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There’s no such thing as Netflix and Chill at CinemaCon. The 2025 edition of the movie industry’s premiere trade show and convention wrapped up on Thursday after a week where the major movie studios courted theatrical exhibitors with elaborate presentations filled with big stars and big-screen movies.
The event was also filled with big promises, as one studio executive after another emphasized the importance of movie theaters even as social media and streaming are keeping audiences at home. The length of the theatrical-to-streaming window was one of the big discussions on the ground, along with ways to make moviegoing more affordable and the transformation of movie theaters into destinations that offer more than just movies. Think pickleball courts and lobby bars.
That said, the movies themselves are still the main attraction at CinemaCon. Each of the seven major studio presentations played to packed houses of theater owners and cinema buffs eager to catch sightings of Tom Cruise and Sydney Sweeney, and see trailers, posters, and footage before anyone else.
Because this is the Summer of Superman, ADWEEK graded each of the presentations on a scale of 1-5 Superman symbols. How do you say “more popcorn” in Kryptonian?
Sony Pictures
Sony used its stage time to shine a spotlight on the directors behind its upcoming movies, from veterans like Darren Aronofsky and Sam Mendes to such emerging favorites as Nia DaCosta and Zach Cregger. But a few movie stars did show up both in the room and virtually, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Tom Holland, Karate Kid: Legends’ Ralph Macchio, and the quartet of actors playing the Fab Four in a four-part Beatles biopic. Bringing out the big names behind those IP-driven projects was clearly designed to reassure exhibitors about some of the studio’s bigger creative swings.
Best Trailer: Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing has big Boondock Saints energy, and not just because of the late ‘90s setting. Anchored by Austin Butler and boasting a big cast of ace scene-stealers—including Liev Schreiber and Carol Kane—the Brooklyn heist movie possesses a jittery energy and zippy humor that we haven’t typically seen from the director behind intensely dramatic fare like Requiem for a Dream and The Whale.
Worst Trailer: Speaking of the ‘90s, Sony’s attempt to resurrect the I Know What You Did Last Summer horror franchise feels trapped in the past. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. contribute obligatory cameos, but neither seem all that thrilled to once again be stalked by a hook-handed Gorton’s fisherman reject.
Most Buried Lede: We only have two more years to wait for the final installment in Sony’s animated Spider-Verse trilogy. Wait… two whole years??
Overall Rating: 
While light on (movie) star power, Sony’s filmmaker-focused presentation previewed some promising breakout possibilities and forward-thinking risk-taking at a time when other studios are playing it safe.
Lionsgate
Keanu Reeves didn’t take the stage during Lionsgate’s presentation, but his spirit—and face—loomed large. The studio is putting all of its chips on the John Wick franchise, unveiling fresh footage of the spin-off Ballerina, which features an extended appearance by Reeves’ assassin alongside star Ana de Armas. Lionsgate also announced a John Wick animated prequel, another spin-off directed by and starring Donnie Yen, and the early development of John Wick 5. Reeves is also among the star-studded cast of Aziz Ansari’s new comedy, Good Fortune.
Best Trailer: The BookTok-to-screen pipeline isn’t ending with It Ends With Us. The killer first trailer for The Housemaid suggests we’ve got a modern-day Hand That Rocks the Cradle hitting theaters for Christmas. And while Sydney Sweeney may be the star of the moment, Amanda Seyfried’s seriously unhinged performance will likely be the one audiences come away talking about.
Worst Trailer: John Carney’s Once remains one of the most delightful modern movie musicals because of its simplicity. Unfortunately, the plot of his latest offering, Power Ballad—starring Paul Rudd as a wedding singer and Nick Jonas as the boy band frontman who rips off one of his songs—seems a little too busy for its own good.
Most Buried Lede: After hyping up its Michael Jackson biopic at last year’s CinemaCon, Lionsgate declined to offer additional updates about the now-troubled project. Seeing whether or not it sticks to its October release date should be a real thriller.
