CinemaCon, and this year’s gathering of movie theater owners managed to come and go with nary a mention of the exhibition industry’s persona non grata, Netflix.The streaming giant is usually a punching bag as Hollywood studios and film operators spend a week in Las Vegas to wax poetic about the communal power of going to see movies on the big screen.
But following a year of experimenting with different release strategies and launching their own digital platforms, studios can’t really take aim at Netflix’s disdain of exclusive theatrical windows.
Still, the awkwardness that loomed over last year’s convention didn’t appear to linger in 2022 as traditional studios reassured exhibitors that they would have plenty of new sequels and superhero pics to draw crowds.
All those fights over theatrical exclusivity appeared to have been resolved … at least for now. After four days stuffed with hours-long pitches to tout blockbuster hopefuls like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Variety has assessed the major studios’ presentations that earned gold stars and the ones that were closer to getting demerits.Takeaways: Sony took a victory lap for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the third-highest-grossing movie in domestic box office history (you may have heard about it) by proving to theater owners that comic book characters are not the studio’s only superpower.
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