CinemaCon 2023: Walt Disney Studios Presentation Liveblog

The movie industry has descended on Las Vegas for another CinemaCon this week. The annual event brings theater owners and studios to look toward the rest of this year and beyond on the big screen. Seeing the event evolve in a pre and post-pandemic world has been interesting. In 2019, no one at the event was even a little concerned about streaming or same-day streaming releases. By the time the event was able to return in August 2021, the tone had changed drastically, and things have only continued to change. The industry needs to evolve to keep up with the changing times, and it’s always interesting to see who is embracing change and who is fighting against it. Almost all of the major studios showed up this year, though some players are missing. Though not as early as yesterday, it’s time for Walt Disney Studios.

The Disney presentation looks like it will be long, but there is a screening of The Boogeyman during the pane, which cuts into the three-hour runtime. Throughout the presentation, the studio will likely touch on all the big movies from Pixar, Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios this year. The Boogeyman is another movie that was supposed to be a Hulu release but got moved to theatrical, so you know they will be patting themselves on the back for that. Almost all studios have something big in the works for the rest of the year.

From Disney, we have The Little Mermaid coming next month, which is still helping all of us weed out the racists on our timeline–we thank you for that, Disney. They want this movie to be massive, so they will be pushing this one very hard. We might also get a sneak peek at Wish which is the Disney animated movie coming out later this year. Haunted Mansion will also likely get a push as it will need all the hype it can get in a packed July release schedule. From Pixar, we know we’re going to see more Elemental. After Lightyear underperformed, the studio needs a win at the box office, and everything that Disney and Pixar have shown us from this new original movie looks promising. 20th Century Studios will get all the brownie points for Avatar: The Way of Water. Still, we’ll also be looking toward A Haunting in Venice, which is the new Agatha Christie adaptation.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is making its debut at Cannes next month, but it is another movie that they will be pushing hard at this CinemaCon because they want this to be a box office smash. Don’t expect much, if anything, about Star Wars on the big screen; CinemaCon doesn’t tend to focus that far in advance, and those movies are years away. For Marvel, it’s all about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels. Marvel will likely save any big announcements for the San Diego Comic-Con stage, but with them? Who knows. Disney just laid off a bunch of people, so they will want to present a strong front during this presentation. Join us for the liveblog below!

CinemaCon 2023 Disney Liveblog