What is CinemaCon?

That’s an interesting question because if you were perusing X/Twitter last week, you might have seen some coverage of the various movie studios and their presentations at the event. Or you might have seen some awesome pictures of popcorn buckets from your favorite movies. However, the real intention of the convention is for theater owners. That’s right, even if there was a massive wing of press during the event, it’s not about us. This was a special look for theater owners to get the latest in movie slates, popcorn technology, seats, sound, projection, and much more.

For that reason, CinemaCon 2024 was a rousing success. Here’s how checking out the show floor went. You walked down a seemingly endless hallway at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas of posters, advertisements for Dolby technology, and standees for upcoming movies like A Quiet Place: Day One, Reagan, IF, and plenty of others. Once you actually reached the hall, it was like a kid in an actual candy store. Except that candy store also has reclining chairs, projectors, laser tag tech, claw games, more candy than you can imagine, hot dogs, popcorn, popcorn buckets, and iced drinks. Yes, if you have a heart mumur, heart issues, or just in general don’t enjoy sugar, i would not recommend CinemaCon.

However, if you do enjoy those things, the convention was a massive success. Just based on new candy, popcorn, and other food, the convention gave a rosy look at the upcoming year. That was the most surprising thing about the convention to me. All the various things that go into theater exhibition. The movies are a big part, but the concessions, chairs, noise suppression, and more are just as big.

The other part of the convention that wasn’t *all* about the movies, was the actual tech on display. Dolby had a big presence at the convention touting their Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos updates for theaters. The presentations that they made weren’t all just buzzwords and bluster either, they made real strides in that tech for the convention. If you’re seeing a movie with those attached, you’re in for a special treat.

The other company that really impressed me was BARCO. They had a tech-demo for their HDR laser projection technology. Nowadays, the difference between projection doesn’t seem like it’s all that big. However, this new HDR laser that they’re working with, adds a whole lot to the visual fidelity of the image. The bright vibrant colors of movies like Inside Out 2 pop even more with HDR. When they showed side-by-side comparisons of the images, it was night and day. I’ll be looking forward to my local theaters if they add this tech.

As for the movie studios, we had plenty of coverage of their presentations whether it was on X/Twitter or here at THS, check out the full list below.

The various presentations that the studios put on ranged from pretty good to absolutely awesome. The range of movies coming out, at least from studios outside of Disney, are looking fairly original. Lionsgate had the most original content to offer up with plenty of new comedies, action, horror, and other genres. The other takeaway was that Disney really isn’t messing around with 2024 and beyond. The other studios all mentioned how great their 2023 slates were for box office numbers and theater owners. Disney did not. They wanted the entire focus to be on the slate of films coming out in 2024 and beyond like Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2, Captain America: Brave New World, and their excellent slate at 20th Century Studios.

Overall, I didn’t know what to expect out of CinemaCon, but I was pleasantly surprised. If you can get the chance to go and experience the week of movie goodness in Las Vegas in 2025, I would do it.

For more on Live Events, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.

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