CinemaCon 2023: Hollywood's Comeback Story, Sony Pictures Reveals 23 Movie Slate!

It's that time of year again when movie studio executives, movie theater owners, and a bunch of celebrities make their way to Cesaer's Palace in Las Vegas to attend the annual Cinemacon convention.  With a week full of studio presentations to offer the industry a glimpse of what movies are coming out in the rest of 2023 and even into 2024, the excitement and anticipation can be felt throughout the convention.  Beginning with Fast X goody bags filled with all kinds of movie theater snacks to the marketing displays lining the hallways, it's obvious the studios and theater owners are getting back into full gear in the post-COVID world.  

And our post-covid world was definitely a theme as soon as day one - International Day - began.  With the breakfast and opening presentation, the tone was set before 9 am with the keynote speech entitled "Movie Theaters Aren't Going Anywhere", an idea that would be proven time and time again as the presenters flashed global statistics at the audience, bolstered in the last 18 months with releases such as Avatar: The Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home. While the International and Global box office haven't reached the record-breaking numbers from 2019, They are steadily increasing since 2020 which filled the room with optimism and elation.

As day turned into night, attendees gathered in the Coliseum for the "state of the industry" update where once again everyone celebrated the fact that many movie theaters and related industries (i.e. REAL D, Dolby, etc) survived the pandemic and are coming back strong.  As a testament to this notion, Sony Pictures, same as in years past, started off the studio presentations.

With a recorded opening by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, while on the set of Bad Boys 4, Sony Pictures had the audience sitting up and paying attention.  They lauded the fact that they committed themselves to movie theaters during the pandemic and, unlike the other major studios, didn't pander their products to streaming services.  They informed the NATO member audience that they will have 23 movies coming out before the end of 2023 and offered a glimpse of approximately a dozen of them.

Sony treated us to snippets of both highly anticipated movies and lesser-known properties.  They touted Dumb Money about the Game Stop investment fiasco and brought star Paul Dano and Director Craig Gillespie to introduce the clip.  Then we got to see the trailer for Insidious: The Red Door, which looks gruesome and terrifying and reunites the original cast.  Next up, to lighten the mood, Bert Kreischer, star of the film The Machine, dressed up as The Little Mermaid to introduce a clip of his movie.  

One of the highly anticipated sequels coming to theaters this year is the animated movie, Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse.  Last year Sony teased attendees with fifteen minutes of the film and they followed it up this year with 14 minutes more.  Another comic book made movie is the R-rated Kraven The Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The clip shown had intense fight scenes and a decent amount of spilled blood.

Other highlights included the return of the original cast of Ghostbusters: Afterlife for a sequel that finds them back in New York City, a Jennifer Lawrence comedy called No Hard Feelings, GranTurismo based on the true story of a gamer turned race car driver, and the Ridley Scott directed movie, Napoleon.  Last but not least, Antoine Fuqua graced the stage to present the CinemaCon Lifetime Achievement Award to Denzel Washington before they, along with Dakota Fanning, introduced footage from Equalizer 3.

It seems 2023's CinemaCon is off to a great start!  Up tomorrow…Warner Bros. Studios presentation and a screening of The Flash.