CinemaCon 2016

It may seem strange that giant online retailer Amazon would make a presentation at CinemaCon, the annual convention of the Theater Owners Association (NATO), where the major Hollywood studios screen trailers and footage of their upcoming releases for exhibitors.   However, as executives Roy Price and Bob Berney explained at yesterday’s luncheon, Amazon Studios is now involved in movie productions and acquisitions and committed to showing their products in movie theaters.

Last July Suicide Squad got one of the loudest Hall-H ovations at Comicon, and anticipation for the DC “extended universe” spinoff was equally high at the Warner Bros CinemaCon presentation. Writer-director David Ayer was on hand to talk about what we can expect from this dark take on a band of super-misfits turned government vigilantes in what promises to be the next step in R-rated super hero movies.

CinemaCon was abuzz with the many tantalizing trailers paraded by the studios at the exhibitor’s confab – and one notable absence. One of the centerpieces of the Paramount presentation was a special award presented to Star Trek and Star Wars Czar J.

The Walt Disney Studios surprised their audiences here with a special advance peek of its upcoming Pixar/Disney movie, Finding Dory, screening the first 27 minutes of the film.   Director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and producer Lindsey Collins introduced the film, which features the return of the much-loved forgetful fish, Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), who is trying to reunite with her family, and the clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks), the father of Nemo.

On Demand services, which allow audiences to access movies from the comfort of their own home are the elephant in the screening room at this CinemaCon where exhibitors make no bones about being worried of possible repercussions on ticket sales. Especially with schemes like Screening Room, which aims to offer movies at home on the day of release in theaters.

This year, as for the previous 20 years, a sizable contingent of HFPA journalists is attending CinemaCon, the annual convention of the Theater Owners Association (NATO), at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  This Hollywood Foreign Press tradition started in 1996, when the event was still called ShoWest, and was held at the Bally’s and Paris hotels.

You are what you wear – this old cherry is explored with superheroes as the cast discussed how the clothing in Marvel Universe’s Captain America: Civil War helps them embody their iconic characters. Chris Evans, who portrays Captain America, is careful to avoid hints of jingoism.