The main draw of CinemaCon is all the juicy exclusive footage and screenings we are treated to in the same theater where Adele makes hundreds of people cry with her Vegas residency. This year, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Universal, Paramount, and Disney each presented a very robust slate of nearly 80 movies… give or take a couple of titles, there was a lot. I am not even counting the titles from anime leader Crunchyroll, the faith-based Angel Studios, and a low-key presentation from Amazon MGM Studios.
Disney led the pack with 75 minutes of footage from their empire of Marvel Studios, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation, and Walt Disney Studios. We were treated to 35 minutes of Inside Out 2 as well as a hearty helping of what’s to come from the Marvel Cinematic Universe because it definitely needs some guidance after a post-Infinity War slump — not to mention the Jonathan Majors of it all.
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige welcomed Anthony Mackie on stage to introduce new footage of Captain America: Brave New World which also featured Harrison Ford as the new Thunderbolt Ross. Feige said that the MCU is returning to Captain America Winter Soldier political thriller vibes which I am hoping will help the MCU come back to its center. The wildly inappropriate Deadpool & Wolverine — which looks spectacularly unhinged and chaotically fun — is connected to the MCU by the multiverse-jumping introduced in the Loki series. As the MCU’s first R-rated movie, Feige made sure to say “fuck” as many times as he could on stage, calling the movie “fucking awesome!” I am sure he’s been dying to say “fuck” publicly during a presentation since he started his reign at Marvel Studios. With the new Captain America and Deadpool & Wolverine along with Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts* (besides a video of Florence Pugh eating mac n’ cheese, there was no footage from these two movies), Marvel is smart for returning to the familiar and mindfully elevating it rather than giving us an endless barrage of content that starts to get muddled due to MCU burnout.
Universal put on a whole production with glowing tulips placed in the theater for their presentation of Wicked. Director Jon M. Chu got emotional when talking about the film and was joined on the stage by the film’s stars Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum as well as Elphaba and Glinda themselves, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who were draped in their signature Wicked press tour colors of green and pink.
Warner Bros. treated us to first looks, extended previews, and brand new shiny trailers for Joker: Folie A Deux, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Furiosa. I was super excited to watch footage of Bong Joon-Ho‘s Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson as well as Antoine Fuqua‘s Michael Jackson biopic Michael — all of which were super duper impressive. (Side note: Director Bong and Pattison seem to have a silly and fun rapport and I am living for it.) We also got looks at the forthcoming adaptation of The Crow (RIP Brandon Lee), Lee Isaac Chung‘s Twisters, and Fede Álvarez‘s Alien: Romulus.
Paramount also resuscitated one of their successful franchises with Ridley Scott’s swords and sandals epic Gladiator II starring Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington. Other sequels for the upcoming year and beyond include Smile 2, Moana 2, a Five Night at Freddy’s sequel, Megan 2, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
The new John Wick spin-off Ballerina starring Ana de Armas will feed the need for more hyperviolent and wildly kinetic action while A Quiet Place: Day One starring Lupita Nyong’o gives us an origin story for the action-horror franchise. Speaking of prequels, the animated feature Transformers One starring Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry tells the story of Optimus Prime and Megatron’s frenemy relationship while The Strangers: Chapter 1 sets the stage for the very first installment. There’s also a remake of the Dutch film Speak No Evil.
Studios also made announcements of titles with no footage.
Through messages from Jack Black, we learned that Warner Bros. is working on James Gunn‘s new Superman (which promises to reset the DC universe), the return to the beloved Final Destination franchise titled Bloodlines, and a Minecraft starring Jack Black. Lionsgate had a long list of films that are on their upcoming including a revival of The Blair Witch Project; a Now You See Me sequel; a new take on Highlander starring Henry Cavill; an adaptation of Naruto directed by Destin Daniel Cretton; as well as a live-action version of Monopoly which will come from Margot Robbie‘s LuckyChap production banner.
Not to be outdone, Paramount unveiled a new version of The Running Man directed by Edgar Wright and starring Glen Powell as well as a new Star Trek movie directed by Toby Haynes and a Bee Gees biopic from Ridley Scott on the horizon. They are also bringing back the Scary Movie franchise, developing an R-rated movie based on TMNT: The Last Ronin; working on a Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover movie; prepping a new Smurfs movie with Rihanna as well as the animated feature Aang: The Last Airbender starring Eric Nam and Dave Bautista.
That’s a lot of movies, right? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
As mentioned in my examination of CinemaCon as an intersection of art and commerce, as studio execs took the stage to introduce their slates, most of them talked about having “diverse” slates of films and “original” stories. The more they said this, the more I clocked the titles being presented to us.
After the final day of CinemaCon, I decided to nerd out and make an unofficial tally of the films presented at the festival based on my notes. On my count, I have 79 films presented by Warner Bros. Lionsgate, Universal Pictures (including Focus Features), Paramount, and Disney (including all its properties). I decided to count how many “original” films were on the slates. And when I say an “original film”, I am referring to a movie that is not based on any IP and/or source material or part of an existing film franchise. By my rules in this little analysis, an original film is based on a script that was created entirely from scratch.
