With a domestic box office year now lagging behind last year’s by -6% (it was -11% as of last Sunday), the motion picture industry needed CinemaCon this week like a pop of Viagra. Here’s some takeaways:
There’s Still A Belief That Theatrical Can Work
We are in a massive funk no doubt at the domestic box office with the big question as to whether we’ll ever get back to 2018 levels ($11.9 billion). However, what was clear coming away from the Las Vegas studio-exhibitor love-in at Caesars Palace was that the studios aren’t bailing on theatrical: they delivered the stars, they delivered stunts (we’ll get into that) with a robust lineup of product in Avatar: Fire & Ash, Superman, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Ballerina, Lilo & Stich, Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning to indicate that better days are ahead. In fact, after this weekend’s $135M+ opening for Warner Bros/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie, we might be turning that corner right now.
Realize this: If we had anything to worry about when it comes to the future of theatrical, it would show in the studios scaling back the wattage of their presentations. That didn’t happen: Lionsgate stepped it up in a major way, Amazon MGM Studios was present, and even though Sony didn’t have cowbell in their 2025 slate, they did blast fireworks off with their confirmation of the cast for Sam Mendes’ The Beatles and the unprecedented release plan to roll out all four biopics in April 2028. If the studios weren’t showing footage or bringing stars, then we would have reason to worry.
When it comes to a studio asking talent to show up at CinemaCom, the press doesn’t realize what a big deal that is. When studio publicity asks a star upfront for something, there’s always another thing that will get subtracted from them in the long run down the road toward a movie’s release. And it cost a ton of money to send talent. With Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson, Jenna Ortega, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ana de Aramas, Glen Powell, Chris Pratt, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Zoe Saldana and many more in attendance, this CinemaCon wasn’t lacking in celebrity turnout. That tells you how serious the studios are about making theatrical work.
Ryan Gosling, Christopher Miller and Phil Lord during ‘Project Hail Mary’ presentation.
Studio flacks always love to ask “What did you think of our presentation? Wasn’t ours the Best?” For me, it’s a personal aesthetic. I was particularly excited to see footage from Warner Bros’ biggest swings –Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! —and boy, do they look like a lot of fun. Jesus, ain’t Ryan Gosling hysterical? That’s just organic, you can’t plan that. During his session for Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary, he quipped, “I put the ‘not’ in astronaut; I’ve never done a spacewalk—I can’t even moonwalk,” and relayed how the pic was meant for the big screen: “We tried to put it on a TV once — it wouldn’t fit.”
If there’s a few quick notes. Sure, Sony, we would have liked to see more.
Amazon MGM Studios had the latest slot ever for a studio presentation from 8:15pm-10pm (they wrapped at 9:45pm) on Wednesday. That’s not just tough on the press, but tough for all the execs and stars taking the stage. This had to do with Universal hogging up the morning with a How to Train Your Dragon screening and booking the 4pm-6pm slot. From what I hear, Amazon MGM Studios got the short end of the stick because they were the new kids on the block in the Colosseum. Still, Amazon MGM Studios, don’t ever let Cinema United (ne NATO) book you past a 5PM slot ever again. Cinema United, we like to see movies at night, not during the day.
Does any film look like it’s in dire straits? At a $140M cost, there’s no spaceship in that Paul Thomas Anderson film as much as I want to see it. Also, some felt the Q&A with James Gunn, Peter Safran and cast went a little too long on Superman, and there was a cynicism from some in the media over the whole robots tending to the Man of Steel in the Fortress of Solitude. Such CinemaCon footage is typically held for later in a marketing campaign, but Gunn proudly gave it to fans online before Disney‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe portion hit the stage on Thursday afternoon.
Finally, in regards to reports about the Colosseum crowd’s tepid response to stars or presentations, know that exhibitors in the room have never been a ferocious Cannes Film Festival crowd with standing ovations and whistling. It’s not their style. In my ten years of covering CinemaCon, I can’t recall a standing ovation. A warm applause is a big deal and there was plenty of that.
Progress With Theatrical Windows
As AMC CEO Adam Aron told Jill Goldsmith exclusively, he’s made progress with three of the major six studios in agreeing to a 45-day theatrical window. We know Disney is one, and possibly Amazon MGM Studios another, and we know that the whole idea of windows will be a hard sell to Universal (Aron was mum on specifics). One notable industry CEO remarked to me that the exhibitors’ haggling over 45-days is “small ball.” I wholeheartedly disagree. Fewer people are going to the movies. The conditioning of keeping potential moviegoers at home with streaming is a reality. We just went through this with Q1. Exhibition should continue to push and prod the bear. However, note that all this window talk is a two-way street. It’s not just about poor exhibition with their 35% rental. Some studios argue that exhibition doesn’t hold smaller and middle-budget pictures long enough, that they’re always getting boxed out for the next new tentpole. Studios, you also slash marketing budgets on low-to-mid budget titles. One distribution suit told Deadline about the news, “‘Adam Aron, guarantee me a 45-day exclusive window, and I’ll go talk to my bosses.”
