CinemaCon 2022 – Round Up

CinemaCon 2022 took place between 25 – 28 April 2022 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

 

CinemaCon, the annual convention organized by the National Association of Theatre Owners, is back after a cancelled 2020 edition and a muted 2021 affair.

Only eight months ago, the movie theater industry congregated at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The previous edition took place at a time when the cinema industry was in constant flux, with fewer overseas delegates, pre-recorded studio presentations, and a low turnout on the trade show floor.

The industry has made great strides since CinemaCon 2021, after a string of box office successes – Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Batman, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and a far more stabilized movie release calendar, which have given cinema owners the foundation to pursue a serious recovery. The worst looks to be behind movie owners around the world, with theatrically exclusive films returning to big screen and recent box office figures suggesting that viewers are returning to the medium.

Here’s a look at the biggest studio announcements from the largest annual gathering of the motion picture industry:

 

Sony Pictures:

Sony opened the studio presentations at CinemaCon 2022 with a victory lap. Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, who energized the studio’s 2021 showcase to exhibitors by expressing a strong commitment to theatrical exclusivity.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has earned a whopping $3.3 billion in global box office since their last appearance in CinemaCon, only eight months back.

The studio’s 2022 presentation began with an extended look at the upcoming comedy-action caper Bullet Train (July 29) and continued its presentation further with the new looks of Where the Crawdads Sing (July 15) and The Woman King (September 16), original titles the studio believes will help balance the tentpole-heavy release schedule of the coming months.

 

Warner Bros.:

Warner Bros. started the presentation at CinemaCon 2022 by unveiling an early first look at footage from The Flash.

The major announcement of the evening was confirmation from studio chairman Toby Emmerich that director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson would be coming back for another installment of The Batman.

Fans also caught the first glimpse of Margot Robbie in the starring role for Barbie, now scheduled for a July 21, 2023 release.

Director Baz Luhrman gave an enthusiastic introduction to footage from his upcoming Elvis, scheduled for a June 24 release, the film will confront the challenge of re-engaging older moviegoers.

Other non-franchise Warner Bros. titles featured in the presentation include the Timothy Chalamet musical Wonka (Christmas 2023), Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry, Darling starring Florence Pugh (September 23), and the Stephen King adaptation Salem’s Lot (September 9).

Warner Bros.’ focus on original titles didn’t overshadow the other DC Comics properties on its schedule. Their CinemaCon presentation included advance looks at Shazam! Fury of the Gods (December 16), Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom (March 17, 2023), DC League of Super-Pets (July 29), and Black Adam (October 21).

 

Disney:

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige opened the ceremony introducing a 20-minute clip of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Marvel titles have been a financial lifeline for the industry since cinemas reopened with titles like Black Widow, Shan-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The CinemaCon 2022 audience also enjoyed a 30-minute look at Lightyear, the first Pixar title to hit theaters since Onward.

Disney turned the rest of the presentation over to its 20th Century Studios division, where audiences got a first look at footage of David O. Russell’s Amsterdam (November 4). The title promises to be a star-studded big screen experience driven by leads Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington.

Six minutes of The Bob’s Burgers Movie (May 27) also screened for the audience, emerging as a promising counter-programming option set to open alongside Top Gun: Maverick over Memorial Day weekend.

Producer Jon Landau came on stage to share Disney’s biggest announcement of the morning. Avatar 2, now titled Avatar: The Way of Water, will stick to its December 16 release date.

 

Universal Studios:

Universal Studios’ presentation represented with footage from Jordan Peele’s Nope (July 22), David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends (October 14), and the Blumhouse evil robot thriller M3gan (January 13, 2023).

Highlights from the showcase also included enthusiastic responses from exhibitors for comedies Easter Sunday (August 5), Minions: The Rise of Gru (July 1), and Bros (September 30). Universal’s presentation closed with legacy cast members of Jurassic World: Dominion introducing a trailer for the film ahead of its June 10 release.

 

Focus Features:

Focus Features president Lisa Bunnell introduced footage from several upcoming titles. Focus will bring a diverse slate to theaters in 2022 that includes movies like Downton Abbey: A New Era (May 18) and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (July 15), genre plays like action-comedy flick Violent Night (December 2), and dramas like James Gray’s Armageddon Time.

 

Neon:

Neon showcased footage from a trio of its own titles to complement the week’s tentpole-driven presentations. David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future (June 3) is sure to make audiences squirm as the legendary director returns to his roots in body horror.

 

Lionsgate:

Lionsgate showcased upcoming comedy About My Father. The Studio also revealed never before seen footage of a slate that balances original films like coming-of-age comedy Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and horror flick The Devil’s Light with established action franchises like John Wick Chapter 4 and The Expendables 4.

