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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Compared to more fan-oriented events like the San Diego Comic-Con or Disney’s D23 Expo, the annual CinemaCon, which normally takes place in Las Vegas, most likely isn’t the type of thing that most general cinephiles are going to go out of their way to attend. For studios and those directly involved in the filmmaking business though, it’s an opportunity to show off the biggest and brightest products they have to offer. For the likes of Universal, Paramount, and many of the other big-name studios operating in Hollywood, CinemaCon is a chance to make the films they have poured millions of dollars into creating look as if they are more than worth the investment. The past couple years have understandably made that a bit of a challenge, largely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the greater emphasis put on streaming, but going into this year’s convention, most studios appear to be quite confident that the summer moviegoing season, considered by main to be the ideal period for the theatrical experience, is ready for a major comeback, especially considering the surprise amount of success that has already been achieved so far into the year.
It’s a major contrast to the overall mindset going into last year’s CinemaCon, which took place in August 2021 before there was any sign of potential for major recovery. Although some minor rebounds in the months leading up to the convention, there were hardly any major box office successes to suggest that were large enough to suggest that audiences were ready to return to the movies in massive numbers. Many even wondered whether such a recovery was even possible anymore due to how much the popularity of streaming has skyrocketed over the past couple years. Of course, all of that was several months before the release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, which, in the time since its theatrical premiere in December, has accumulated over $1.8 billion in ticket sales and have given moviegoers more than enough incentive to seek out the film at least once at their local theater.
As the year 2021 ended and made way for the year 2022, even more hits began to break out at the box office, maybe not quite to the same degree as “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, but still more so than many had expected from them. Family films in particular have once again become major draws; “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”, the sequel to the 2020 video game adaptation, gave distributor Paramount its biggest opening weekend since 2014, and during the most recent weekend at the box office, it stayed at the #2 spot, outpaced only by another family film, Universal and DreamWorks’ animated heist comedy “The Bad Guys”. Even films aimed primarily at female audiences are performing better than anticipated, with another Paramount film, the Sandra Bullock-starring adventure comedy “The Lost City”, being one in an increasingly rare breed of original filmmaking to attract a major audience.
Needless to say, studios have been quite ecstatic about what their films have done so far and what their future films have the capability of achieving. However, if there’s one thing on studios’ minds as they optimistically make their way to Las Vegas, it’s not so much their own success as another’s shortcomings. Just last week, streaming giant Netflix, which has positioned itself as a major threat to the existence of theatrical filmgoing in recent years, announced that it had lost around 200,000 subscribers over the past quarter, resulting in the company losing $54 billion in overall value. For some perspective on how many studios feel about Netflix, at a presentation during the 2017 CinemaCon event, Sony film chief Tom Rothman declared “Netflix, my ass,” to the hundreds of audience members before him. The immediate reception: applause all around.
Whether or not Rothman, or any other major studio representative for that matter, will express similar sentiments at this year’s event remains to be seen, but it’s hard to imagine such a subject being completely ignored as one presentation after another takes place at the Caesar’s Palace Colosseum venue. “The mythology has been taken out of streaming. Maybe it isn’t the future that everyone thought it was,” claims one studio executive after being asked about the situation currently going on with Netflix. “Theatrical wasn’t in the game during the pandemic, and streamers had the playing field all to themselves.” The possibility of Netflix giving some of their films widespread theatrical releases has even become a topic of discussion among those attending the event, with many believing the likelihood of Netflix opting to take such an approach to its business is growing. “Netflix is clearly trying to think about a second revenue stream,” suggests Eric Handler, an analyst for MKM Partners. “Putting their movies into a brief, exclusive theatrical window, could be a possible option.”
One major issue that could be a major hindrance to the comeback of major studio films is the ever-changing status of the theatrical window, which seems to have only gotten smaller and smaller over the past couple years. At the moment, the window is only forty-five days, after which most major releases may be released onto in-home viewing platforms; for smaller releases, that window shrinks down to seventeen days, at which point they can be accessed through premium video on demand.
This potential setback, however, seems to cause little worry among the studios, with many of their summer films being among the major focal points of each studio’s respective presentation. Paramount seeks to continue its hot streak with the release of the long-awaited “Top Gun: Maverick”, which will hold its first screening at CinemaCon before its official San Diego premiere and subsequent screening at the Cannes Film Festival. Sneak peeks at action-oriented blockbusters like “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Black Adam” are also to be expected, as are those for family fare like “Lightyear” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru”.
If this year’s CinemaCon is any proof, studios seem eager to make a full recovery from what they had suffered from during the pandemic. Hopefully, what they have to offer is strong enough to warrant such a recovery.
