Was the failure of Tron: Ares inevitable by virtue of Tron never being an A-level franchise? Or is the box office decimation of Disney’s $180 million threequel a matter of the specific choices made for what became this past weekend’s little-loved and little-seen would-be tentpole? Maybe Disney should have said “No” to Jared Leto’s self-aggrandizing pitch and cast a younger or at least more popular older actor to anchor a big-deal franchise entry.

No matter, there’s plenty of Tron discourse as Kirsten Acuna (the coolest entertainment staff editor at People Magazine) and Aaron Neuwirth (the second-coolest host of 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla) pull another two-for-one guest hosting shift. It’s another Power Rangers-worthy (two minorities, two women and one generic white guy arbitrarily in charge) line-up, which I suppose makes sense since it seemingly took Tron 3 a thousand years to become “free” even if it absolutely failed to conquer Earth.

It’s just the terrific trio this time around, as Scott, Lisa and Jeremy dig into what went (mostly) right with Taylor Swift’s second glorified feature-length theatrical commercial and what went so very wrong with A24 and Dwayne Johnson’s The Smashing Machine. Meanwhile, after a shockingly good overseas hold, behold some cautiously optimistic long-term “projections” for One Battle After Another, as well as a frank explanation of A) why Release Party of a Showgirl opened with barely 1/3 of what The Eras Tour debuted with in October 2023 and B) why Avatar: The Way of Water’s theatrical reissue opened to less than 1/3 of what Avatar grossed in its September 2022 reissue. Oh, and Lisa — who has seen almost no pre-Casino Royale 007 films — watched GoldenEye for the first time.

In terms of the written word…

Scott Mendelson anchored day 51 of Ted Hope’s #FilmStack Inspiration Challenge.

Jeremy Fuster dissected the glory that is Art the Clown’s Terrifier-themed maze (and his impromptu appearances where you might least expect him) at this year’s Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights events.

Lisa Laman explained why Emily Blunt wasn’t remotely a good fit for her supporting turn in The Smashing Machine.

Ryan Scott’s “Tales from the Box Office” highlighted what proved to be a somewhat defining (even if its lessons have now become comparatively forgotten) October 2000 box office showdown during which the new and youth-skewing (Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro’s Meet the Parents) pancaked the old and nostalgia-skewing (Sylvester Stallone’s Get Carter remake).

If you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe (using a cartoon mallet) with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you’d like to reach out and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or suggest ideas for bonus episodes, please email us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch). Oh… and the paid subscriber chat for October 9 is set for today at 11:00 a.m. PST.

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

The host of The Brandon Peters Show (the only pod with a less creative title than “The Box Office Podcast”) returns to discuss One Battle After Another, which pulled a giant *shrug* of a $22 million domestic debut. Did the reviews, buzz and Oscar attention fail to move the needle, or did all the positive variables merely prevent an even lower opening? And with two in a row, is Leonardo DiCaprio now a mere $20 million-plus opener compared to the $30-$40 million highs seen in the 2010s? Sure, WB can afford to let this one underwhelm in relation to its budget and perhaps aspirational hopes, but theaters sure would have preferred another Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood or even The Departed.

Meanwhile, because the real news of the weekend was the perfectly-fine $13.7 million debut for Universal and DreamWorks’ Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, longtime “kids entertainment in the streaming era” expert and pundit Emily Horgan stopped by all the way from Ireland to discuss the reemerging trend of kids toons and related youth-skewing shows getting the “Now it’s a movie, dammit!” treatment. While Brandon makes a convincing case for why Gabby should have perished in her feature film debut, all agree that the current upswing in such youth-skewing releases is a net-positive in terms of cultivating the next generation of regular (or even semi-regular) theatrical moviegoers. Oh, and Emily also agrees that Paw Patrol 3 should have been a Dark Knight remake, dammit.