By George & Josh Bate
CinemaCon 2025 has officially concluded. During the world’s biggest celebration of moviegoing, attendees were presented with exclusive footage from over 80 upcoming movies from the world’s biggest movie studios. Out of everything we saw at CinemaCon this year, we are breaking down our highlights of the event movie-by-movie (in no particular order).
Weapons
Although we said this list isn’t in any particular order, we can pretty confidently say that, out of the 80+ movies presented, Warner Bros.’ Weapons was our highlight of CinemaCon 2025.
After wowing the entire movie industry with the 2022 horror hit Barbarian, director/writer Zach Cregger returns with a new film – Weapons later this year. The official plot description for the film reads as follows: “The film revolves around multi-related plots marked by the disappearance of school kids in the middle of the night, police corruption, generational trauma, witchcraft, blood rituals, and religious abuse in a small Florida community.”
Starring Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, and Alden Ehrenreich, Weapons was described as “a very twist, turny movie” by director Cregger. “It unravels and reinvents itself as it goes.”
A first trailer for Weapons was screened exclusively to the CinemaCon crowd. The trailer begins with an elementary school teacher (played by Julia Garner), who one day shows up to school to discover that her entire class of children has gone missing. The town’s citizens, including one of the kid’s father played by Josh Brolin, frantically search for the kids and begin to blame the teacher. After this, the trailer flashes a series of frightening images, including a creepy clown-like woman, a classroom of haunted children, and something that resembles a zombie. The trailer was phenomenal, to say the least. Cregger said that the footage is just “the tip of the iceberg” in terms of what’s to come in her new film.
Weapons hits theaters on August 8, 2025.
Tron: Ares
Tron is a franchise we don’t have a particular reverence for, which emphasizes just how impressive the footage from Tron: Ares was at this year’s CinemaCon that it makes our Highlights of CinemaCon 2025.
During Disney’s CinemaCon presentation, the lights dimed in the Caesar’s Palace Colosseum and there was a smokiness in the air. What followed was a spectacular light show with blue and red lasers shooting out of every corner of the arena, replicating the spectacle of the Tron films.
Jared Leto and Jeff Bridges came on stage to talk about Tron: Ares, the third installment in the franchise that began with the 1982 sci-fi classic.
Leto spoke about what drew him to join Tron: Ares. “As a boy, I was obsessed with Tron” Leto reflected. “Tron had everything I wanted from a movie. Action, adventure, spandex. Lots of spandex. It took me to a world I’d never seen before. It also introduced me to one of my favorite actors in the entire world Jeff Bridges.”
Jeff Bridges, meanwhile, championed the score for Tron: Ares. “The music we’ve got Nine Inch Nails, man. You’re in for a treat.”
Leading up to the footage, Leto told the audience that the footage they were about to see will hit them “right in the grid.” After some audience laughter, Leto humorously followed up with “wherever that is.”
After this, a new trailer for Tron: Ares followed, which was not only one of the highlights of Disney’s presentation for us, but one of the highlights of CinemaCon 2025 overall. To call Tron: Ares a visual marvel would be an understatement, such is the combination of visual effects, cinematography, and production design to bring our world and the grid to life. The scale of the footage was immense, as demonstrated by a massive craft hovering in the skyline of a major city and Greta Lee’s character sprinting away. The tag line of the trailer teased that “worlds will collide” as the digital world comes into the real world. Jared Leto’s Ares is only shown for one brief shot in the trailer, ominously delivering the line, “I am looking for something I do not understand.”
Since CinemaCon, the trailer for Tron: Ares was released to the public. Watch the trailer below….
Without having much reverence or particular fandom for Tron or Tron: Legacy, we were pleasantly surprised by how excited this footage made us for Tron: Ares.
Tron: Ares hits theaters October 10, 2025.
The Housemaid
Paul Feig, Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, and Brandon Sklenar were all in attendance at CinemaCon to discuss their upcoming psychological thriller The Housemaid. Based on the book of the same name by Freida McFadden, The Housemaid sees Feig dabble in the genre he loves the most – thrillers. Feig said that he doesn’t watch many comedies in his free time as he is often occupied by thrillers.
Sydney Sweeney discussed that she was drawn to The Housemaid as she is a big reader and, once she picked McFadden’s novel up, it was difficult to stop reading. “I couldn’t put it down,” Sweeney said. “I ended up reading all three in one week…I love fucked up characters who make you question your own morals.”
Sweeney bonded with star Amanda Seyfried on the set of the film, as evidenced by an on-set video of the two singing a song from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again together.
