Don’t Call It a Comeback: Welcome to the Weird World of CinemaCon 2024

What happens in Vegas… fuels a year’s worth of hope for theatrical exhibitors.

From April 8-11, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Universal, Paramount, and Disney — not to mention the faith-friendly Angel Studios and anime distributor Crunchyroll — have four days at CinemaCon to wow theater owners (and the press) with their plans for the summer blockbuster season and beyond. However, there are only so many times that NATO, the MPA, and the studios can say “movie theaters are back!” without sounding like Chicken Little.

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The reality is 2024 will be lucky to match the levels of last year, and 2025 has its own challenges if the industry faces another round of strikes. Even so, Adam Aron’s hundreds of soldier-owners from his AMC army will be looking to him for reassurance at the world’s biggest exhibition pep rally.

Beyond the potential shock and awe of movie previews, messaging that could carry firepower as well as optimism includes the ever-expanding IMAX edge and the possibilities of event cinema. Last year had “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and episodes of “The Chosen.” And this year, Angel, which originally distributed “The Chosen,” makes its debut as a CinemaCon presenter.

When Angel hired executive vice president and head of global theatrical distribution Brandon Purdie just weeks before CinemaCon 2023, he immediately made the case that the new studio needed to aggressively pitch its slate — particularly “Sound of Freedom,” with its ambitious July 4 release date — on the ground to theater owners. That scramble-the-jets effort paid off when the child sex-trafficking drama became the summer’s polarizing and controversial surprise hit.

Angel will present trailers for its slate of five movies carrying into 2025 and other announcements may be in store. (“Sound of Freedom 2,” anyone?) However, it says a lot about the cockeyed state of exhibition when the tiny Angel arrives at CinemaCon with the wind at its back while Disney must recover from the self-inflicted blows of 2023 CinemaCon showcases like “Indiana Jones 5,” “The Marvels,” “Haunted Mansion,” “Wish,” and “Next Goal Wins.”

This year, Disney has a new live-action film prince in David Greenbaum, the former Searchlight co-head who can brag about the Oscar wins and a $116 million run for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.” He can also push the Lanthimos and Emma Stone reunion in “Kinds of Kindness” as well as a beefy slate for 20th Century that includes “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and “Alien: Romulus.”

However, the message Disney must prioritize is CEO Bob Iger’s mantra: “Quality over quantity.” In that spirit, there is just one Marvel movie in 2024 with “Deadpool and Wolverine.” We might also get a look at “Moana 2” (now with more breathing room from that other “Moana” follow-up). Expect Disney to regale the Colosseum with how it converted a streaming Disney+ series to a movie in the interest of putting its best stuff in theaters.

Not on the list of presenters — again — is Amazon MGM Studios. Amazon closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM a little more than a month before CinemaCon 2022; a year later, Bloomberg reported Amazon’s intentions to release 12-15 films in theaters each year, beginning in 2024.

Well, here we are — but where is Amazon and those dozen-plus films? Perhaps they’re at the craps tables with fellow no-shows from Apple, which Bloomberg also said planned to invest a billion dollars annually into theatrical films. (Apple has never presented at CinemaCon, although its movies have been promoted as part of its theatrical partners’ slates.)

Certainly, Amazon MGM and Apple execs will attend. However, they’re not making a big play for theater owners — especially after Amazon MGM sent Jake Gyllenhaal and “Road House” straight to streaming, where it broke Prime Video viewing records. Amazon also has Gyllenhaal in a first-look production deal for the next three years; ditto Ryan Gosling, star of CinemaCon 2024 opening movie “The Fall Guy.” Both deals are for theatrical… and streaming.

If anyone is poised for a victory lap it’s Universal, which had a hell of a 2023 with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and seven-time Oscar-winner “Oppenheimer.” “The Fall Guy” opens the summer movie season May 3 in the Marvel slot; “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters” will follow. Christmas brings “Wicked”; early next year, “Wolf Man.”

The biggest star of the Universal winner’s circle is Christopher Nolan. We wouldn’t be surprised if he drops by to take a bow and thank theater owners, but for his next act Nolan could go with any studio that wants him. However, it would be a first-rate flex to see Donna Langley announce the next Nolan movie.

As for other box-office superheroes, expect them to be thin on the ground. With only the one Marvel movie for Disney, likely a minimal update on James Gunn’s DC slate, and no Sony to tout its own Marvel titles, CinemaCon should look a lot less like Comic-Con. Warner Bros. learned a tough lesson from “The Flash” debacle by overhyping the film more than we ever could, although the studio will drop the trailer for “Joker: Folie a Deux” online after it screens in the Colosseum.

On the other hand, this could be a good year for mid-budget saviors after the 2023 performances of films like “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” “M3GAN,” “Jesus Revolution,” “80 for Brady,” and “Talk to Me.” On Day 1, NATO president and CEO Michael O’Leary will moderate “Strength in the Middle: Working Together to Boost Mid-Budget Films,” a panel that recognizes “theaters cannot thrive on big-budget blockbusters alone.”

The onslaught of CinemaCon trailers and other sneak peeks always risks blending together, making it tough to know when the hype is real (“Barbie”) or it’s “The Exorcist: Believer.” We’ve already seen first looks or teasers for “Deadpool and Wolverine,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Furiosa,” and “Twisters,” but here’s our Vegas wishlist: anything from the animated “Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim”; an update to Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” (which was pushed back); and details about Ryan Coogler’s next film with Michael B. Jordan.

Lionsgate could offer a taste of “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina” and maybe a tease of its Michael Jackson biopic. Universal’s Focus Features has buzzy critical darlings like “Conclave” and “Nosferatu”; we’d also like any details about Jordan Peele’s untitled fourth film.

A safe bet is seeing another crazy Tom Cruise video hyping “Mission: Impossible 8.” If Paramount throws in “Gladiator 2” footage, we’ll walk away happy. Disney will close the show, likely with first looks at “Moana 2,” “Mufasa: The Lion King,” and/or “Snow White.”

Finally, we’re taking odds on which unhinged costume Chris Aronson will don to celebrate a recent Paramount Picture hit or an upcoming hopeful. Last year, he was a Ninja Turtle; in 2022, Aronson was Dr. Robotnik from “Sonic.” Before that, Evel Knievel to celebrate “Jackass: Forever.” Our money is on “IF,” “Mean Girls,” or “Gladiator 2.”

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