Paramount’s CinemaCon Presentation Brings Laughs; Seth Rogen On Distrib Boss Chris Aronson ‘TMNT’ Stunt: “First Time I’ve Seen An Executive Emerging From A Sewer!”

Anthony D'Alessandro, Nancy Tartaglione and Jill Goldsmith
·4 min read
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UPDATED: The final morning of CinemaConbegan with Paramount, the studio that brought coast-to-coast moviegoers back with their $718.7 million, record-breaking Tom Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick. And in standard fashion, domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson hammed it up with a grand entrance.

Aronson has made a big splash on previous CinemaCon stages clad as Vanilla Ice (during his 20th Century says) and in a Jackass go-kart. This time, he ascended from a stage floor door tricked out as a sewer cap, holding a pizza with a Teenage Mutant Turtles mask around his eyes. Aronson emerged following a big hip hop breakdance crew.

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“It’s the first time I’ve seen an executive emerging from a sewer here at CinemaCon!” joked Seth Rogen when he came on stage to present Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem, due out in theaters August 4. “There is something very appropriate about seeing studio executives rise from the sewers,” added the TMNT producer and scribe.

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Paramount’s presentation was a robust, efficient 90-minute session. One of the big highlights? Paramount’s release of Apple’s Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon today. The Oscar-winning filmmaker is getting the “Legend of Cinema” award presentation.

Last night, Universal’s movie star trot went on for 2 1/2 hours, longer than Warner Bros’ two-hour Tuesday presentation.

“I can assure, our presentation will come in under two hours,” Aronson told the exhibitors in the room.

Aronson took a comedic jab at the Nicole Kidman commercial for AMC Theatres and Adam Aron’s decision to spike prices for key seats in his circuit. “We come to CinemaCon to laugh, to cry, because we need to know what’s coming to your screens…Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this,” he said. Like when “You are in the center section you paid more for your registration than those people in the balcony.

“We can’t focus on short-term gains,” he told exhibs in theCaesars Palace Colosseum Theatre. “Let’s listen to the consumer and give them the experience that they want and deserve. We should be experimenting with variable pricing like we did for 80 for Brady. Why not make audiences offers they can’t refuse? There is nothing we can’t accomplish so let’s get together to get it right.”

“We need theatrical to make streaming work,” emphasized Paramount Pictures boss Brian Robbins, who followed Aronson. Robbins touted that the studio had the best box office record in a decade. Not only that, but the studio can boast it has the fastest growing streaming service.

Rogen, in presenting extending footage from TMNT, had the Colosseum Theatre in stitches, exclaiming, “This is a big stage. Seems unfair to ask studio executives to fill a stage designed for the most charismatic people on the planet — they built this for Adele!”

“This is the perfect place to be if you want to have a conversation with some drunken guy who has two screens in Wilmington,” said Rogen.

Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen

RELATED: CinemaCon 2023 – Deadline’s Full Coverage

Among the highlights from Paramount’s presentation:

— Rihanna showed up to announce she’s playing Smurfette in the new animated 2025 movie, The Smurfs Movie.

— Rogen showed off early footage of animated TMNT. “I love these characters, they were weird, noble, brave and smart. When I got the opportunity to put my own stamp on it, I knew the versions that had come before had never leaned into the teenage element. We thought what if we cast actual teenagers and we capture their insane teenage energy, and that’s what we did. They said a lot of disgusting things we couldn’t use in the movie.”

–The big starry cast of the animated Transformers movie was announced.

— A new trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One and 20 minutes of footage of Cruise and new franchise player Haley Atwell.

— John Krasinski talking up new family pic IF with its cast and his spinoff production of A Quiet Place: Day One, due out in March 2024 starring Lupita Nyong’o.

— Ziggy Marley took the stage to announce the biopic Bob Marley: One Love. He’s a producer on it. “My life is not important to me. My life is the people,” says Bob Marley (Ben Adir) in the first footage. Pic just wrapped physical production. Trailer opens with massive crowds who come out to see the reggae icon as he shot to fame. We see Marley in the studio, in concert and in pain at the violence of his native Jamaica that spilled into his own life. “There’s a war going on, violence, and you can’t separate the music and the message,” says the title protagonist.

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