Boxoffice - May 2019
The Official Magazine of the National Association of Theatre Owners
The Official Magazine of the National Association of Theatre Owners
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
CINEMACON STUDIO PRESENTATIONS<br />
PHOTO: MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES<br />
CHAIRMAN OF THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS ALAN HORN<br />
>> Walt Disney Studios<br />
chairman Alan Horn set<br />
the tone for his Wednesday<br />
afternoon product presentation<br />
when he confessed, “I’m<br />
still getting my mind around<br />
all this.” “All this,” of course,<br />
is Disney’s historic acquisition<br />
of 20th Century Fox and its<br />
promise and repercussions.<br />
The opening sizzle reel made a point of including images from<br />
Fox triumphs like Alien, Avatar, Die Hard, X-Men, and The Shape<br />
of Water alongside the usual Disney-Marvel-Pixar-Lucasfilm hits.<br />
And Horn saluted Fox Searchlight on its 25th anniversary with<br />
a montage of their huge accomplishments, including four Oscar<br />
Best Picture winners. Horn promised that the new Disney-Fox<br />
alliance would be “more than the sum of its parts.” He also<br />
reiterated that theaters are “the cornerstone of the moviegoing<br />
experience, period.”<br />
Together, the two studios accounted for five of the top 10 international<br />
movies last year, and six of the top 10 domestic titles.<br />
Cathleen Taff, executive VP of theatrical distribution, presented<br />
the first exclusive clip, a scene from the hugely anticipated<br />
Avengers: Endgame, in which new Avenger and billion-dollar<br />
woman Captain Marvel announces that she’s going to kill the<br />
evil Thanos. The newbie is met with skepticism and a little hostility<br />
from the surviving Avengers, but Thor (Chris Hemsworth)<br />
declares, “I like this one.”<br />
Next up was Fox Film vice chairman Emma Watts, who<br />
wondered if it was “some form of Disney hazing that I’m following<br />
Avengers.” But she emphasized the upside of the consolidation:<br />
“While we may be living through a lot of change, the<br />
good news is the formula for good movies and the studio role<br />
hasn’t changed, and that is a single dedication to filmmakers.<br />
… Though much has been written about the Fox legacy in past<br />
tense, legacies are made every day. With the vast resources of the<br />
Walt Disney Studio behind us, we are ready to write our next<br />
great chapter.”<br />
Watts then presented footage from three upcoming Fox features:<br />
the latest X-Men chapter, Dark Phoenix; the raucous Dave<br />
Bautista–Kumail Nanjiani action comedy Stuber; and James<br />
Mangold’s Ford v. Ferrari, starring Matt Damon and Christian<br />
72 MAY <strong>2019</strong>
Change language