Out of 79 films, I only counted 16 “original films”. These included: Trap, Horizon: An American Saga, the Untitled Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan Project, Flowervale Street, Never Let Go, In The Grey, Flight Risk, Shadow Force, Good Fortune, Babes, IF, the Untitled Kendrick Lamar/Trey Parker and Matt Stone Musical, an Untitled Damien Chazelle Film, A Real Pain, Nightbitch, and Kinds of Kindness.
I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy a good franchise. I adore the MCU and I am excited to see Gunn’s interpretation of Superman. As much as I love the excitement of A Quiet Place prequel and the right for everyone to hear new Rihanna music in the new Smurfs movie when the familiar takes over, the landscape becomes complacent and it gives “good enough” energy. The progress of storytelling feels stalled when there’s just an overwhelming amount of material based on IP.
The studios are leaning toward the horror and genre worlds because they make money. Bigger studios are also trying to compete with more progressive houses like A24 and NEON (which presented screened Babes at CinemaCon this year and had posters for its movies all over the trade show floor and halls) that are more progressive, less risk-averse and arguably more in tune with what modern audiences want. With movies like Smile 2, Megan 2, Ballerina, and even Mickey 17, bigger studios are starting to warm up to genre-driven titles that can be wild, crazy — but effective. However, maybe stop reviving franchises like Scary Movie and The Blair Witch Project and give us more original stories like M Night Shyamalan‘s Trap starring Josh Hartnett as a creepy socio-psychopath attending a pop star concert with his daughter (SPOILER ALERT! This was the twist shown in the footage!) or the post-apocalyptic cabin-in-the-woods horror Never Let Go starring Halle Berry which is giving umbilical cord metaphor.
We also saw a lack of original comedies but it was alleviated by Aziz Ansari‘s upcoming Oh God!-esque Good Fortune in which he stars alongside Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, and Keanu Reeves. Yes, Keanu Reeves. What makes it better is that he and Sandra Oh are angels.
Lionsgate also brought the long-rumored untitled movie musical from Kendrick Lamar and South Park‘s Trey Parker & Matt Stone to the table, making it official. Although nothing much was said about the movie, it could very well be Paramount’s answer to A24’s highly underrated Dicks: The Musical from Aaron Jackson and Joshua Sharp.
Yes, I enjoyed all the very corporate and sometimes corny presentations — but heavily branding their slates as “original” is a little much. The same could be said to them referring to their slates as “diverse”.
I realize when the execs referred to their slates as “diverse” they were referring to the variety pack of films they had in their presentations: dramas, musicals, sci-fi, horrors, thrillers, and as mentioned, a scant amount of comedies. This is great, but with these different genres should be different perspectives and stories, and naturally, that should bring in more inclusive narratives from people of color, queer people, disabled folks, and other underrepresented folks. I’m not saying lead with identity-driven narratives. I’m saying cast a wider net to catch authentic, diverse stories that go beyond checking a box.
From the footage shown throughout the event, there were a nice amount of women-led films presented including Borderlands, Ballerina, A Quiet Place: Day One, Furiosa, Moana 2, and Wicked. However, there were plenty of supporting characters played by historically underrepresented folks, but not many leads. There’s Barry Jenkins’s Mufasa: The Lion King as well as the aforementioned Captain America: Brave New World, Michael, Good Fortune, and Wicked. One might also guess that the untitled Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan project will be led by POC. A lot of the films starring POC folks were animated including Moana 2, Transformers One, The Wild Robot, and Aang: The Last Airbender.
When it came down to it, out of the 79 movies on my unofficial tally of CinemaCon films, 14 films had a non-white lead and 19 had a female lead. Again, this was based on the footage they showed us. Some films like Naruto and the G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover were just announced so we don’t know the cast. Nonetheless, most of the films may be diverse in narrative, but when it comes to the people telling the story, that’s a different story.
CinemaCon gave us a lot this year, and the kinds of films they present aren’t totally up to them. The National Association of Theater Owners is a different kind of cog in the Hollywood machine. The films they present in the Colosseum are largely up to the studios and what they produce. It’s all about what puts butts in those theater seats. It’s all about capitalism — but it’s also about the consumer and the consumer is a-changing.
Are it all original and diverse? Probably not — but it is likely that these movies will put butts in seats. But it doesn’t hurt to pay attention a bit more to the demands of audiences. I’ll say it again — I love a franchise. I love an adaptation. I love a remake. Who doesn’t? And it’s smart to stick with what sells and what already has a built-in audience.
But I also love original stories. I love seeing different points of view, perspectives, and cultures presented on screen to help me understand humanity and the world a little bit better — and it seems that younger generations agree with a young Gen X’er like me. According to a survey by Tubi, 74 percent of millennials and Gen Z’ers prefer to watch original content rather than franchises or remakes. And let’s not forget what Whitney said: “The children our are future” and maybe it wouldn’t hurt for studios to give a little uptick when it comes to original and diverse material. The familiar stuff is great to see at CinemaCon, but surprises of originality and new faces are pretty damn exciting, too.
