Arriving every spring at the Caesars Palace ballroom/convention wing for CinemaCon, the official convention for the National Association of Theatre Owners brings with it, after many years of attending and covering, a certain feeling of comfort to go with that of anticipation. As with every year, the initial long escalator ride up to the main floor leads one to the big archway welcoming one to the conference. This arch has gone through various adjustments and innovations over the years dating back to the ShoWest era, but it's more or less remained the same since 2015, when a video wall-style design of conjoined LED displays was adopted. Both visually slick (any mixture of animations, videos, text, and still images can appear on the entire archway or only isolated in specific segments) and efficiently practical (no need to change out the side panels on a nightly basis to post the latest daily schedule), I don't see any reason to adjust it any further for the long-forseeable future--unless one of the tech companies decides to show off some glasses-free 3D technology.
Similarly, the Christie-sponsored screen that sits slightly diagonally opposite the archway showcasing various trailers and Access-produced profile packages on those being honored on the convention-closing Big Screen Achievement Awards on Thursday night, has remained consistent in both screen size and projection quality the last few years.
The "anticipation" part of arriving at the convention space comes in seeing the many posters, standees, and displays touting various upcoming film releases for the rest of year and sometimes even far beyond that line and fill the multiple floors of labyrinthine hallways. Many studios use the convention hallways as a platform to unveil a number of teaser or one-sheet posters for the very first time. This year, in what hopefully does not become a trend, there is a shocking lack of never-before-seen posters or preliminary promo mock-ups (like, for instance, this trio of Focus Features posters from last year). This isn't to say, however, that there aren't some brand new posters around, such as this year's winner of the largest hallway display, a long line-up of teasers for Lionsgate/Summit's Pepsi ad-inspired basketball comedy Uncle Drew, starring the Boston Celtics' Kyrie Irving and two of this year's Big Screen Achievement Awards honorees, Breakthrough Performer of the Year Lil Rel Howery and Female Star of Tomorrow Tiffany Haddish.
There is, however, a clear trend in this year's hallway displays: life size (or close to it) 3D standees, all the better for convention attendees--or anyone passing through--to take social media-ready selfies.
The escalators (all of which are fully functional this year, unlike last year) remain a prime promo spot. Getting the placement honors this year are three big franchise installments, Fox's Deadpool 2, and the Paramount pair of Mission: Impossible--Fallout and Transformers spinoff Bumblebee; Warner Bros. touting its Tuesday afternoon "The Big Picture" presentation with a catch-all push for Aquaman, Crazy Rich Asians, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Life of the Party, The Meg, A Star Is Born, and Teen Titans Go! to the Movies; and--in keeping with the odd shortage of new movie artwork--the Cinemark theatre chain.
As usual, a certain stretch of the hallways is devoted to displaying various autographed posters and memorabilia items up for silent auction to benefit Variety, the Children's Charity. Sharing its space this is a special recreation of the famous Mister Rogers' Neighborhood doorway set, presented by Focus Features to promote Morgan Neville's Sundance-celebrated Fred Rogers documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Stay tuned here and on my Twitter and Instagram all week for ongoing coverage of all the goings-on at CinemaCon 2018!
(Very special thanks to Heather Lewandoski, Corey Barger, and the entire team at Rogers & Cowan for all their helpful and generous assistance at the convention, as well as Mitch Neuhauser and the CinemaCon crew)
The Movie Report wants to attend all your film special events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!
