CinemaCon 2024 is officially underway in Las Vegas. The convention brings together theater owners, their partners, and Hollywood studios to preview the theatrical slate for the upcoming year. Warner Bros, Universal, Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate, and Crunchyroll will have presentations sharing their biggest titles of the year.
The convention started with a bang on Monday night when Universal Pictures presented their upcoming blockbuster The Fall Guy, which kicks off the summer movie season on May 3. Much like viewers at SXSW, attendees praised the action rom-com, which is currently very Fresh on the Tomatometer at 89%. For more on the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt movie check out our first reviews round-up.
As the week progresses we’ll update this page with all the news, first looks, trailers, and more out of each presentation. Stay tuned!
CinemaCon 2024 ended on a high note with a presentation from Walt Disney Studios. The audience was treated to glimpses of everything from Deadpool and Wolverine to Moana 2 to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes to Inside Out 2 and more. The whole thing began with a video, made specifically for CinemaCon, of Deadpool and Wolverine telling everyone in the audience — with lots of F-bombs, of course — to silence their phones. That set the appropriate tone for an epic lineup of presentations.
Marvel Showcases Captain America: Brave New World and Deadpool & Wolverine
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige took the stage to offer a glimpse into the future of the MCU franchise, first touching on both Thunderbolts (5/2/25) and The Fantastic Four (7/25/25), which are currently in production, before bringing Anthony Mackie out to introduce a clip from Captain America: Brave New World (2/14/25), which Feige hinted would be a more of a thriller akin to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The clip depicts a meeting between Sam (Mackie) and now-President Thunderbolt Ross (Harrison Ford) at the White House that quickly turns into an emergency situation.
Then, Feige introduced Deadpool & Wolverine — “I can only say one thing: It’s f—ing awesome!” — by bringing director Shawn Levy on stage to preview an extended nine-minute clip from the movie, expanding on story elements we’ve seen in the first trailer. In the clip, Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson is retired from being a superhero and working as a car salesman alongside Rob Delaney’s Peter character. His friends throw him a surprise birthday party before he is dragged to the TVA and asked to help with an important mission. Audiences also got their first look at Hugh Jackman’s wolverine, as Deadpool gives him grief about his outfit during a car ride. Suffice it to say there were lots of jokes pointed at Marvel, Fox, and even Feige himself in the footage, indicating Deadpool will remain as irreverent as ever.
Moana 2
(Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)
In one of the flashier presentations of the day, Moana 2 began with a recap of the first film’s success and a lively performance by Polynesian dancers, who were eventually joined onstage by star Dwayne Johnson. Johnson introduced a sneak peek at the new film, which showed Moana (again voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) hitting the open ocean on a boat and singing a new song that recaps her journey. After the clip, a highlight reel played that ended in a tease of Maui’s (Johnson) return. The film is set to release in theaters later this year on November 27.
Inside Out 2
(Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)
Audiences in attendance were treated to something extra special when Amy Poehler took the stage to promote the upcoming Pixar sequel Inside Out 2 (6/14/24). The star and voice of Joy in the film debuted the first 35 minutes of the movie — yes, you read that right, the first 35 minutes — to an appropriately joyful reception. The film begins with young Riley playing ice hockey as Joy offers a play-by-play and reintroduces the other emotions as they correlate to the actions of the hockey game. Joy develops a system to help keep Riley’s negative emotions in check, but everything is thrown into chaos when puberty strikes, ushering in a slew of new and unfamiliar emotions. We’ll leave it at that, so as not to spoil anything else, but rest assured the whole thing was a big winner with those in attendance.
Mufasa: The Lion King
Director Barry Jenkins took some time off from the editing room to join the Disney presentation and present his upcoming film Mufasa: The Lion King (12/20/24). After taking the stage, Jenkins addressed why he took on the project, explaining that it’s a very personal film for him and that he watched the original Lion King over 200 times while babysitting his nephews. Jenkins then debuted the first teaser for the film, which opened with a certain familiar iconic song and narration explaining that “This story begins far behind the mountains and shadows, on the other side of the light.” The scale of the film looks much bigger than the previous one, and fans can look forward to what appears to be next-level special effects.
Other Highlights
Thursday kicked off with a presentation from Paramount, which showcased a number of their upcoming releases and revealed some exciting surprises for fans.
Gladiator II
(Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage, Jon Kopaloff/WireImage)
Arguably the most anticipated film of Paramount’s slate, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 closed out the studio’s presentation with a bang. It began with an introduction from Scott himself, sent from London, with members of his star-studded cast, including Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, and Joseph Quinn. The group introduced a reel of first-look footage, which depicted Mescal’s character Lucius, the son of Nielsen’s Lucilla, in the Colosseum. It also showed Washington’s character selecting gladiators and offering advice to Lucius, who himself leads a number of gladiators in an epic fight later in the footage. We also saw that Quinn’s character appears to be the emperor, with Pascal as the general of his army and potentially Lucilla’s new husband. The footage ends with a shot of Pascal and Mescal facing each other in the Colosseum, promising an epic, violent, film with drama to match and indicating the film could be, in Scott’s words, “well worth the wait.”
Transformers One
(Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images)
One of the other Paramount titles that we’ve seen little of, Transformers One also made a big splash at the presentation. Via video, Scarlett Johansson first introduced Chris Hemsworth, who took the stage and expressed how excited he was to be voicing a young Optimus Prime in the origin story. He then brought out Brian Tyree Henry, the voice of Megatron, and the two of them introduced our first look at the film. The video begins like a buddy comedy, depicting Optimus and Megatron — before they were known by those names — as friends before destiny led them down very different paths. Following the footage, which featured lots of silly humor and skewed towards family audiences, Hemsworth and Henry returned to the stage to present an extended scene in Dolby 3D. The chase sequence also features Johansson’s Elita character and Bumblebee, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, and wowed the crowd with its eye-popping visuals.
Other Highlights
