Only a few weeks a year are bigger or more important for the film business than CinemaCon. The annual meeting offers studios, theater owners and trade show-loving technology companies the opportunity to showcase the most exciting developments in the film business. But while the innovations unveiled at CinemaCon may have important implications for the theaters where audiences get their screenings, the convention’s biggest news almost always comes from the stage presentations, where studios unveil their biggest ventures.
CinemaCon 2024 was no different, but with more than a hundred titles shown or mentioned during the event, it can be difficult for a regular film fan to keep up with all the news – especially since most of the trailers and Clips previewed at the con will not be made available to the public. To help you keep track of what’s most promising from the convention, Polygon has compiled a list of what we learned on the ground at CinemaCon 2024.
2024 will be a huge year for animated films
The demise of animated films has been greatly exaggerated, as the CinemaCon 2024 program shows. Almost every studio took part in the animation campaign. Disney and Pixar have massive sequels coming up, including Moana 2, Inside Out 2and a Lion King Prequel. Paramount has the first Transformers animated film in almost 40 years. And Universal is releasing a new Despicable Me movie and a stunning-looking adaptation of the children’s book The wild robot. Perhaps the most surprising addition to this crop is the entry from Warner Bros.: Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrimwhich was not shown at CinemaCon, but was presented to exhibitors as “anime” during the studio’s stage show.
With all of these films set to hit theaters in the next eight months, 2024 is easily the biggest year for animation since 2019, a year that was all about movies The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Secret Life of Pets 2And The Lego Movie 2. It’s hard to imagine a year that can keep up with all of these huge releases, but with what’s on the calendar so far, 2024 might actually have a chance.
Hollywood has finally recognized Glen Powell as a superstar
Glen Powell has been on the verge of superstardom since 2018 Set it up, but he never got the chances he deserved. But after that Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 and Everyone but you In 2023, it looks like 2024 will finally be his year. He was a big presence at CinemaCon and came to the stage to take a fresh look at the topic Twister, where he plays an exciting tornado fighter with an F5 ego. Paramount also announced him as the lead actor for its new project Running Man Reboot directed by Edgar Wright. With these two star performances on the way and the hilarious Netflix killer Due to be released this year, Powell is finally in the spotlight.
Horror fans are going to have a great and busy year
Even in the most turbulent times at the box office, horror films are always a reliable bet, which is why they were such a standout at this year’s CinemaCon. Every major studio panel showed at least a few scary movies set in 2024, and many of them looked downright fantastic.
Disney has previewed two scenes from its upcoming film Alien: Romulus, which returns the xenomorph to its horror roots. Warner Bros. showed it’s optimistic about the Shyamalan deal by debuting trailers for M. Night’s new film Catcha thriller set at a stadium concert that’s too entertaining to even describe, and The Guardians, his daughter Ishana Shyamalan’s first film, which follows a girl who gets trapped by monsters in the forest. Meanwhile, Lionsgate is also about to release its trilogy of Strangers films Never let goin which Halle Berry tries to protect her children after the apocalypse.
Paramount also initially featured an impressive horror cast A Quiet Place: Day One on the way, a prequel to the horror series by Michael Sarnoski (Pig) and takes place in New York. The studio also unveiled the first trailer for Smile 2the sequel to his breakthrough 2022 hit. The film apparently centers on a pop star, played by Naomi Scott, whose fans are slowly warming up to the series’ iconic killer smile.
After all, Universal has made possibly the biggest horror bet of the year Nosferatuthe new vampire film from The witch And The Northman Director Robert Eggers. It’s slated for a major release on Christmas Day. The film’s first trailer premiered at the show and looked absolutely incredible, full of sinister shadows, horrified screams and the twisted form of Bill Skarsgård’s ravenous vampire. The studio also showed up Don’t say anything badan eerie remake of a European cult hit from a few years ago, for which sequels have been announced Five nights at Freddy’s‘s and M3GANalthough the last two won’t hit theaters until 2025.
Everyone wants to make the next Barbenheimer
During the entire four-day congress, “Barbenheimer” was the most popular word on everyone’s lips. Everyone from studios to theater owners to tech companies had something to say about last year’s breakout hits. Barbie And Oppenheimerand what it meant for theaters that two completely different films released on the same day could become box office sensations. The one thing no one seemed to have an answer to was how to do it again.
To theater owners, Barbenheimer was a sure sign that studios shouldn’t be afraid to program their films against each other, because audiences were more than happy to support two major films at the same time. This type of takeaway certainly makes sense if your main goal is to sell tickets and fill seats. The studios seemed to feel the same way, but none of them seemed willing to say what that meant for them.
In fact, the only meaningful common date on the calendar so far is November 27th, the release date for both Moana 2 And Evil. While part of Barbenheimer’s strength was that he counter-programmed two very different films that audiences were excited to see, it’s hard to imagine Moana Continuation and a The Wizard of Oz Prequel musical has every audience that not Overlap. While there was no Barbenheimer announcement at this year’s CinemaCon, it’s clear that studios are still carefully trying to learn the right lessons from the phenomenon.
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