Jeri Jacquin
It is day two at CinemaCon 2024 and its full steam ahead. The Trade Show will be opening soon but it’s off to the Colosseum for Crunchyroll and the Warner Bros. Pictures presentations.
The most amazing celebration is that of Godzilla’s 70th Anniversary with Hiro Matsuoka. He says of GODZILLA MINUS ONE, “It was a surprise on many levels. With featured talent that was widely unknown and a story that is specific to the Japanese people, the community that has grown with Toho over the decades recognized that.” He expresses his gratitude that Godzilla is world wide and acknowledges movie theater owners.
Charlie Rivkin, MPA’s CEO and Chairman spoke about the State of the Industry. He begins with, “Preserving the magic of movies is what motivates me to lead the MPA every day and attend CinemaCon with you each spring. We are in the business of creating experiences: Experiences that enrich, engage, and entertain. Experiences that grow out of the extraordinary ideas of our creative workforce. Experiences that bring audiences together to feel a sense of wonder, community and belonging.”
He discusses the challenges after making a steady recovery and the volatility of the industry. Focusing on two pillars: “Protecting content and the people who produce it. By doing so, ensuring the creative forces of the industry can reach even bigger audiences.” Next to speak is Chris Johnson, CEO of Classic Cinemas, who says he loves coming to CinemaCon “for the community and the spectacular presentations because it reinforces what an incredibly impactful industry that we are all so lucky to be part of.”
Michael O’Leary, President and CEO of NATO who describes his presence with, “We are a young organization with a young history and a bright future”. What I absolutely agree with was O’Leary’s statement that films need “to shift to a 52-week movie calendar and not just traditional ‘busy times’”. That would be amazing to see consistency in movie released so that going to the movies several times a month would be awesome.
For the first time ever, Mitchel Berger, VP of Global Commerce, makes it clear that anime has an audience. “Maybe you don’t know how young and diverse Anime fans are but a billion fans worldwide will help you out!”. Crunchyroll brings an announcement that they have acquired three new anime films ready for release. HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle, BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE – EPISODE NAGI, and OVERLORD: The Sacred Kingdom. If that isn’t enough, the first minutes of SPY x FAMILY CODE: White are shown as it comes to theatres April 19th.
HAIKY!! The Dumpster Battle gives audiences Shoyo Hinata who has joined Karasuno High’s volleyball club because he wants to be like the former player known as “Little Giant”. It isn’t going to be easy as Tobio Kageyama is someone Shoyo doesn’t see eye to eye with. They are going to have to find a way to work together if they are to beat the rival Nekoma High in the “Dumpster Battle”.
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE – EPISODE NAGI Nagi Seishiro lives by the phrase “that’s a hassle” with a life that doesn’t seem to be doing much. Mikage Reo dreams of winning the World Cup and sees what Nagi is capable of. When he receives an invitation from the Blue Lock Project, it can change everything for them both.
OVERLORD: The Sacred Kingdom tells the story of Momonga, a 12-year-old who loves playing MMORPG. Logging in to play the game, he is taken away to game world and his avatar becomes Sorcerer King Ains Ooal Gown. Peace surrounds the Sacred Kingdom until Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth and his demi-humans. The Slane Theocracy asks the Sorcerer Kingdom for help but will they heed the call?
Next up is Warner Bros. Pictures and coming onto the stage is Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripps totally Beetlejuice’d! Of course, with their sizzle reel, BARBIE, THE COLOR PURPLE, WONKA, THE MEG 2 and THE NUN 2 are shown as their highly successful 2023 films. On the horizon are the highly anticipated films like JOKER 2, BEETLEJUICE2 and FURIOSA: A Mad Max Saga plus more.
George Miller, along with Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, take the stage as George explains, “In order to tell the story in Mad Max, we had to know where every vehicle, prop and character came from. We wrote the back stories for everyone. When FURY ROAD had enough traction, we had to go into FURIOSA and here we are.” Of course there was a sneak peek of the film as well.
A familiar last name has brought something interesting to the stage, Ishana Night Shyamalan brings a look at her new film starring Dakota Fanning, THE WATCHERS. James Gunn sends greetings and thanks from the set of SUPERMAN. SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story is a documentary on the life of the astounding and never forgotten Christopher Reeves.
Kevin Costner (yes, insert heavy heart sigh here), talks about HORIZON: An American Saga by saying “There’s things that speak out loud to you. I love the experience of, in the dark, looking up. There was a promise out here, in America, if you could go, if you were tough enough, mean enough, lucky enough, you could take what you wanted in America.” HORIZON will be made in four parts and an exclusive sneak peek is always exciting. Costner also received the CinemaCon Visionary Award which, to my way of thinking, is absolutely well deserved!
Bong Joon-ho brings MICKEY 17 (changed from Mickey 7 because, as he said, “I kill him ten times more”) and Robert Pattinson explains, “I have been the biggest fan on Bong for many, many years. I got send the script and was told that I was going to love it but the part would be impossible”. The film also stars Toni Collette, Steven Yeun and Mark Ruffalo.
Another in the Shyamalan family brings an offering to CinemaCon, M. Night brings a look to his upcoming film TRAP. Anything he does is going to be good as far as I’m concerned (I did grimace at THE HAPPENING but let’s not talk about that shall we?) so I am looking forward to seeing this film absolutely.
Okay, like a dead bad guy in a rotten bug candy story, its BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE, BEETLE…I’m going to stop here. Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci and the man himself, Tim Burton have so much to share. Keaton, this family’s personal favsies, says “Over the years we would kick the notion around. We would go ‘what do you think?’, and then it just got right. The timing and the script was a very difficult thing to write so I just follow his [Burton’s} lead.” A gruesome peek is everything!
Director Todd Phillips brings JOKER: Folie a Deux and talks about the cast including how Phoenix and Phillips talked about a part 2 quietly between them and that casting Lady Gaga “because she’s magic”. Jack Black makes a screen working on the MINECRAFT movie to introduce what else is coming in 2025. FLOWERVALE STREET with Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor and Ryan Coogler with the next FINAL DESTINATION movie in the franchise.
That’s what day two at CinemaCon and all the excitement is coming to a theater near you soon. The rest of 2024 is gearing up to be such an awesome time for families and friends of action, adventure, comedy, thrills and anime. The surprises aren’t over so keep reading because there are two days left of presentations and I have a sneaking suspicion that they are going to be just as awesome.
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