CinemaCon 2023: Universal And Focus Shows Everyone Else How It’s Done

After three days of panels that ranged from pretty good to damn near phoning it in, Universal Pictures decided that having some of the biggest movies of the year so far wasn’t enough of a victory lap for them. Instead, they decided to turn up at CinemaCon and show everyone else how to put on a presentation. They didn’t waste a lot of time and kicked things off with a filmmaker that has been extremely loyal to the theatrical experience; Christopher Nolan. This is the first movie that he has done with Universal, and you can tell that they are extremely excited to be working with him. He has more or less confirmed that the first trailer would be attached to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but we did get to see some footage. While it’s impossible to tell if the sound editing will be good enough that we’ll be able to both hear and understand dialogue, it does sound like Nolan is passionate about this story, and it looks good. Now, someone ask if him if he used practical effects on the bomb. If you do this on camera, I’ll buy you a beer.

Illumination Gets Ducky While Blumhouse Gets Excorized

We all have our own personal biases, and for this writer, I’m not a fan of nearly anything that Illumination puts out. For me, they are making kids’ movies and not something that has broad family appeal. There is an incredible movie in that studio, somewhere, but it hasn’t come out yet. In the build-up to Migration, it sounded like maybe this is the Universal could claim as the best of the best. The concept, a family road trip movie using the idea of migrating ducks, is a textbook animated film. However, when the footage ran, very little within the footage shown at CinemaCon made Migration look like anything other than another Illumination movie. If that is your jam, then this will be your jam, but there doesn’t appear to be much here to convert the non-believers to the Cult of Minions.

It was an abrupt switch from about as family-friendly as you can get to an R-rated comedy featuring adorable dogs. Star Will Ferrell came out with one of the dog stars of the movie and had an entire bit about how everyone was more excited about seeing the dog than they were about seeing him [confession: this was true]. We got to see an extended trailer and the movie looks kind of funny, but comedies are so subjective and are even harder to judge based on trailers. For all we know, all of the funny jokes were in that trailer.

Blumhouse was next on the docket for Universal. They gave themselves a well-earned pat on the back for the breakout success of M3GAN, but shifted to the new Exorcist movie we are getting later this year. We learned that the title will be The Exorcist: Believer. This trilogy is looking to do with The Exorcist, what the last three Halloween movies did. That’s probably why they hired David Gordon Green. We got to see a trailer, and the film will focus on two girls who end up possessed, and we get to see Chris MacNeil, played by the always lovely Ellen Burstyn, come back. No idea if this one will work. You’ll have to ask Jeremy and Aedan.

 Dreamworks Take Two Steps Back And Focus Does It’s Own Thing

It was surprising when we moved on to Dreamworks because Blumhouse didn’t cover Five Nights At Freddy’s at all. Perhaps that will be a Comic-Con movie and, honestly, that would be a good movie to completely take over the con. From there, we moved onto Dreamworks, who are coming off what might be one of their strongest years that didn’t include any dragons. The Bad Guys and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish were both excellent movies in their own right and were also artistically stunning. They both earned every accolade and cent that they have received because they were in the How To Train Your Dragon level of excellent Dreamworks.

This is one of the reasons that both Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Trolls Band Together look so bland. Perhaps it’s because both of them are unfinished, but the art style for Ruby Gillman, in particular, just doesn’t measure up to the standard set by the last two Dreamworks movies and also sounds a bit like Turning Red. As for Trolls Band Together? Well, they aren’t my cup of tea and they have their own massive fanbase, but, much like Migration, this isn’t going to convert and non-believers and looks like more of what we’ve seen from the last two movies. Perhaps things will be different once we see finished animation from both of these films since everything at the presentation was a work in process. The most promising thing to come out of the Dreamworks segment was the announcement that we are getting Kung-Fu Panda 4, and Jack Black, upon “realizing” that he has no trailer, did a dramatic reading of what the movie is about. That trilogy is another bright spot for Dreamworks, so hopefully, that ends up working out for them.

Focus Features came out for their segment of the Universal presentation, but didn’t spend a ton of time on anything in particular. The film that they gave the most time to was Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. We got to see a new trailer that does a much better job of selling the movie than the first one did. Without wasting a beat, Focus showed up footage for three more movies in very quick succession. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 looks very cute and will probably make a ton of money because there is a lot of appeal there. Both The Holdovers and Drive-Away Dolls look like they have a lot of potential and are exactly the kind of arthouse film that isn’t that weird that Focus loves to put out.

Universal Closes Out A Fast And Wicked Presentation With The Big Guns

We jumped back to Universal to close out the presentation with some of the big guns, and one of the biggest is Fast X. It began with a retrospective look at the first nine movies, and eventually, Vin Diesel came on stage. He was upfront about the fact that he was going completely off-script, and it was also apparent just how much this franchise means to him. He was getting genuinely emotional on stage, and it was nice to see that sincerity from someone. They showed off some new footage, and much like all of the previous Fast X footage, it looks completely buckwild. We only have two more of these films to go, and it looks they are going to go out with the biggest bang they can with the budget Universal has given them.

We jumped to a stunt show from Eighty-Seven North stunt team. There has been a real movement in the last couple of years for stunt people to get their credit, and it isn’t surprising that director David Leitch was the one shepherding this little show or this movie, The Fall Guy, about stunts. Leitch is a former stuntman and if there is anyone who understands all of this, it’s him. Stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt came out to talk about the movie, based on the 80s TV show of the same name. There was an emphasis that many people in this movie about stunts will be real stunt workers, and both Gosling and Blunt straight up admitted that they lean heavily on their doubles. We got to see an early trailer, and it looks pretty damn promising. Leitch and his familiarity with stunts means he can shoot a great action scene, but he’s also getting drawn to some interesting projects. This is an early spring 2024 movie, so keep this one in the back of your mind.

That probably seemed like the end because CinemaCon doesn’t usually show off movies much beyond spring 2024, but Universal decided that they were not messing around. Unlike other studios, they took a movie that is only halfway through production, pieced together something mostly presentable for the audience, and sent it out into the world. We got to see some brief footage from Wicked. We did get to hear some of Defying Gravity and see some scenes with stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. If you were worried everything was going to be dark and dreary due to those two first-look images, fear not. Everything featured in this early footage was bright, beautiful, and breathtaking. Even if you have no connection to the musical, the moment you hear Defying Gravity is still moving. Even with the emphasis on how rough all of this footage was, it was still enough to send everyone over the rainbow.

And that is how you close out a CinemaCon presentation.