Windows, costs, gloomy press coverage dominate CinemaCon Day 1 panel

Windowing, costs, marketing, and gloomy press coverage were dominant themes to emerge from the first day of CinemaCon, as film executives looked forward to the arrival of tentpoles in 2025 and into 2026.

On the back of Gower Street Analytics revising upwards its 2025 global box office forecast to $34.1bn, speakers used International Day programming to remind attendees at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas what they already know and want: longer exclusive theatrical windows, a better mix of film genres throughout the year, cinema upgrades, and targeted campaigns to lure audiences into auditoriums.

“The industry is working arm-in-arm more than ever,” Vue International founder and CEO Tim Richards told the “Globally Speaking” panel. Minutes earlier Paramount Pictures president of international distribution Mark Viane bristled comically when Cinepolis CEO Alejandro Ramirez Magaña called for longer exclusive theatrical windows and said he would not get into that on stage.

“Europe has more consistent windows,” said Magaña. “The average window in most European countries is above 75 days… in the US it is [around] 30.” The risk of rushing a film onto PVoD, the Cinepolis head reminded, is it “drives earlier peaks in digital piracy”, which can disrupt theatrical performance elsewhere. “I would like a global window of minimum 45 days.”

In the exhibition keynote at the start of the day, Cinemark International president Valmir Fernandes said the 45-day window across Latin America may have had a positive impact on the region’s post-pandemic recovery, adding that consistency was important and removed audience confusion.

Jeff Goldstein, president of Warner Bros global distribution, told the panel that costs were of the highest concern. “How do you make movies that net a profit in today’s economy, particularly at a legacy studio?” Warner Bros opens A Minecraft Movie on Friday and will hope to end a rough patch at the box office. In light of disappointing results for Mickey 17 and Alto Knights, and late 2024 flop Joker: Folie a Deux, Bloomberg has reported that Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav is talking to potential replacements for his film co-heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy – denied by a spokesperson for the studio.

In North America, Q1 box office trailed 2024 by 9% year-on-year. Disney’s ill-fated release of Snow White stands at $66m in North America and $143m worldwide after two weekends. Deadline cited distribution sources on Monday saying the tentpole could end up losing $115m once it has played through all its windows.

All the panelists agreed on the need for exhibition and distribution to share data in order to better target audiences and hit an ever-smaller bullseye. “Traditional methods of getting to an audience have stopped working,” opined Goldstein. “Marketing costs have gone up and become less effective. Turning to an exhibitor and working with them on their loyalty programmes is important.”

Richards said 2025 might turn out to be very good or good, but not great, adding that cinema upgrades were in progress to be ready for 2026 and beyond. The sentiment “Stay in the mix till 2026” was an undercurrent in Monday’s programming. Studio executives will unveil their slate presentations this week, starting with Sony Pictures on Monday evening.

Executives called for fewer and better trailers that advertised upcoming releases, with a maximum of four appearing to be the consensus. They also bemoaned what they characterised as negative press coverage that vilified poor opening weekend box office performances and did not take the expansive view.

“Industry press tends to be domestic and that gives sometimes a distorted view of the whole picture,” said Magaña. “When Mufasa came out [in December 2024] the focus was it was $35m… but they didn’t look at the whole run, and internationally it opened on $87m… That initial report taints the movie’s performance… We need to focus on global results and not only domestic because it distorts the picture.”

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