Fading Hollywood star Jared Leto has been branded box office poison by industry experts over the embarrassing failure of his new Disney movie.
Insiders told entertainment bible The Hollywood Reporter that 53 year-old Leto’s stock is badly-damaged in Tinseltown over the lackluster $33.5 million first weekend gross of Tron: Ares.
One talent manager told the outlet: ‘In a world where Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch are having a hard time getting lead roles, why would you even go to a person who can’t open a movie and who has question marks around him as a person?’
They added: ‘You could have had Ryan Gosling, it wasn’t going to work. No one asked for this reboot.
‘If you say, “Tron: Ares is good, we just needed a different actor,” you’re deluding yourself.’
Leto is said to have received a paycheck in the high seven figures, as well as another seven figure producing fee for Tron: Ares.
But such lavish paydays are now firmly in the rearview mirror for the tarnished actor, experts warned.
The ‘question marks’ around Leto’s character refer to allegations that he was sexually inappropriate towards nine women, including teenage girls.
Jared Leto is destined for the Hollywood junkyard after the embarrassing failure of his new movie Tron: Ares, insiders say
Leto was accused of being a creep by DJ Allie Teilz who said Leto ‘forcing himself on you’ was a rite of passage for young women in LA.
She said her own alleged encounter with the star happened when she was just 17. Leto has denied all allegations of impropriety.
Tron: Ares, a futuristic tale about an AI warrior who rides a motorbike, cost $180 million to make and tens of millions more to market.
It was a passion project for Leto, who pushed for it to be put into production – with disastrous results.
The flop movie pulled another $27 million in takings outside the US in its first weekend, for a total of $60.5 million. Second weekend takings usually plummet, meaning Tron: Ares faces an uphill battle to recoup its costs.
Earlier this week, Puck reported that the Tron franchise – which comprises the original 1981 movie and 2010 reboot Tron: Legacy – is now dead in the water.
The decision to cast a middle aged star known for indie projects and a controversial personal life has been blamed for hastening the Tron movies’ demise.
But Puck also highlighted that the original Tron movie was a box office oddity that became a cult classic because of its then-futuristic special effects – and that there was never much demand for multiple sequels in the first place.
Leto is seen here in the latest installment of the film franchise, which has so far not lived up to financial expectations
According to screenwriter Jesse Wigutow, who worked on the film, Leto was largely responsible for the movie getting the greenlight in the first place.
Leto shot to fame in cult TV show My So Called Life in 1994.
He quickly became a heartthrob and transitioned successfully to movies, straddling roles in blockbusters including Fight Club and American Psycho with meatier parts in indie movies including Requiem for a Dream.
In 2014, Leto won a best supporting actor Oscar for playing a transgender prostitute in AIDS drama The Dallas Buyers Club, but his career peaked soon afterwards.
Leto suffered an equally-embarrassing failure with Morbius, a 2022 Marvel superhero movie which saw him take on the titular role.
It cost $83 million to make and made around double that, but did not make a sufficient profit to have been deemed a success.
The star is also the lead singer of popular band Thirty Seconds To Mars, giving him an off-ramp from Hollywood as his movie career continues to dwindle.
