Fear and Kvetching in Las Vegas: CinemaCon Day 1
Nerves, nostalgia and the lack of a billion-dollar grosser dampen the confab's mood. Pickleball, anyone?
I first came here five years ago, although it might as well have been a century. That year, Helen Mirren declared “Fuck Netflix!” in remarks to the Colosseum, and the crowd laughed and roared its approval with delight. The impudent upstart — albeit one with almost 150 million global subscribers at that moment and which would release 73 movies on its service that year — had been slapped down. Backstage, attempts to bring Netflix into the theatrical system were rejected by theater owners out of hand (only a couple of Netflix’s awards contenders such as The Irishman would see the inside of a theater). Meanwhile, the studios bemoaned that collusion rules prevented them from even discussing any adjustments to the 90-day window.
A few years later, the window was gone. The theaters limped back from the Covid shutdown and greeted any crumb of Dwayne Johnson like manna from heaven and stumbled through in shellshocked denial. One more Kevin Hart movie and everything would be just fine.
This year, the denial has faded, and the bravado is a distant memory. Instead there’s a lot of muttering one hears about what’s being handed to them. NATO Chief Michael O’Leary’s remarks refer to theaters booking more concerts and TV shows onto their screens. If “Digital” was once the mantra, today it is “Entertainment Centers” . . . with the notion that a restaurant on the property or maybe a pony ride will bring the people back.
One hears tales of screens being converted into pickleball courts. Beyond that possible ignominy, there’s a lot of talk of little tweaks and enhancements and special bookings and ways to get people into the vicinity of movie theaters. What’s missing is any engagement with the question of: Do young people want movies as part of their lives beyond mega-phenomena like Barbie? What can be done to move the needle on that fundamental question?
There’s a Tom Rothman-shaped hole in the gathering this year. The proceedings feel the absence of the studio head who was the purest distillation of Hollywood bravado in the face of adversity.
What’s the mood at CinemaCon? Not great, Bob.
But! Warner Bros.’ lineup (with an MIA David Zaslav) gave me a sense of hope.