‘TRON: Legacy’ Opens Big, Sets New IMAX Record

Disney has been aggressively promoting “TRON: Legacy” for about 3 years now – and ticket sales for the Thursday midnight premiere were a clear illustration that the campaign has been a successful one. The film made $3.6 million in limited theaters.

The amount might not seem like much, especially considering we’re talking a film that took $170 million to make (outside marketing costs), but it’s a strong opening – and a new record for IMAX tickets, Deadline reports.

With this opening, Disney can relax knowing that “TRON” is en route to making an estimated $47 million over the weekend domestically. Moreover, Disney can relax knowing it’s just set a new record.

“Disney now says Tron Legacy 3D opened to $3.6 million from midnight screenings. It also did over $1 million from 228 IMAX theaters,” Deadline says.

“I’m told that’s by far the biggest percentage – 25+% – done of any movie’s midnight box office, and more than the percentage of midnight take by IMAX for Iron Man 2, Inception, Avatar,” the same e-zine says.

Of course, that’s not to say that “TRON” will also record the biggest IMAX sales in Disney’s history: it still has some pretty tough competitors to beat.

It’s also miles away from the biggest IMAX opener from Disney, which was the recently released “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I,” selling $11.8 million worth of tickets on its opening night.

At the same time, “TRON” is also going up against movie critics, who are not seeing it with too lenient eyes. Because of the flawed script and bad dialog, they’ve already sealed its fate, saying it doesn’t have the legs to carry it to box office glory.

However, in saying so, they’re forgetting the very purpose of the film, fans note. As The Hollywood Reporter says, “TRON: Legacy” is one of the few examples (and the best so far) of the marriage between video games and films.

Hollywood still has a lot to go until it learns this technique, but “Tron” has already done that.