CinemaCon: Uni, Disney & My Studio-by-Studio Journey
Pam & Mike swing strong, MGM blitzes, a chieftain walks onstage to 'Baby Got Back'?! What really happened in Vegas
I just spent four days trapped in Caesars Palace at CinemaCon. Earlier I wrote about theater owners’ dreams about windows and did a livestream with Sean McNulty recapping the event. Today, my definitive journey through the carnival.
Walk-On Songs
Not all execs have personal theme music to greet their entrances, but those who do give us a lot to consider in their song choices. Some of the notable exec entrance tunes from this year’s Con. Listen along as you read through their slates:
Mitch Neuhauser: “Defying Gravity”
Tom Rothman: “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot
Tom Rothman (second entrance): “Line of Sight” by ODESZA
Sony sales honcho Adam Bergerman: “Hot Blooded” by New Constellations
Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group president Josh Greenstein: “In Cold Blood” Baauer Remix by alt-J
Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch: “Invincible” by Big Wild
Bob Bagby, CEO, B&B Theatres and Chairman, Cinema United: “I Feel Good”
Michael O’Leary: “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin
Jeff Goldstein: “Times Like These” by The Foo Fighters
Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, Warner Bros.: “Machine Gun” by The Commodores
James Gunn and Peter Safran “Do Ya Wanna Taste It” by Wig Wam
Donna Langley: “Defying Gravity”
Universal global distribution chief Peter Levinsohn: “Theme from Jurassic Park”
Universal domestic distribution chief Jim Orr: “Machine Gun”
Sue Kroll/Courtenay Valenti: “Float On” by Modest Mouse
Alan Bergman: “Bossa Nova Baby” by Elvis Presley
Disney distribution chief Andrew Cripps: “Devil in Disguise” by Elvis Presley
Meanwhile, the Slates (and Then Some)
For once I will avoid the pitfall of trying to say what “looked good” during this year’s studio presentations to theater owners. Yes, I make that vow every year and by the third paragraph, I lose control and stumble into “This should be huge” land. Why should I be the only trade reporter not to declare what’s going to be a hit based on a trailer?
But this year, I have a guard standing by as I write ordered to douse my laptop with a bucket of Gatorade if I start to predict anything. Hopefully that will work! So I’ll just say, everything we saw, all 100 movies, looks terrific and deserves to be a hit. If any fall short, we know who to blame: marketing, the date, IMAX, TikTok — choose your own adventure.
Predicting the success of a film by its trailer, when seen before a coliseum filled with movie theater owners is akin to predicting the success of a marriage by how well the maid of honor’s toast played at the rehearsal dinner. After all the trailers and extended looks, if you hooked me up to a lie detector, I would pass as I asserted that all of them looked interesting and fun and I think all of them will be huge successes.
After all, that’s what CinemaCon is for, to make the attendees feel that way about both the individual movies and the overall state of the film business. Because the attendees are very eager to believe that, it works out well for everyone.
But a wise friend on hand here suggested that seeing the movies here feels a bit like it must’ve felt attending the Democratic National Convention last summer. How could she lose? It was going to be a vibes election. If you believe hard enough, it will be so, especially if everyone around us reinforces your hopes.
But now, having broken out of the bubble, here’s my rundown of life inside it, what I saw and learned, big and small, studio- by-studio, in my week at CinemaCon:
- Sony: A Participation Trophy & Beatlemania
In life, we should all look to find anything that we enjoy as much as Tom Rothman enjoys being on the CinemaCon stage. Now the longest-serving studio head — the Dean of Studio Chiefs, if you will — the thrill of playing studio chief on this big stage clearly has not faded for Tom.
Tom enjoys it so much that he sort of rides out on sheer moxie and swagger, never mind that he hardly brought any movies to CinemaCon.