The present goes on for Paramount with ‘Gladiator II,’ a brand new Damien Chazelle film and extra
LAS VEGAS — With experiences and rumors swirling about attainable mergers and bids to amass Paramount, the movie studio put its greatest foot ahead for theater house owners at CinemaCon on Thursday.
The historic studio introduced a brand new movie with Oscar-winning “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle, a “G.I. Joe/Transformers” crossover and that Glen Powell will star in Edgar Wight’s “Working Man” reboot.
Paramount CEO and President Brian Robbins additionally teased some extra which might be in growth, together with a Bee Gees movie from Ridley Scott, a brand new musical from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, a “Star Trek” origin story, a brand new “Scary Film” and an R-rated reside motion “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Final Ronin” in addition to an animated “Mutant Mayhem” sequel.
In addition they introduced out stars like Chris Hemsworth and Lupita Nyong’o to speak about their upcoming movies, with video messages from Scott, Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal, who helped introduce new footage from “Gladiator II.”
Washington promised, “Emotion, motion and spectacle not like anything you’re going to see in theaters this yr.”
Paramount had a optimistic begin to 2024 with profitable releases like “Imply Ladies” and “Bob Marley: One Love,” and a few main movies to return this yr together with “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 28), the animated “Transformers One” (Sept. 13), a “Smile” sequel (Oct. 18) and the “Gladiator” sequel (Nov. 22). They will even re-release Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” in September for its tenth anniversary, and, in 2025, “Mission: Inconceivable 8.” However hovering over all of it are the experiences of the corporate’s sale.
The private-equity agency Apollo International reportedly provided $11 billion to amass the studio, which has filmed leisure, tv and streaming parts like Paramount+. There have additionally been experiences of a attainable merger with Skydance, David Ellison’s media firm that has helped produce such Paramount releases as “High Gun: Maverick” and “Mission: Inconceivable – Lifeless Reckoning.”
With out instantly addressing them, Paramount leaned into the chatter with Robbins joking that the studio’s distribution head Chris Aronson has began a Kickstarter to throw his hat into the ring.
Whereas the tone at CinemaCon, a weeklong gathering of theater house owners, exhibitors and all the varied corporations concerned in movie show operations and experiences, is often overwhelmingly optimistic, Aronson took a extra sober strategy.
After getting into the presentation in a Roman chariot holding a protect emblazoned with the Paramount emblem, he famous that the business has misplaced a good quantity of frequent moviegoers and should work to get them again with capital enhancements to theaters and different improvements.
The home field workplace has improved yr after yr because the pandemic, however remains to be about $2 billion shy of the place the enterprise was pre-pandemic.
“Our business is at a turning level,” Aronson mentioned. “It’s fairly clear that moviegoers nonetheless love going to the flicks, however we as an business should do higher.”
