Wednesday, April 15
Universal Pictures and Focus Features
Universal enters CinemaCon with one of the strongest summer slates of the year, as Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, Minions & Monsters, and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey all set sail within the five-week span from mid-June to mid-July. Though he’s the father of the summer blockbuster, Disclosure Day is actually the first Spielberg-directed live-action summer release since 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which, ironically, was also the last Spielberg film to tackle aliens. Ahead of the official title reveal, online conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts began speculating that Spielberg’s top-secret project was a “disclosure” event aimed at preparing the public for real-life confirmation of extraterrestrial life. Regardless of what Spielberg has up his sleeve, we’re rooting for otherworldly numbers from his return to science (maybe) fiction.
Alongside Spielberg, Nolan is one of just a few filmmakers whose name alone has the power to open a movie. Nolan’s The Odyssey has already been making waves with early sold-out 70 mm screenings and a six-minute Imax exclusive prologue that saw overwhelmingly positive audience reactions. The biggest reveal for exhibition during this year’s Super Bowl LX delivered the title announcement and full trailer for Minions & Monsters, which gave audiences a look at the monstrous mayhem coming to theaters this summer. Opening on the same July 1 release date as its 2022 predecessor, Minions: The Rise of Gru, bodes well for the animated super-franchise, which takes a step back from supervillains for a foray into the supernatural.
Releasing a week before CinemaCon, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will likely deliver Universal a victory lap during this year’s convention, given that 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened to $146.3 million, went on to make $574.9 million domestically, and scored well over $1 billion globally. Early forecasting at press time puts the sequel into a similar opening weekend threshold. Building on the momentum of that release would be a great time to announce a title for an inevitable third entry in the animated Mario franchise.
Universal’s presentation is also expected to preview the latter half of its 2026 slate. One Night Only could signal a theatrical rom-com resurgence, with writer-director Will Gluck telling the story of two strangers searching for love on the one night a year premarital sex is legal. Jessica Chastain returns to supernatural horror for the first time since It: Chapter Two in Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, and Ariana Grande claims a Thanksgiving slot again with Focker In-Law, the fourth of the Focker installments. The studio then closes the year with Violent Night 2, which aims to build on the 2022 film’s strong holiday legs and adult-skewing counterprogramming success.
Amazon MGM
Amazon MGM enters its sophomore CinemaCon on the heels of Project Hail Mary, the title that rocketed off its 2025 presentation. At press time, Amazon MGM has already delivered two overperformers in 2026: the well-received thriller Crime 101 and the much-discussed documentary Melania. With a diverse array of genres and projects on the horizon, Amazon MGM has made a welcome pivot to establish the studio as a major theatrical player.
All eyes will be on Eternia to see if Masters of the Universe can truly bring the power of Grayskull to the box office this June. Amazon MGM’s fantasy juggernaut based on the Mattel toy line and the beloved ’80s He-Man cartoon series is their biggest theatrical play to date. The revived nostalgia property has undergone a lengthy development process over more than a decade as the rights moved from studio to studio. Last year, Amazon MGM screened a behind-the-scenes featurette for exhibitors, revealing robust production footage, cast interviews, and character costume designs that wowed. The trailer’s debut at the end of January yielded strong online buzz, and within a month of its release, the trailer became the second most popular video on the Amazon MGM Studios YouTube channel. If the horde of fake, AI-driven trailers clogging YouTube’s algorithm is any indication, there’s a real desire for the “most powerful man in the universe” to return to the industry’s biggest screens.
Based on the 2005 novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, May’s The Sheep Detectives follows a flock of sheep trying to solve the mystery of their murdered shepherd. Vivica A. Fox took to the Coliseum stage last year to introduce this May’s Is God Is, a Kill Bill–style revenge drama that sees two sisters tasked by their dying mother to hunt down their good-for-nothing father. David Leitch’s September action comedy heist, How to Rob a Bank, follows a crew of bank robbers who brag about their exploits on social media. Author Colleen Hoover’s Verity was teased at last year’s CinemaCon with an exclusive cast video, and there’s a good chance the cast will be at this year’s ceremony to hype up Hoover’s fourth screen adaptation following It Ends With Us, Regretting You, and Reminders of Him.
Exhibitors will no doubt hope that Amazon MGM’s robust theatrical push will continue by dating some of the studio’s many undated titles, including the Henry Cavill Highlander, which was previously touted by Cavill and director Chad Stahelski in 2025’s Lionsgate presentation but moved to Amazon MGM Studios shortly after. If Amazon MGM’s presentation from 2025 is any indication, the studio may also provide forward-looking peeks at 2027 releases like The Thomas Crown Affair and The Beekeeper 2, the sequel to Jason Statham’s 2024 overperformer.
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