The National Association of Theatre Owners will host all of the major studios once again at its annual Las Vegas trade show CinemaCon in April 2025 — and for the first time, Amazon MGM will be included on the main stage schedule.
“We are thrilled and honored to welcome back all of our studio partners, with the addition of Amazon MGM Studios to this coming year’s CinemaCon line-up as a clear sign of support of the theatrical moviegoing business,” NATO president and CEO Michael O’Leary said in a Thursday statement.
“This powerhouse line-up of the world’s greatest film-making studios speaks directly to the cultural and economic power of the cinema. Our friends in the studios know that movie fans want to see the magic they make on the big screen, and they also know that movies that start their journey in the theatre are more successful than those that do not,” he continued.
Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount and Lionsgate will all be back to show off their films for 2025 and 2026, while Sony returns to the show after stepping back in 2024 due to most of their upcoming films at the time not being far enough in development to have footage to present to exhibitors. Sony previously took CinemaCon off in 2019 for this reason as well.
Amazon, meanwhile, has previously taken part at CinemaCon, but at special ballroom presentations during luncheons. This will be the streamer studio’s first time presenting from the stage of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and the first time since acquiring MGM and its theatrical distribution arm in 2023.
Led by distribution chief Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM’s presentation serves as a message to movie theater owners that it is committed to putting films on the big screen for the long haul. The studio’s most recent release, “Red One,” has been a flop from a studio perspective as it has not made back its $250 million production budget before marketing costs from ticket sales. But it has still contributed to a lucrative end-of-year period for theaters as it is on its way to grossing $100 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Amazon MGM’s upcoming slate includes a sequel to the Ben Affleck action film “The Accountant,” the biographical drama “Sarah’s Oil” starring Zachary Levi and Sonequa Martin-Green, and a reboot of “Masters of the Universe” directed by Travis Knight.
CinemaCon will take place from March 31 to April 3, 2025, with select sneak peek and behind the scenes footage from the event available for the public to see in theaters on April 19.