When It Comes To Social Media During Presentations, Disney Gets It, But The Rest Of The Studios Are Clueless
This is a really big, serious note. There’s this whole notion of “what studios are showing is only for those in the room. Shhhh. Not share!” Get off your G.D. high horses and realize that the domestic box office just burnt down in Q1. I understand studio’s philosophies in holding footage or trailers for a specific point down the road in a movie’s campaign (sometimes they don’t Tron: Ares just dropped a trailer today, and Paramount‘s released the Naked Gun trailer timed to their Thursday presentation). However, America needs to know, as they do with San Diego Comic-Con, that a major movie convention with a ton of stars is taking place in Las Vegas. Create FOMO. The only studio to permit the shooting of their onstage presentations (not onscreen footage) was Disney for the second year in a row. Such moments create interest and want to see for your movie. Get it? Last year, it was MCU Boss Kevin Feige ‘F’ bombing on stage during Deadpool & Wolverine and Dwayne Johnson and Hawaiian dancers for Moana 2. This year, Disney allowed such great moments to get broadcasted on social:
The Thunderbolts* cast hysterical entrance onstage; the troupe having just rescued Wyatt Russell from losing at the tables.
And a Tron: Ares laser light show.
There were so many sublime moments this year including Tom Cruise’s remembrance of Val Kilmer, Jenna Ortega’s banter with Lionsgate Motion Picture Chair Adam Fogelson (“Don’t be so self-deprecating, dude.”), the Weeknd’s mini-concert performance tied to his movie Hurry Up Tomorrow (that movie opens May 16, it would be great if the world knew that from his performance), Gosling’s jokes, and Universal’s 43 piece orchestra. All of these great moments are lost in space because of studio marketing department’s cockiness. Traffic gets created when many are recording it and passing it along versus the @CinemaCon X exclusively posting it to their 31K followers. Who cares if there’s social media footage of Olivia Wilde getting served divorce papers onstage when she’s talking about Don’t Worry Darling? (that happened three years ago). I bring this up because there’s probably some talent rep out there who needs a Come to Jesus when realizing that the gains of capturing a star’s appearance goes a long way in promoting a project vs the fears that they’ll malaprop onstage. The Wilde news wound up getting out and was the spark that lit the wick around all the behind-the-scenes drama on that production, teeing up intrigue and want-to-see for the edgy romantic drama and a $19.3M opening. Now, what studio wouldn’t want that for a mid-sized movie right now?
Kudos to those studios, i.e. Lionsgate and Amazon MGM Studios, for holding red carpets and press ops. There should be more of that at CinemaCon to broadcast the message “see our films in a movie theater”.
Excitement About Amazon MGM Studios
They’ve arrived and they’re serious about theatrical distribution. Hallelujah. Exclaimed Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios Head Mike Hopkins onstage, “We are committed to doing this for the long term and when Amazon commits to something, we tend to do it big.” Beamed Rick Roman, a Kentucky-Delaware exhibitor who likes to speak to truth to power, “Amazon/MGM’s commitment to theatres and slate of films adds another major studio. Instead of a pipeline with five majors we now have a 6th with 14 to 15 films. It is a 20% improvement in filmmaking power.”
Cinema United, It’s Time for a Change-Up in Venue, Improve Press Accommodations and Tell Security To Calm The Hell Down
Our final notes are for you, CinemaCon. We know there’s a lot of passion when it comes to planning this event, and there’s a lot passion from us, the media. Time to head to a new hotel. Caesars is old and dusty. Furthermore, create a press section that’s in the orchestra or downstairs section with risers and tables and power strips for us to work comfortably at as we’re churning away on copy (This is actually very doable. Warner Bros. had this set-up in place when they did an HBO Max launch on the Burbank, CA lot, pre-Covid).
Lastly, CinemaCon security’s treatment of the press is uncalled for. There were reports that another major trade editor had a dust-up with security involving a cell phone. I’ve been there in previous years, so I feel for them. In fact, sometimes security doesn’t get it that laptops are allowed to be open in the press section during presentations. They were a little wild with the green laser pen on Day One. Last year, another editor was taken aside by security and asked to delete photos off his cell phone. This year, my fellow colleagues were harassed as we were finishing up some last-minute details on stories after a panel. We were told if we didn’t clear the press area ASAP, we’d be removed, like we were Abbie Hoffman or something. We’re at CinemaCon to cover your event, Cinema United. We are not there to pirate movies nor or we there to illegally post trailers on YouTube.