Assassins win, ‘Transformers’ lose
Cinema owners (and we) get a look at upcoming films
The final sizzle reel LAS VEGAS has run at CinemaCon 2017, the convention for theater owners.
Each year, Hollywood studios pack their stars on private planes to Vegas and trot them onstage as they unveil their upcoming movie slates to generate excitement among exhibitors.
Winners and losers from the four days of festivities: BIGGEST GROWTH PROFESSION: SCREEN ASSASSIN The killing game had a killer year. Charlize Theron promoted Atomic Blonde (in theaters July 28), in which she works a British accent but lets the guns do the talking as MI6’s most lethal assassin. Jennifer Lawrence is getting in the game as a ballerina recruited into a secretive Russian spy agency, using her body as a weapon in Red Sparrow (Nov. 10).
Also talked up: the humorfilled The Hitman’s Bodyguard (Aug. 18), with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, which screened in its entirety, and
American Assassin (Sept. 15), featuring Dylan O’Brien as a skilled wannabe killer undergoing CIA training. STAR OF THE YEAR: THE ROCK Dwayne Johnson used a private jet like mortals use Uber. He led the onstage goofing Monday with his co-stars to promote the big holiday offering Jumanji (Dec. 22), then jetted to Los Angeles to shoot Ballers. He repeated this Tuesday to talk up R-rated comedy Baywatch (May 26) on a stage filled with red-suited lifeguards and co-stars such as Zac Efron.
Johnson missed out on making it a trifecta. He was notably absent from the presentation for
The Fate of the Furious (April 14), which had only one alpha star: Vin Diesel. BIGGEST VEGAS ROLL: MATT DAMON Damon was another power presence, onstage for two films in one day. He hit solidly with footage from Alexander Payne’s Downsiz
ing (Dec. 22) and yucked it up Rat Pack-style with pal George Clooney for the Clooney-directed
Suburbicon (Nov. 3). Both films built hype around their awardsfriendly release dates. BEST ALL-AROUND SHOW: 20TH CENTURY FOX The studio’s vice president of domestic distribution, Chris Aronson, opened the presentation by personally leading a musical dance number. After the dancing executive, there was power footage from War for the Planet of the Apes (July 14) and Kingsman: The
Golden Circle (Sept. 29). Fox ended with Hugh Jackman showing off scenes from his rousing P.T. Barnum musical The Greatest
Showman (Dec. 25), supplemented with live dancers and falling balloons. That’s showbiz. MOST POPULAR SNOB: DISNEY Disney was the first Hollywood studio to top $7 billion in global box office in 2016 with gold standards like the Star Wars franchise, Marvel Studios and Pixar. With nothing to sweat, Disney talked through its slate of films in about 12 minutes. No stars, no breaking announcements. The studio phoned it in, then looked like a star by
rolling Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (May 26) in its entirety and throwing a pirate-themed party. Arrrggh, they’re good. BIGGEST MISFIRE: ‘TRANSFORMERS’ A dry panel discussion with the cast and director Michael Bay for Transformers: The Last
Knight (June 23) was a clunker. The exclusive footage was lengthy but featured too many kids and quirky Brits (starting with Sir Anthony Hopkins as Sir Edmund Burton) and not enough robot carnage. It will still make a billion.