for a movie like this.
Joseph S.

wow. 300 mill?. That's pretty crazy. Not to mention the rest theyre going to spend for promoting it. LOL.
JoJo

I really feel that the media overhype certain movies by giving overblown budget numbers. Sorry but all you moviebloggers then take that and then later say how the movie was a bomb etc. Fuck you all. Tron 2 won't be more than 150 million.
Hey Ya

Wow...suckage for a movie that will fail. Everyone I talk to that saw Tron back in the day has no care for this and even more so because or Olivia Wilde. I think it's funny they tried to use her and it only turned off a lot of people. It won't bomb, maybe, but it's not going to rake in dough or be some huge blockbuster.
AbercrombieAndBitch

Huh? How can this cost 300M if it comes out in April?
Al

no, it isn't. they aren't going to risk 300 mil on the remake of a film that barely made a quarter of 100 million.
MrSammich

Al... you can just say 25 million... ass.
Al

since when is stating a fact mean im an ass. the original film did barely make 25 million, it only made 33. besides buddy, you have me all wrong. i loved Tron and am looking forward to this, but i am looking at it the way Disney will, its just unlikely that they'll make that money back.
joe

i don"t this is the movie the are gonna talk i think it"s cameron"s avatar which already made people like Steven Spielberg and ridley scott to turn to 3d movies cameron"s avatar will be revolutionary not tron 2 it will be good movie but not as good as avatar
http://www.retrocrush.com Randy

Wow, $300 million! That's a whole lot of cash to burn! It's great that Disney brought in the original, older male actors Jeff & Bruce to reprise their roles, but not so great that they can easily discriminate against bringing in the older female actress Cindy Morgan to reprise her role as Lora/Yori.
REAL6

Why would you write "Vancouver post-production units are salivating at the prospects presented by the Disney remake of Tron'' Its a sequel not a remake!!!
Al

i like how people are comparing 2 films that havent even come out yet.
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

I do not believe this one at ALL. This sequel/remake/reboot, whatever, is really odd to start out with and $300M on a film like this??? Not buying it at all, Disney isn't that stupid.
dAVIS_s_p

Costs of a movie vary very in facts, they do not always include the costs of ads, promotional material, prints of film, ect. Why they this is not counted for, I don't know. If a movie cost 200million to make, and 50million extra was used for ads, prints ect, why dont they say it cost 250million? Now....let me access my childhood memorys of Tron...its about a kid/guy who has to enter a videogame...for some reason? And its all a bit starnge, but the effects were great. That...sums it up, doesnt it?
audio conferenza

I don't recall all this stuntwork in the ORIGINAL Tron: i mean, is this another DIE HARD movie, or is this TRON?!!!!I wanna see some of the special effects shots and the virtual sets. I hope that come 2011, my 29 LONG YEAR wait was worth it.
Chris

Tonight at Lebowskifest L.A., there was a a pre-filmed message from Jeff Bridges dressed up as The Dude. He apologized for not coming to the fest and then popped on Tron helmet and said he was busy making something. The crowd gave a big cheer.
Aswhitt

Kinda funny reading these comments now 6 weeks after the movie has been released. It's made $165 million now domestically and another $180 worldwide taking its total gross to around $345 million as I type this. Disney is also close to announcing a sequel as well.