CinemaCon is the world’s largest gathering of the biggest motion picture industries, spanning over 80 countries worldwide. It is an exclusive event where attendees get the chance to see big film companies announce their upcoming projects in the works. There, they reveal and debut the basis of upcoming films, with each major motion picture company getting their day to shine the spotlight on some of their films. It brings together all facets of the motion picture industry, including exhibition, distribution, marketing, publicity, advertising, social media, and theater companies. The key industries that are set to announce are Sony, Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, Universal, Paramount, and Disney, which will be the big finishers of CinemaCon weekend.
Highlights:
Biggest Sony Announcements:
On March 31st, Sony announced multiple projects that got their fans excited about what’s to come.
- Spiderman: Beyond the Spiderverse: The most surprising news, however, was Sony’s announcement of Beyond the Spiderverse, the lone anticipated end of the Spiderverse trilogy. The film will take place directly after the end of the second film. They also released 5 images giving us a look into the art style of the film, which continues to break the barriers of modern animation and challenges what has come before. Attendees got the chance to see animation footage from the film itself, revealing intricate details in the movie. However, as exciting as it sounds, the film won’t be released until June 4th, 2027.
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The 4th installment of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was announced along with Spiderverse. The announcement revealed the director as Destin Daniel Cretton, given Marvel’s recent backlash. Cretton previously directed Marvel’s Shang-Chi, a highly received film in Marvel cinematics. Although there aren’t many plot details, the title card can tell us a lot about the film. Its bright colors and comical font give a new personality to Tom Holland’s Spiderman, making it seem like a classic Spider-Man story. The title card helps fans to assume the film follows the roots of the character as a street-level, grounded project, which is what fans have been demanding.
Biggest LionsGate Announcements:
The Lionsgate panel took place on April 1st at CinemaCon and mostly unveiled expansions to the John Wick universe and others.
- John Wick Chapter 5: Keanu Reeves is set to come back and reprise his role as the lethal assassin, following the events of John Wick Chapter 4.
- John Wick Animated Prequel Film: Although most of the details aren’t known about the plot, we know that it will be about Wick’s early exploits that led him to retire. Keanu Reeves is also set to voice-act him as well. This is also set to push the boundaries of R-rated animation further and set a new medium for mature animation.
- John Wick: Caine Spin-off: Caine (Donnie Yen), the blind yet deadly assassin, is set to star in his own film that takes place after the events in Chapter 4.
- Hunger Games Prequel: Based on the novel, “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” focuses on the 50th Hunger Games, taking place 24 years before the original series. The story will follow a young Haymitch during these games and how he won. The film will be released on November 20, 2026, with the old writers of the original films returning, showing a promising return to what made the original films so iconic.
Warner Brothers:
The Warner Brothers panel took place on April 1st and revealed many exciting projects in James Gunn’s DCU and developments in its animation department.
- Coyote vs ACME: After a long legal battle, even more than the one in the film, this film has finally been reviewed after its distribution purchase by Ketchup Entertainment, who also bought and released the Looney Tunes film “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie”. Coyote vs Acme was initially a film that was completely done and ready to release; however, Warners Brothers wrote off the film as a tax write-off and never released it. The movie is a legal battle drama between Wile E. Coyote and ACME, who is being sued for selling faulty products that failed to catch the Road Runner. It was bought for 50 million and will be released sometime in 2026.
- Mortal Kombat 2: Audiences at the Warner Brothers panel were presented with new footage of Johnny Cage, played by Karl Urban. The film is based on the faithful but mediocre Mortal Kombat film that was released in 2021. It is set to make more improvements to the story on a larger scale while still remaining faithful to the games. The film is set to release on October 24, 2025.
- WB Animation: Warner Brothers has been allergic to new animated projects but still showed interest in pursuing it through its reveal of new films such as a new Flintstones film, a Tom and Jerry movie, and Dr. Seuss films based on the books “Cat in the Hat” and “Oh The Places You’ll Go”. Their biggest update was on “The Cat in the Hat”, in which Bill Hader will play the mad-hatter cat. They want to expand upon a Seussiverse by somehow connecting all the Seuss books into one universe. The film will be released sometime in February 2026.
- Dynamic Duo: This upcoming film is set to be an origin story for two of Batman’s Robins which are Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. The film is expected to push the boundaries of animation with the partnership of Swaybox Studios, which takes puppeteering and CGI and mixes them into a blended stop-motion style.
- Superman: James Gunn, the director of DC Studios, continued to talk about Superman with David Corenswet and others about the film. Attendees got to see a clip from the film, which was also posted online. They continued to speak onstage for an awkward thirty minutes before moving on.
Universal Studios:
The Universal panel took place on April 2nd, and its biggest announcements involved some of its biggest franchises, most of them being sequels.
- Jurassic World Rebirth: This is yet another reboot from the Jurassic World franchise, but I’m not surprised given the success of the original trilogy. As much as Jurassic World was a good and solid reboot to lay the foundation of a new trilogy, it wasn’t received well by critics or audiences due to its lack of faithfulness to what made Jurassic Park so special. This reboot, with Scarlett Johansson and Mahesha Ali set to play lead roles, is meant to be a more faithful adaptation, leaning towards more frightening scenes and inspiration from their books. Jurassic World: Rebirth is set to release 3 months after this announcement, on July 2nd, 2025. Audiences want them to relive some of the scary dinosaur scenes that made the originals successful, taking inspiration from books, giving it a more realistic feel, unlike the last movies.