Overall Rating: 
Even without Reeves, Lionsgate put on a really big show, bringing out both Seyfried and Sweeney, announcing the start of principal photography on the next Hunger Games movie, and closing the presentation out with Hurry Up Tomorrow star Jenna Ortega introducing an exclusive concert headlined by her co-star, The Weeknd. All together now—woah.
Warner Bros.
It’s the Summer of Superman… so why did the Warner Bros. presentation feel a little chilly? DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran introduced the Man of Steel’s latest incarnation but were notably light on plot specifics and footage. Brad Pitt’s racing drama F1 stepped in to fill that void by screening the first 10 minutes of the movie. Warner’s also shared the respective slates for its genre label, New Line Cinemas, and its revived animation studio, which is bringing IP like The Flintstones and the Cat in the Hat to the big screen.
Best Trailer: It wasn’t a proper trailer, but New Line head Richard Brenner screened an entire sequence from Final Destination: Bloodlines that had the fun—and the gore—from the previously dormant horror franchise’s early entries. Color us cautiously optimistic for this legacy sequel and the return of the early 2000s.
Worst Trailer: Bill Hader is clearly a much better choice for Dr. Seuss’s hat-wearing feline than Mike Myers. But an early look at The Cat in the Hat animated feature seemed lost in Seuss-land with a lot of frenetic action in place of the good doctor’s mischievous humor.
Most Buried Lede: The Looney Tunes were referenced throughout the Warner Bros. Animation portion of the presentation as an example of the studio’s storied cartoon legacy. But the studio heads studiously avoided mentioning that Bugs Bunny and his pals have been exiled from Max, while both Looney Tunes features—The Day the Earth Blew Up and Coyote vs. Acme—were sold to Ketchup Entertainment.
Overall Rating: 
Since so much of the WB’s 2025 box office fortunes rests on the Man of Steel’s shoulders, the footage-lite Superman portion of the presentation was a surprise. But it was nice to get longer looks at F1 and One Battle After Another with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Universal Studios
Universal brought stars and volume to its presentation, along with a full orchestra that played all of the studio’s hit movie scores from Psycho and Back to the Future to Conclave and Wicked. Speaking of that Broadway blockbuster, stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande took a well-deserved victory lap ahead of teeing up the second installment, Wicked: For Good. The duo didn’t sing, but they did engage in plenty of banter—in a wickedly funny way, natch.
Best Trailer: Do you even need to ask? Wicked: For Good brought the house down with its peek at what’s in store for Glinda and Elphaba now that a certain little girl from Kansas has made her way to Oz.
Worst Trailer: Jason Blum dressed up as Freddy Fazbear to preview the sequel to Five Nights at Freddy’s, and the stunt was more terrifying than anything in the first teaser. One silver lining: the creepy animatronics get to leave the pizzeria this time.
Most Buried Lede: It appears that Megan 2.0 is going to follow a villain-to-hero arc as the TikTok-friendly title character faces off an even worse killer doll named Amelia. At this rate, Megan will be cuddling puppies and kittens by the third installment—cuddling them to death.
Overall Rating: 
While employing an orchestra was a great value add, it did set up expectations for a Glinda/Elphaba duet that ultimately never materialized. Still, Universal’s presentation effectively made the case that it has the strongest, most diverse 2025 slate of any of the studios, especially when you fold in the Blumhouse horror titles, the Illumination cartoons, and the Focus Features art-house fare.
Amazon MGM
The newest kid on the block spent much of its time living in the distant future of… 2026. With only two major theatrical releases due in multiplexes this year, Amazon used a combination of star power and sizzle reels to set up a theatrical slate of 14 titles that kicks off in January. Ryan Gosling and Ben Affleck livened up their obligatory appearances by making fun of the scripted remarks scrolling through the teleprompter, while Chris Pratt channeled his old job on Parks and Recreation with a sitcom-ready on-stage bit based on his sci-fi thriller, Mercy. As a toe-dip in the CinemaCon waters, the streamer-turned-theatrical exhibitor mostly said and showed the right things.
