With Jared Leto-fronted Tron: Legacy generating a meagre $33.5 million against a $180 million budget during its opening weekend, the Tron series looks set to go into retirement. The disappointing figures slipped well below estimations of $40-45 million in the US and Canada and similar predictions overseas. Weekend box office results were even more dire than Leto’s previous flop Morbius, creating financial chaos for the cinema industry. These catastrophic failures surely signal Leto’s departure from future lead roles, yet the actor’s recent performances have nonetheless garnered a significant following from online viewers in the form of memes, which have produced intriguing – and somewhat misguided – reactions from the filmmakers themselves.
While Leto has experienced financial flops in his past work, Morbius represented a distinct change in the way the film’s failure intersected with online buzz. Anyone who was anywhere near their Twitter account at the time were unlikely to miss the phrase: ‘It’s Morbin’ time’ popping up on their feed. For the uninitiated, it might seem like a key quote spoken during the film’s narrative. But any of the rare few who had witnessed the film itself would recognise that the line was entirely made up; a poor critical reception failed to stop a deluge of ironic interest and trolling online. Although it’s now a fairly common event to watch people pile on negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes before a film is released to try and reduce hype and financial success, some users posted photoshopped images of overwhelmingly positive Rotten Tomatoes scores.
The meme word of choice around this period? “Morbiusweep”. Genuine haters of the film employed their meme powers to deride the film by posting images of empty theatres, while others would paste edited images of Morbius sitting in the ranks of the highest-grossing films of all time. The now-mythical phrase ‘It’s Morbin’ Time’ derived from the Power Rangers phrase ‘It’s Morphin’ Time’, but the new, edited quote went outside the film sphere to be recreated in the speech bubbles of other characters. Despite the fact that the ironic internet frenzy didn’t lead to the Morbius sequel that many dreaded, Sony still came to the unfortunate conclusion that the memes were a sign of the film’s renewed popularity, deciding to re-release the film to 1,000 theatres in the hopes of a major box office resurgence. The new release bombed even more significantly, bringing in a total opening weekend hall of a pitiful $280,000.
Comic book overexposure could have been contributing factor in Morbius’ box office failure, but it’s difficult not to blame the movie’s central star. Leto was already known for his off-screen antics in Suicide Squad (the actor apparently sent dead rats and bullets to his co-workers as part of his Joker ‘method acting’ process), and the story gained widespread media attention. While Leto kept his Morbius method acting limited using crutches and a wheelchair off camera, this nonetheless reportedly caused major delays to the crew. Leto’s build-up of anecdotal behind-the-scenes incidents has very likely had an impact on viewer perceptions of his characters in trailers before they’ve considered watching the trailers. While Leto may have put in watchable performances in previous films like Requiem For a Dream and Dallas Buyers Club in smaller roles, the idea of a film advertised with the hook ‘starring Jared Leto’ just brings a sigh of disappointment at this point. The actor still insisted on bringing a certain irritating method element into Tron: Ares, apparently only responding to his character name ‘Ares’ on set. Leto has tried to downplay this behaviour, but we’ve only got Leto’s word for it.
Even though Leto’s recent venture hasn’t drawn quite the same meme attention as Morbius, Leto has started to become more of a meme himself as his central starring roles cripple box office sales. While more chaotic movie trends have taken place in the real world as suited men hurl bananas at screens (The Rise of Gru) and people gleefully chucking around popcorn upon hearing the phrase ‘chicken jockey’ (A Minecraft Movie), it’s nice to know that we’ve got slightly less cinematic anarchy with the Jared Leto memes. Especially with the recent articles about an insider reporting that Ryan Gosling could’ve saved the box office of TRON: ARES if he’d been in Leto’s shoes. It’s worth remembering that, while Blade Runner 2049 was critically adored upon release (and contained one of Leto’s strongest secondary character roles), it performed poorly at the box office in the same way as the original film. And at the end of day, Gosling probably couldn’t have done much with the film’s lifeless screenplay. In the current climate, Leto is nonetheless a seriously weak link who needs to stay away from the spotlight and give filmmakers a chance to recuperate a stable box office.