With uncertainty in the air as Covid-19's Delta variant runs amuck in the United States, The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) was able to provide a safe environment, for attendees at their annual Cinemacon event.
While the normal Monday breakout sessions were smaller in size than usual Cinemacon still was able to pull off some great ones including Globally Speaking: A look at The International Markets, If You See It, You Can Be It, Workforce Happiness: Your Secret Weapon For A Successful Cinema Comeback.
However, the real kick-off didn't start until later in the day as the tension had been building at Cinemacon for the unveiling of the new Spider-man: No Way Home Trailer debut during the evening event, The Big Screen Is Back event. NATO Director, Mitch Neuhauser, starting the evening acknowledging the industry's tough ride through COVID-19 and the firm commitment by NATO and the industry as a whole that they would not give in to the now popular dual release of streaming and theatrical experience for films at the same time. He said theaters would have the theatrical window again because audiences need the escape of the theater experience.
One studio that has stuck by theater chains throughout the pandemic has been Sony. The leadership team came on stage to reiterate they will have a theatrical release window for all their films to the delight of the theater owners in the room.
Sony Pictures then did a quick tease of all their upcoming big films including Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Bullet Train, Uncharted, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse Part 2 logo.
After that the heads of Sony went on stage again to debut the trailer for Spider-man: No Way Home while it was simultaneously debuting online. The trailer, and Sony's presentation overall, had the Celion Deon colosseum erupting in the thunderous applause.
Finally, to close out the presentation Ivan and Jason Reitman went on stage to discuss the little film that it seemed everyone had forgotten about during the pandemic, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. After a quick little speech, and as a surprise to Cinemacon Attendees, The entire film was shown to the audience. By the end of the screening there was once again thunderous applause and a lot of talk about the film. Most of the people leaving the screening were on cloud nine having enjoyed the film and feeling optimistic about the industry after a rough 18 months. Our two on the ground correspondents, Nathan Rose and Austin Putnam were thoroughly impressed.
An after-party dinner was then served poolside at Cesar's Palace after the screening as a way to celebrate the opening of what is sure to be a great Cinemacon.
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