Increased Calls for a 45-Day+ Exclusivity Window
Exhibitors’ call for a 45-day+ exclusivity window grew louder on day two of CinemaCon. Cinema United President & CEO Michael O’Leary dedicated a significant portion of his State of the Industry address to the topic. “Windows that are too short, or inconsistent, only lead to confusion among consumers, particularly among casual moviegoers who are so important,” said O’Leary.
In the afternoon’s Industry Think Tank executive roundtable, Cineworld/Regal CEO Edurado Acuña reiterated the push for a consistent 45-day+ window across all releases. According to a recent survey conducted by Cineworld, one in three consumers believe that a film will be available to stream at home within 30 days of release. Regardless of a film’s exclusivity window, this widespread consumer perception trains audiences to wait for a film rather than driving them to the cinema.
The topic has become a rallying cry for an exhibition sector looking for a way to grow the business on stable footing, without having to modify programming plans to accommodate differing priorities and policies on a studio-by-studio basis. Outside of Sony and Neon, however, no other major distributor has yet to show significant support to this appeal at CinemaCon 2025.
Lionsgate Brings Out The Weeknd, Touts Ballerina, and Glosses Over Michael Omission
Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, was the focal point of its presentation at last year’s CinemaCon. It was originally intended to be released this month, but reshoots have pushed the film to October—with few details or updates on its marketing plans in the Fall. And while exhibitors were treated to an exhilarating two-song performance by The Weeknd to close the studio’s 2025 presentation (the artist’s Hurry Up Tomorrow is scheduled to release on May 14), Michael’s conspicuous absence from the slate showcase is hard to ignore as the biggest headline from the event. Michael emerged as one of the most talked-about films from CinemaCon 2024—only to have that excitement transform into concern a year later.
With Michael’s theatrical prospects still unclear, Lionsgate’s 2025 presentation pivoted to John Wick spin-off Ballerina as its cinematic event of the year. Star Ana de Armas introduced an extended action sequence from the film, which was convincing enough to easily blend into any of the mainline John Wick installments. Lionsgate’s plans for the Wick franchise will extend beyond Ballerina, with announcements of an additional spin-off helmed by John Wick 4 co-star Donnie Yen, an animated prequel, and the official announcement of John Wick 5 with star Keanu Reeves returning under franchise director Chad Stahelski. Lionsgate also dedicated time to promoting two other IP-driven franchises: Now You See Me, Now You Don’t—the third installment in the Now You See Me series—and November 2026’s Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
On the originals side, Lionsgate will be rolling out a series of literary adaptations with genre angles. The Long Walk, based on a Stephen King novel, is scheduled for September 12, featuring an intriguing heel turn from Star Wars icon Mark Hamill as the film’s antagonist. Christmas day will see the release of The Housemaid, based on a trilogy of popular novels, that sees Sydney Sweeney star alongside Amanda Seyfried in a Paul Feig-helmed thriller that could possibly spawn additional sequels based on the other novels. Luca Guadagnino made it a trifecta of literary adaptations, delivering a video update on his progress over a new adaptation of American Psycho that revealed little about the as-of-yet undated project. Perhaps the most welcome surprise of the presentation came with an extended look of John Carney’s upcoming Power Ballad, also undated. A comedy-drama set in the music business played like a bro-mantic take on A Star is Born, and could emerge as a welcome counterprogrammer on the release calendar later this year.
F1 Pulls Ahead of Superman as Warner Bros. Standout Title at CinemaCon
CinemaCon 2023 delivered our first look at the “Summer of Barbie,” before Oppenheimer eventually co-opted it as the light-half of an idiosyncratic double-feature. We expected Warner Bros. to pull out all the stops once again for this year’s “Summer of Superman,” but were instead left wanting in what resulted to be an underwhelming showcase for the title at the Warner Bros. presentation.
Exclusive footage from the film drew too heavily from scenes already prominently featured in the title’s first trailer. And while stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult did their best to fill time with a scripted Q&A on stage, the bit failed to register significant excitement from attendees. This isn’t to say Superman has a difficult road ahead—none of this will matter once the consumer marketing campaign takes flight—but simply that it was a missed opportunity to fully engage the audience in attendance with what could be one of the biggest films of the year.
The same can be said for Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Sinnners, which only showcased a video message from the director weeks ahead of the release. Last month’s SXSW film festival seemed like the perfect spot to launch the marketing campaign for the genre-bending thriller, making its muted presence at CinemaCon all the more curious. While a cast and filmmaker appearance would be out of the question because of promotional commitments for the film, Sinners is precisely the sort of title that could have benefited from an extended look at footage from the film.
The titles that offered an early look at footage produced better reactions from the crowd. Director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer delivered a succinct introduction to Apple’s Formula One car racing drama, F1, which Warner Bros. will be releasing internationally, before unveiling the film’s opening ten minutes. Those ten minutes proved to be the best part of Warner Bros.’ presentation. Final Destination: Bloodlines, P.T. Anderson’s One Battle After Another (with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall in attendance), and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, and February 2026’s animated The Cat in the Hat all benefited from the added exposure. And although we only saw a glimpse of the horror thriller Weapons (on track for a January 2026 release), the brief time it enjoyed on screen was enough to put it on our radar as one of the most compelling horror titles of next year.
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