Disney moves ahead with TRON 3

 

Although TRON: Legacy might not have been the movie that many were hoping for, its $399 million worldwide box-office take is enough to establish Joseph Kosinski as the highest-grossing first-time director of a live-action film and, more importantly, convince Disney to go ahead with plans for a sequel.

Sure, that first part is a bit “inside baseball, but it’s worth noting, as Deadline does, that Kosinksi unseated JJ Abrams, who earned the title with 2006′s Mission: Impossible 3.

The relevant information comes a little later, though, when Deadline reports that Disney has, indeed, begun work on TRON 3, with Kosinski collaborating with original writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

If Legacy‘s $170 million production costs and commensurate marketing budget had you thinking the movie’s box-office performance was disappointing, well, you’re not alone. “I had the impression that the film had been a bit underwhelming, despite a $44 million opening weekend,” Deadline’s Mike Felming writes. “But looks are deceiving. For one thing, despite the film’s big budget, TRON: Legacy had the benefit of zero first-dollar box office gross participants. [...] Beyond that, the film fed other Disney divisions. The TRPM: Legacy soundtrack sold 615,000 copies worldwide, and the movie spawned ElecTRONica, a featured attraction at Disney’s California Adventure theme park. A TRON: Legacy rollercoaster for the new Shanghai theme park is under discussion.

But, really, should anyone be surprised that Disney wants another installment? Legacy was launched with plans for a franchise — an animated prequel debuts next summer on Disney XD — and nothing short of an unmitigated bomb was likely to change that.