Sony always gets the distinction of kicking off CinemaCon on opening night because it is a studio without a streaming service of its own — leading it to frequently claim that it’s more dedicated to theatrical than its peers. This year the studio had footage from both of its “Spider-Man” films, Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil,” and even Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network” companion film.
In these Daily Dispatches from CinemaCon, we’re sharing the highlights of what we saw, what was announced, what we didn’t, and what was the overall vibe.
The BEST Thing We Saw
Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil” trailer did not disappoint, and we wrote more about the trailer tease we got in the room here. But the true highlight was “The Social Reckoning,” which showed a trailer and the first look at Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, which looked truly inspired. His dead-eyed, intense stiffness as he prepared to give a deposition and argued with someone played by Bill Burr was gripping. It also showed Jeremy Allen White playing a journalist trying to get details out of a whistleblower played by Mikey Madison, who is very far from her “Anora” performance and accent. The trailer ends with a character played by Billy Magnussen asking White what Madison’s character thinks she’s doing, and he replies, “she’s disrupting.”
The BIG News in the Room
It’s safe to say a large contingent of the crowd wanted to see what the new “Spider-Man” film, “Brand New Day,” had in store. The studio showed a scene from the film in which Peter attends a party hosted by MJ and Ned. Ned has for some time now been copiously tracking Spider-Man’s whereabouts and trying to figure out who he is, just to “hopefully thank him face to face,” saying this all to Peter without knowing who he is. The clip concludes with Peter witnessing MJ kissing a new guy. We also got a brief tease at a fight scene in the film not seen in the trailer in which Spidey, who says he’s not in high school anymore, needs to do a little stretching before taking out some bad guys.
As for “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” which is still over a year away, Sony showed the opening scene from the film, which picks up right where the second film left off, with Miles Morales being captured by himself in an alternate universe, who in this other world is the Prowler. There’s a fun exchange of dialogue in which the Prowler-version of Miles says his prisoner isn’t pronouncing “Morales” correctly, all leading up to Miles using his electricity to break free.
Though we’ve already heard some news about “Helldivers” from Justin Lin (starring Jason Momoa), the director was on hand to talk about, saying it balances “satire with humanity and feels so fresh and timely.” And that wasn’t the only Playstation news that was announced, as we also got word there will be a “Bloodborne” animated feature from YouTuber and gamer Jacksepticeye, and it will be rated R. The third-person action RPG was first released for the PS4 in 2015.
What We EXPECTED to See but Didn’t
The Beatles! Sam Mendes’ four films were the capper to last year’s ceremony, with Sony announcing the big news that it would release all four films in the same month in 2028, as well as trotting out the Fab Four cast members themselves. And though production has begun and we even got our first look at each of the cast members in character, we didn’t get any other teases on stage this year. Perhaps they’ll go all out with the Beatlemania beginning in 2027.
Also no dice on any “Legend of Zelda” news. That’ll probably be reserved for some sort of Nintendo Direct, but Sony did say the film has now wrapped production.
What We LEARNED
SPE Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman made the prediction that 2026 will exceed the box office of prior years, which seems like a safe bet because the box office is already over 20 percent above what it was at this same point last year. But he also called on theaters to do their part to make the theatrical experience “longer, shorter, cheaper.” He called for theaters themselves to enforce longer windows, i.e. being willing to hold movies on their screens longer, even at the expense of losing out on other movies. He asked for theaters to “substantially shorten” the long pre-shows before films of advertisements, specifically saying, “Get off the ad crack.” And he finally called for movies to be cheaper, saying that “going to the movies must be affordable again.” His remarks got some muted, scattered applause from the exhibitor audience that has heard some of these claims before.
Other Bullets
- Though previously reported several years ago, “Godzilla Minus One” filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki will write and direct “Grandgear,” which is a project from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot. The film is his English-language debut. It was announced he film will open February 18, 2028, and filming starts soon, but Sony did give a title treatment sizzle along with some flashes of some menacing looking kaiju robots fighting in a city.
- Nate Bargatze said he has two movie theater jokes in his act, “so this worked out perfectly.” He’s never been to CinemaCon and wore a tuxedo, which he instantly regretted, and “The Breadwinner” is also his first movie. He quipped that “if you help me, hopefully it won’t be my last.”
- “Klara and the Sun,” Taika Waititi’s colorful and quirky new film about Artificial Friends and based on a book by Kazuo Ishiguro, will open in theaters October 23, 2026.
- Kevin Hart does not believe that Dwayne Johnson knows shit about any of the exhibition leaders he always shouts out on the CinemaCon stage, and he says seeing The Rock’s face every day was not fun and was “work.” The first clip from “Jumanji 3,” now titled “Jumanji: Open World,” showed the main characters now in the real world and “stuck in demo mode” with some dialogue that hasn’t exactly been ironed out yet for the finished game.