Seyfried spoke glowingly of her work on the film and said that they were allowed to exercise their creativity on set. “We created some wacky shit,” Seyfried said.
Brandon Sklenar also spoke of his work on The Housemaid. “We took it to 11,” he said. “We spinal tapped it…[My character] Andrew is pretty fucking unhinged.”
A first trailer for the film that Feig described as “a big hit” was presented to the CinemaCon crowd. The trailer definitely had a flavor of A Simple Favor to it, which makes since given that was a film also directed by Feig. The trailer shows Amanda Seyfried’s character Nina hire Sydney Sweeney’s Millie as a housemaid for their family. Not much is revealed of the plot of the movie, but fans of the book will know that things definitely get out of hand.
During the presentation of The Housemaid, Lionsgate announced that Paul Feig has signed a first-look deal with the studio.
The Housemaid hits theaters on December 25, 2025.
The Bride!
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s reimagining of The Bride of Frankenstein was another highlight of CinemaCon 2025.
The Bride! is Gyllenhaal’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Lost Daughter, which released on Netflix four years ago. “After The Lost Daughter, I was looking for something pop and big,” Gyllenhaal explained. “And I wanted it to be something radical and big.”
Gyllenhaal recounted that she saw a man with a Bride of Frankenstein tattoo at a party, which inspired her to revisit the horror classic and eventually decide her to put her own spin on it.
Jessie Buckley plays the titular bride and described reading the script as “like being plugged into an electrical current,” an apt description given how the Bride of Frankenstein comes to be in the original film.
Gyllenhaal and Buckley both noted that the bride speaks very little in the original film, but that this is not the case in their version. “In the original version, [the Bride of Frankenstein] doesn’t say anything, but she has a lot to say in this one,” Buckley detailed.
Buckley compared The Bride! to a punk love story in the vein of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde and David Lynch’s Wild At Heart, while Sid & Nancy was also referenced.
Buckley’s comment certainly rang true as a trailer for The Bride! screened exclusively to the CinemaCon crowd. The footage shows a violent death for Buckley’s character as she is thrown down stairs and breaks her neck and leg. Buckley’s character is then resurrected by Christian Bale, who is a cross between a tattooed punk and Boris Karloff’s monster. Bale’s character is seen mercilessly beating a man to death in an alley, while Buckley questions what she was like prior to dying. The trailer had a real punk feel to it, which contrasts the 1930s Chicago setting. The trailer concludes with a black and white shot of Buckley’s head in a glass jar staring at the audience. Buckley says the word, “Monstruous” in an English accent as the trailer cuts to black. And, to cap it all off, the tag line for the film is “Here Comes the Motherfucking Bride.”
The Bride! hits theaters on March 6, 2026.
The Naked Gun
As massive fans of Leslie Nielsen and The Naked Gun movies, we’ve been curious as to how Paramount Pictures would reimagine the comedy classic. With one teaser trailer though, the studio dispelled any of our concerns as their reboot/sequel of The Naked Gun looks absolutely hilarious.
An extended trailer for The Naked Gun premiered at CinemaCon, while a briefer trailer (which you can see below) released to the public.
Even with an impressive showing from the upcoming Mission: Impossible movie (which we’ll get to below), The Naked Gun was our favorite part of the Paramount presentation. The film looks hilarious and perfectly captures the sense of humor that made the Leslie Nielsen-led films so special. The gag about Neeson being Nielson’s son and all the police officers mourning their fathers, who were also police officers, was hilarious and topped off by that brilliant, bold O.J. Simpson joke.
The Naked Gun hits theaters on August 1, 2025.
Predator: Badlands
The follow-up to the phenomenal Prey, Disney’s Predator: Badlands was another highlight of CinemaCon 2025. The movie will pose a “provocative question” to the audience: “What if the Predator is the good guy?” Director Dan Trachtenberg made a name for himself by putting a spin on the Cloverfield franchise, and he certainly seems to be doing that with Prey and Predator: Badlands.
Elle Fanning, who plays the lead role in the film, arrived to the CinemaCon stage to speak about her role in Predator: Badlands. The A Complete Unknown actress spoke fondly of her time collaborating with Trachtenberg. “It’s his ability to break new ground in the Predator universe that speaks to his creativity and passion for this world,” said Fanning.
When asked to reveal more about the plot and her character, Fanning said, “Something unprecedented happens in this movie. My character is not the one being chased. My character teams up with the Predator and you get to see him in a new light.”
