With a three-day gross of $43.6 million, “Tron Legacy” — which may also be spelled “Tron: Legacy” or “TRON: Legacy”, depending on your level of nerdiness — dominated the weekend box office like a User dominates programs, despite the fact that the whole Users-and-programs thing is one of about half a dozen notions from the original movie that goes wasted in the bigger, shinier sequel. (Once again, folks, I wanted to like it, but it just wouldn’t let me.)

Ah, well. It was a fait accompli for Disney’s 3D super-sequel, which has been pegged a box-office hit ever since ComicCon 2008, where a showreel set geek hearts aflutter. One wonders whether they’re still as dazzled after seeing the movie, or if they just want to play the tie-in videogames while drinking blue Slurpees and playing the Daft Punk CD really loud.

The week’s other 3D newbie, “Yogi Bear”, came in a distant second with $16.7 million, while last week’s topper, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader“, placed third with $12.4 million — closely pursued by “The Fighter“, which earned $12.2 million. And in more heartening news, audiences stayed away from the mediocrity of James L. Brooks’ “How Do You Know“, which opened in eighth place with just $7.6 million. Now all we have to do is keep them from returning to “The Tourist“, and we can all sleep soundly at night.