The China Mail - After flops, movie industry targets fresh start at CinemaCon

The box office has endured a terrible start, reeling from high-profile flops like Disney's live-action "Snow White," superhero sequel "Captain America: Brave New World" and bizarre sci-fi "Mickey 17."

The $1.3 billion taken in North America receipts so far is seven percent below an already lean Q1 2024, which was itself derailed by the previous year's massive Hollywood strikes.

All this is roiling an industry that has never fully returned to pre-pandemic profit levels, and had informally adopted the motto "Survive till '25."

So the annual CinemaCon summit at the Caesars Palace casino is a key chance for Hollywood studios to present their upcoming films to theater owners -- and, hopefully, inspire a bit of confidence that the good times are coming back.

"The box office is down in the dumps. We need a recovery. We need more movies," said Daniel Loria, senior vice president at the Boxoffice Company.

"It's really good timing because that's exactly what we're going to be getting out of CinemaCon," he told a recent podcast.

- Spidey and Bond? -

The event kicks off Monday night with a presentation from Sony Pictures, home of the wildly popular "Spider-Man" films.

The studio is expected to tease films like this summer's "28 Years Later," a long-in-development apocalyptic horror sequel from Danny Boyle, starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes.

Later in the week, Amazon MGM will give a major presentation, just days after unveiling new producers for the James Bond franchise it spent billions of dollars acquiring.

Warner Bros. will be desperate to recover from flops like "Mickey 17" and "The Alto Knights" -- a Robert De Niro film that took just $5 million worldwide on its recent opening weekend, despite having cost $45 million to make.

The studio has a mouth-watering lineup including new Leonardo DiCaprio film "One Battle After Another," and a major new "Superman" film that it hopes can revitalize its entire flagging DC superhero franchise.

In a near-annual tradition, Paramount will showcase its latest "Mission: Impossible" film, prompting the inevitable rumors of a Tom Cruise appearance on the stage of the casino's giant auditorium.

The company is unlikely to mention its proposed merger with Skydance. Paramount is locked in a lawsuit with Donald Trump's administration over a CBS News interview with Kamala Harris during last year's election.

Other studios due to present this week include Universal Pictures, with its latest "Jurassic World" and "Wicked" sequels, and Lionsgate, home of Keanu Reeves' many "John Wick" movies.

Disney, with an ever-growing roster of Marvel superheroes and a new "Avatar" sequel due in December, will wrap up the event on Thursday night.

W.Cheng--ThChM