The studio is also building spin-off series based on successful films. The drama White Bird will act as a sort of spiritual prequel to Lionsgate’s 2017 hit Wonder, while Ballerina will give star Anna de Armas her own series in the John Wick universe.

The CinemaCon 2022 audience caught their first glimpse of the video game adaptation Borderlands and a new Dirty Dancing movie heralding the return of original star Jeniffer Grey.

The big news from the Lionsgate showcase came in the final moments of the presentation with the announcement of a new Hunger Games prequel dated for November 17, 2023. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes could provide a return to major global grosses for Lionsgate, which has played a larger role with mid-range titles since the Hunger Games series concluded in 2015.

 

Paramount Pictures:

Paramount Pictures kept most of the focus of its CinemaCon 2022 presentation on Top Gun: Maverick, which got its first public screening at the Las Vegas gathering Thursday.

The studio still had a few other big announcements to make. Among them were two title announcements for Paramount’s biggest franchises: Mission: Impossible and A Quiet Place. The seventh M:I film will be titled Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning: Part One while the upcoming “Quiet Place” spinoff from director Michael Sarnoski will be called A Quiet Place: Day One. Both films are set for release in 2023.

 

 

Source: Boxoffice Pro

What’s Buzzin Behind The Screen – Industry News – October 2021

In this edition of ‘What’s Buzzin Behind the Screen’, we bring you the latest industry news – everything you need to know about what’s happening behind the scenes in Hollywood. From the latest trailer releases, to box office collections and movie announcements, here’s the October 2021 update:

 

  1. Venom: Let There Be Carnage passes Black Widow at U.S. box office, after only a month in theaters, to become the second biggest 2021 movie. The Tom Hardy starrer has currently earned $184.1M in the US (according to Forbes), surpassing Black Widow ($183.7M), and now stands second to Shang-Chi ($221.5M).

 

  1. October’s stellar performance in box office led by No Time To Die, Dune, Venom 2 and Halloween Kills has prompted leading analytics firm Gower Street to up its forecast for 2021 worldwide box office revenue from $20.2 billion to $21.6 billion. That would be 80 percent ahead of 2020.

 

  1. Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch posted the top opening theater average of the pandemic era. The Searchlight Pictures movie grossed $1.3 million from 52 cinemas in 14 U.S. markets. This represents a victory for Art House cinemas, which have generally suffered during the pandemic due to the reluctance of older audiences visiting theaters.

 

  1. In further industry news, the official The Matrix Resurrections Twitter account has joined in on the online jokes about Facebook’s virtual reality-based rebranding as Meta. This film poster, originally featuring the tagline “The Choice Is Yours,” has been parodied to include “Now, based on real events,” alongside the hashtag #Meta, referencing the recent announcement by Facebook.

 

  1. Despite the dual threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and Warner Bros’ day-and-date release plan, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune achieved the best domestic opening weekend of his career with $41 million. The Filmmaker also received the greenlight for Dune: Part Two from Warner Bros., with a guarantee of an exclusive 45-day theatrical window.

 

  1. Good news for all Korean Cinema fans as The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) is underwriting discounted cinema tickets worth KW6,000 ($5.14) from November 1 to entice South Korean audiences back to cinemas after months of pandemic precautions.

 

  1. Genre-bending horror franchise Scream will be going through a reboot with new directors and main character such as Sidney Prescott herself (Neve Campbell) along with Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) returning to the franchise. Paramount has announced that the movie will release in January 2022.

 

  1. Pixar released teaser trailer of Lightyear, the origin story of one of the most loved characters – Buzz. The original feature film is set to hit theatres in June 2022. The teaser rocketed to 83M views in the first 24 hours, ahead of Eternals, and is the second best for a Pixar movie.

 

  1. Jake Gyllenhaal, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actor will star in Guy Ritchie’s action thriller The Interpreter. The timely story centers on a US sergeant who returns to a war zone to rescue the interpreter who saved his life. Ritchie will co-write the script, together with Ivan Atkinson and Marni Davies who he collaborated in many of his previous projects.

 

  1. After her brief appearance in No Time To Die, Ana De Armas is now circling a role that should offer her more screen time and the chance to be a bigger baddie. She is dubbed to be starring in the upcoming John Wick spin-offBallerina. The new movie will focus on the Ballerina character glimpsed briefly in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Director Len Wiseman – best known for Underworld, will direct the film.

 

Stay tuned for the latest industry news in our November 2021 edition.

 

 

Source: Screen Rant, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Rotten Tomatoes and Cinema Blend