CinemaCon 2024 dispatch [Video]

CinemaCon, as one might occasionally need to remind friends and family not particularly invested in entertainment industry conventions, isn’t the same thing as Comic-Con. It’s not an event that’s geared towards fans, or even open to the public at large. The annual trade show hosted by that other, second-most-famous NATO, the National Association of Theater Owners, CinemaCon is a four-day event which gathers together exhibition executives and theater managers from all over the United States and, indeed, the world each April in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace. That distinction in audience means that instead of attempting to circumnavigate over-caffeinated cosplayers carrying their weight in limited-edition merchandise, the people-watching amusement at CinemaCon more takes the form of over-served patrons arguing with slot machines or other inanimate objects.

Interspersed with several industry fetings—plus pitches from concessionaires on …