On the Ground at CinemaCon in Tense Times for Exhibitors and Studios

variety.com:

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor There’s no glossing over it, not even with extra-buttered popcorn: The mood at CinemaCon is tense this year.

Brent Lang, Variety‘s executive editor who oversees film and media coverage, reports from Las Vegas on the annual gathering of movie theater owners and film studio chieftains on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business.” Lang shares his observations about how the conference is reflecting the headwinds buffeting a sector that is down significantly from its pre-pandemic highs.

Lang also weighs in on some hot topics of the moment, including the fate of Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy as the leaders of Warner Bros.

Motion Pictures Group. And to lighten the mood, Pat Saperstein, Variety’s deputy editor of film, gives a quick tour of her recent report on the 21 coolest movie theaters in the world. “This is usually a very celebratory affair, where studio [executives] get on stage and talk about the magic of the moviegoing experience and how vital theaters are to the whole ecosystem, and they are certainly doing that, but there’s much more tension than there has been in past years,” Lang says. “Some of that is because 2025 was supposed to mark a real turnaround for the theatrical business, and instead, the first three months of the year have been very sluggish.” Listen to the full podcast: The response among movie theater managers was subdued even with the appearance of a megastar in Leonardo DiCaprio, he noted. “In the past, theater owners were euphoric, and [this year] they were kind of like politely applauding.