JD Loeks, president and CEO of Celebration Cinema began with opening remarks.
Will McIntosh, president of Fandango followed JD to discuss how the relevance of Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango in the entertainment spectrum. It should be noted that NBC Universal owns the company.
Jim Orr, who is the president of domestic theatrical distribution of univeral pictures came to the stage and first thanked the audience for the warm reception of the feature length screening of The Fall Guy. Last year Universal released more films in theaters than any other studio. Orr says their films are the dedicated to artistic success and 75% of the films are originals. He states they take creative leaps and they truly strive to create gravity — what a wicked reference.
Veronica Kwan Vandenberg, president of distribution universal pictures international came to the stage to announce Oppenheimer as Christopher Nolan’s highest-grossing film. There are 29 films that will be released from Unviveral Pictures and Focus Features. The next Bridget Jones film will also be released internationally.
Chris Meledandri, founder and CEO of Illumination came to the stage to state the mission of Illumination which is to bring joy to audiences. Their core mission is to bring original animated films. April 2026 there will be a new Super Mario film on the horizon. A sizzle reel of Despicable Me 4 was screened for 10 minutes for the CinemaCon crowd showing a full honey badger heist.
Lee Isaac Chung, the director of Twisters came to the stage to talk about his latest film. He said the first film came out when he was in high school. He was inspired because he liked the idea of running towards his fear and not away from it, which was the concept behind the first film.
Daisy Edgar Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos came to the stage to discuss in jest the weather conditions they went through. The three did a nice skit of them doing a rendition of what a scene looked like would look like of them in a wind storm.
There will be a sequel to Five Night’s at Freddys and a sequel to Megan confirmed by Jim Orr about Blumhouse productions. Wolfman is the latest horror film from his production company that is still filming starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner.
Speak No Evil, based on the Danish film of the same name is coming to theaters Sept 13th.
Peter Kujawski, the chairman of Focus Features came to the stage.
Other films coming out soon:
Back to Black
The Bikeriders
Additional films presented were Conclave, Nosferatu and The Wild Robot.
Lupita Nyong’o was onstage to talk about the film. The release date is set for Sept 20th. Jeff Goldblum comes to the stage to present Wicked
Jeff says that this film was shot as two separate films. The film will play during Thanksgiving in 2024 and will also have a second part in 2025. Production just wrapped on the film.
Michelle Yeoh, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey was brought to the stage.
Ariana stated she was 10 years when she first saw Wicked on Broadway. Cynthia saw it when she was 25.
CinemaCon wraps on April 11th.
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