- Wicked: For Good: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo presented new footage for their new sequel to their successful “Wicked” adaptation, which has been a huge box office success and has gained massive popularity. This is their own take on their vision of a sequel to the adapted original. The new footage was said to have mentions and nods to the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz”. The sequel is scheduled to be released on November 21, 2025.
- Live-action: How To Train Your Dragon: The first live-action adaption of the Dreamworks hit “How to Train Your Dragon” is getting a live-action adaptation this June. Attendees got to watch the whole film and praised the film for its faithful adaptation. As much as it is a remake, the film doesn’t replicate everything frame by frame and instead tries to take the story in a new direction, in which you have enough new material to make an original film. This segues into the announcement of the sequel to this film, which shows how confident they are in this film and how they aren’t just going to replicate every scene and try to make a new story while remaining accurate to the source material. The first is to be released on June 13, 2025, while the sequel is scheduled to be released on June 11, 2027.
- FNAF 2: The surprising success of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s allowed Blumhouse, a horror studio owned by Universal, to greenlight another FNAF film. Attendees got the chance to see new footage for the film, which has also been released online. Jim Henson’s Puppet Company has really gone all out for their practical animatronics that seem as big and as terrifying as ever. The film has a release date of December 5th, 2025.
- Megan 2.0: The sequel to the highly successful AI doll thriller was teased during Blumhouse’s panel. Although the first was a horror movie, this next adaptation seems to lean more towards an action-comedy rather than a horror film, which might be a step in the right direction, given to the vibe the first one brought. The film will be released on June 27th, 2025.
- New Steven Spielburg film: One of the greatest directors of all time is now developing a new untitled sci-fi film, rumored to be based on UFOs. It has been a while since Spielburg has directed any sci-fi film, following up with the blockbuster “Ready Player One”, which was released in 2018. Hopefully, the film will return to his iconic blockbuster sci-fi style. The film is set to be released on June 12, 2026.
Disney:
Disney’s panel took place on April 3rd, and decided not to reveal many original films at this year’s panel. The most revealed at this panel were sequels to franchises, live-action films based on beloved films, and a reboot of a classic film from the 2000s.
- Lilo and Stitch: Attendees were shown new footage for yet another live-action remake, this time with Lilo and Stitch, a beloved film that most people grew up watching. The film might actually be one of Disney’s only good remakes because of Stitch’s iconic presence in pop culture and media, allowing the film to market itself. The film will be released on May 23rd, 2025.
- Freakier Friday: Attendees were also shown new clips and footage of the new modern take on Freaky Friday, a classic film that shouldn’t have gotten a reboot. It is very clear that Disney is trying to milk the cash cows of their most popular franchises, making it seem like they ran out of ideas. The film brings back the original cast, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, but aged and with their new generation experiencing the body swapping first hand. It acts as a family fun film with comedic chaos, humor, and heartfelt moments. The film will be released on August 8th, 2025, in theaters.
- Zootopia 2: A continuation to Disney’s Zootopia, which made over a billion dollars at the Global Box Office, is getting a sequel this fall. The film focuses on the struggling partnership of Judy and Nick as they try to uncover the secrets of Zootopia’s reptile population, introducing Gary the Snake, played by Ke Huy Quan. The film will be released on November 26th, 2025.
- Elio: Pixar’s newest original film releases this June. The synopsis is of a young boy who gets abducted by aliens. Mistaken to be the ambassador of Earth, he must try to resolve an intergalactic war with another alien race. The film has not been getting that much marketing, but that doesn’t mean we have to not support original ideas and films. In order to slow down unnecessary sequels, we must combat them by showing up for Disney’s original films to show that we want more original projects in circulation instead of reboots and live-action remakes. We need to show that as an audience, we want more than uninspired films and that we want real change in the film industry. If you want to support original ideas, go see Elio in theaters on June 20th, 2025.
- Fantastic Four: A new trailer was revealed to attendees, which included the appearance of Silver Surfer and the inevitable coming Galactus to their alternate retro 1960s-inspired universe. Marvel’s first family gets their film released on July 25, 2025, competing with Superman and Jurassic World: Rebirth.
- Avengers: Doomsday: The Marvel panel also revealed that the chair announcement with Doomsday’s cast is not complete and that there will be more cast announcements to come. They are hyping up the arrival of Doom as they also mention how everyone, including the original X-Men, will also team up with the Avengers to face the wrath of Doom. The film is set to be released on May 1st, 2026.
- Avatar: Fire and Ash: the third installment of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise is now in development and continues the saga deeper as we learn about more Na’vi tribes. The film continues the plot of “Avatar: Way of Water” as Sully and Neytiri’s family discover the Ash People and Wind traders, further expanding the planet of Pandora. The cycle of Earth’s military need for resources and destruction of nature continues in the third installment, releasing on December 19th, 2025.
Overall, this year’s CinemaCon was jam-packed with new film announcements and raised the anticipation of what’s to come in 2025 and beyond.
