This Wednesday, 13 of the largest movie studios and film distributors invited members of the Hollywood Press to an AMC Theatre in Los Angeles’ Century City to present their upcoming slate of movies coming to theatres this summer, and beyond. A parade of studio execs, filmmakers and actors took over four hours to emphasize the magic of the theatrical experience and what makes it so important to them and their films. Dozens of new releases were highlighted, including big-budget blockbusters such as Cruella, F9 and Black Widow to anticipated indie titles such as Zola, New Order and The Green Knight.
This comes at a time when measures indicate that the general public is increasingly comfortable with returning to cinemas to experience Hollywood entertainment once again. Results from a recent survey by exhibition research firm NRG found that 70 per cent of 1M people polled across 13 countries said that they were “comfortable” returning to theatres, compared with 23 per cent when the same question was asked in April 2020. 55 per cent indicated that they were “eager” to return. However, some from the industry doubt that exhibition will ever return to the best-ever attendance levels from 2018 and 2019, due to the widespread expansion of streaming. Still, the mood at Wednesday’s event was hopeful on the eve of the exclusive theatrical debut of Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part 2 this Friday to kick off the summer movie season. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the infamous Terminator and ex-governor of California, said, “You need the big screen. If you have the movie and you don’t have the theatres, then you have nothing.” Vin Diesel, the star and frontman for Universal’s upcoming action thriller F9, proclaimed “We’re ready to make you believe again because nobody does a comeback like the movies.”
See also: Hollywood Spent Nearly 4 Hours Telling the Press It Wants Moviegoers Back in Theaters (IndieWire)