With stories and rumors swirling about potential mergers and bids to amass Paramount, the movie studio put its finest foot ahead for theater house owners at CinemaCon on Thursday.
The historic studio introduced a brand new movie with Oscar-winning “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle, a “G.I. Joe/Transformers” crossover and that Glen Powell will star in Edgar Wight’s “Running Man” reboot.
Paramount CEO and President Brian Robbins additionally teased some extra which are in growth, together with a Bee Gees movie from Ridley Scott, a brand new musical from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, a “Star Trek” origin story, a brand new “Scary Movie” and an R-rated dwell motion “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin” in addition to an animated “Mutant Mayhem” sequel.
They additionally introduced out stars like Chris Hemsworth and Lupita Nyong’o to speak about their upcoming movies, with video messages from Scott, Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal, who helped introduce new footage from “Gladiator II.”
Washington promised, “Emotion, action and spectacle unlike anything else you’re going to see in theaters this year.”
Paramount had a optimistic begin to 2024 with profitable releases like “Mean Girls” and “Bob Marley: One Love,” and a few main movies to return this yr together with “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 28), the animated “Transformers One” (Sept. 13), a “Smile” sequel (Oct. 18) and the “Gladiator” sequel (Nov. 22). They will even re-release Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” in September for its tenth anniversary, and, in 2025, “Mission: Impossible 8.” But hovering over all of it are the stories of the corporate’s sale.
The private-equity agency Apollo Global reportedly provided $11 billion to amass the studio, which has filmed leisure, tv and streaming elements like Paramount+. There have additionally been stories of a potential merger with Skydance, David Ellison’s media firm that has helped produce such Paramount releases as “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning.”
Without immediately addressing them, Paramount leaned into the chatter with Robbins joking that the studio’s distribution head Chris Aronson has began a Kickstarter to throw his hat into the ring.
While the tone at CinemaCon, a weeklong gathering of theater house owners, exhibitors and all the assorted firms concerned in movie show operations and experiences, is often overwhelmingly optimistic, Aronson took a extra sober strategy.
After coming into the presentation in a Roman chariot holding a protect emblazoned with the Paramount emblem, he famous that the trade has misplaced a good quantity of frequent moviegoers and should work to get them again with capital enhancements to theaters and different improvements.
The home field workplace has improved yr after yr for the reason that pandemic, however remains to be about $2 billion shy of the place the enterprise was pre-pandemic.
“Our industry is at a turning point,” Aronson stated. “It’s quite clear that moviegoers still love going to the movies, but we as an industry must do better.”
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