Best Trailer: Playwright Aleshea Harris has seemingly turned her acclaimed Off-Broadway play Is God Is into a cult movie in the making. Boasting an eclectic cast—from Vivica A. Fox to Sterling K. Brown—and grimy grindhouse visuals, the wild road trip picture also heralds a new beginning for the Orion Pictures label as a division focused on daring stories from diverse voices.
Worst Trailer: Pratt gamely played along with his scripted on-stage stunt, but Mercy still looks like a movie that would have gone straight to video—as opposed to straight to streaming—back in the Blockbuster days.
Most Buried Lede: Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson are apparently co-starring in a movie about… sheep detectives? Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie is a real movie that’s really coming to theaters next March. Forgive us for assuming it was written and directed by Deadpool.
Overall Rating:
Some of Amazon’s initial theatrical offerings seem a little creatively shaky (again, sheep detectives?), but every studio has to start somewhere. And the real prize will be getting 007 back on the big screen in two or three years’ time.
Paramount
Paramount has a rich cinematic legacy, but in recent years it’s been known as the studio that Tom Cruise re-built. So it only makes sense that its presentation concluded with a Cruise cameo, who walked—not ran—onstage to introduce the final trailer for the eighth and (maybe) final Mission: Impossible movie. But the studio is also looking beyond Cruise with a slate that takes advantage of its treasure trove of animated IP—including SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Paw Patrol—as well as a potential Oscar nominee in the Channing Tatum-led Roofman.
Best Trailer: The Running Man was previously brought to the screen as an awesomely ’80s Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. For the new version, director Edgar Wright hews closer to Stephen King’s original novel, set in a reality television-ridden dystopia. But Wright’s movie is also filled with plenty of his trademark visual humor and star Glen Powell is as quick with sarcastic wisecracks as he is quick on his feet.
Worst Trailer: Speaking of animated IP, Paramount is still making Smurfs movies even though almost no one demanded it. The latest revival starring those tiny blue mushroom-dwellers features Rihanna as the voice Smurfette and a storyline that sends them into our world to rescue Papa Smurf.
Most Buried Lede: Looming over the presentation was Paramount Global’s long-planned merger with Skydance Media later this year, which could lead to an executive reshuffling. “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished at Paramount amidst all the noise going on at our parent company,” president and CEO Brian Robbins said during the presentation before speeding past the subject.
Overall Rating:
Cruise unsurprisingly is eager to send Mission: Impossible out with a bang, and his tributes to M:I director Christopher McQuarrie and his late Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer were heartfelt additions to the presentation. But the glimpses of The Running Man, Roofman, and the latest SpongeBob SquarePants movie were equally heartening, indicating that Paramount still has a lot of race left to run.
Disney
The Mouse House came to play as the closing CinemaCon attraction, rolling out footage and stars from the near-dozen movies it plans to release during the calendar year. Disney Animation, Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight, and Disney Pictures were all represented by one or more titles, which ranged from Elio and Predator: Badlands to Avatar: Fire and Ash and Jeremy Allen White’s Bruce Springsteen biopic.
Best Trailer: Don’t laugh, but Freakier Friday looks like it will provide a big hit of early aughts nostalgia, with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis keeping their comic chemistry intact 20 years later. Sending this one to theaters—instead of straight to Disney+ like Hocus Pocus 2—appears to have been the right call.
Worst Trailer: The original Tron remains one of the most delightfully strange movies in the Disney canon. But the first footage of Tron: Ares suggests that the latest installment is sticking with the more somber and self-serious tone that dragged down the latter-day sequel, Tron: Legacy.
Most Buried Lede: The (very good) Avatar: Fire and Ash footage indicates that James Cameron is once again employing the high frame rate filmmaking technology that’s proven so controversial in movies like Ang Lee’s Gemini Man and Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Do not adjust your IMAX screen—it’s supposed to look like that smooth.
Overall Rating:
One could accuse Disney of playing it safe by playing the hits, but most other studios would kill for hits like these. Allowing the audience to take photos and video of the stars onstage—something that was forbidden in the other presentations—added to the feeling that everyone in the room was witnessing a cultural event and not just a trade show session.