Fanning then introduced exclusive footage from Predator: Badlands to the CinemaCon crowd. The footage begins by introducing the viewer to a foreign planet, one with sweeping desert vistas not dissimilar from those seen in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films.
The trailer showed multiple shots of what appears to be the Predator home-world and offered enthralling glimpses of Predator culture. One Predator dressed in an elaborate gray costume sporting white dreadlocks appears in the trailer, as do red lightsaber-type weapons that Predators were dueling together with. The only human character to appear in the footage, Fanning briefly shows up, blinking and turning her eyes into an opaque white. Based on Fanning’s futuristic appearance, we suspect that this film is set sometime in the future, rather than the historical setting of Prey. The trailer concludes by showing a different kind of Predator than we’ve ever seen before. The Predator is smaller, leaner, and strangely more human like, although this may just be due to the advances in visual effects that have afforded greater specificity in facial animation. The footage concluded with this new Predator roaring while facing the camera, followed by the bold logo for the film.
Predator: Badlands hits theaters November 7, 2025.
After the Hunt
Following his video appearance during Lionsgate’s CinemaCon presentation to discuss his reimagining of American Psycho, Luca Guadagnino appeared in-person during Amazon MGM Studios’ CinemaCon presentation. The renowned Italian director was there to talk about his new film After the Hunt, another highlight of ours from CinemaCon 2025.
Starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri, After the Hunt follows a college professor (Roberts) is forced to grapple with her own secretive past after her husband and colleague (Garfield) is faced with a serious accusation from a student (Edebiri).
Garfield and Edebiri joined Guadagnino on stage to discuss their new film before presenting a trailer. The footage suggests the movie will be a gripping psychological thriller that examines cancel culture with a critical lens. The film follows Julia Roberts as a woman who struggles when her husband (played by Andrew Garfield) is accused of sexual misconduct by her student (played by Ayo Edebiri). All is not as it seems, however, as Garfield and Edebiri’s characters certainly seem like they have something to hide. From the trailer alone, it is clear that this film will spark conversation and possible controversy.
After the Hunt hits theaters on October 10, 2025.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
The most unexpected highlight of CinemaCon 2025 came in the form of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. The new film from director Kogonada, who previously directed After Yang and two episodes of The Acolyte, stars Margot Robbie in her first since Barbie and Colin Farrell.
The trailer for the film shown exclusively to the CinemaCon crowd depicted a sci-fi romance that will seemingly live up to the term ‘beautiful’ in its title. The trailer initially shows Margot Robbie’s Sarah and Colin Farrell’s David meet at some kind of party before departing ways. Later on, David is driving when his car GPS begins to talk to him and asks him if he wants to go on a great journey. After agreeing with the GPS, David picks up Sarah and the two go on a journey through their pasts by entering a series of doors. David is able to reexperience days from his time at high school and being told that the girl he loved didn’t love him back. Meanwhile, Sarah entered a door that led her to a more troubling time in her past when her mother was sick. The trailer was romantic, fantastical, and emotional, very much in keeping with Kogonda’s previous work.
Following the CinemaCon presentation, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has skyrocketed to be among the top of our most anticipated films of 2025.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey hits theaters September 19, 2025.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps marked among our highlights of CinemaCon 2025. As cast members like Pedro Pascal are currently in London shooting Avengers: Doomsday, none of Marvel’s original family were present at CinemaCon, although the audience was treated with a new trailer for the film.
The trailer begins on a talk-show called The Ted Gilbert Show, with Mark Gattiss (Sherlock, Game of Thrones) introducing the Fantastic Four. Gilbert provides a brief recap of how the four became superheroes, which seems to indicate that the film will largely skip over retreading the origin story of the team. Gilbert urges people of New York City to thank the Fantastic Four for what they’ve done. Several clips of firefighters, families, and schoolchildren were then presented, all thanking the Fantastic Four, all of which indicate that the Fantastic Four have been operating for some time prior to the events of First Steps.
The trailer then transitions to a Richards family dinner. Sue (played by Vanessa Kirby) and Reed (played by Pedro Pascal) arrive late, slightly annoying Johnny (played by Joseph Quinn). However, after a few moments, Johnny recognizes that his sister Sue is pregnant. He enthusiastically hugs Sue and then tells Reed he is out of his depth. This part of the trailer confirms a longstanding rumor that the film will introduce audiences to Franklin Richards, the child of Reed and Sue, who plays a key role in the comics.
The tone of the trailer then shifts as meteors shower down from the sky and Silver Surfer arrives. Yes, this trailer reveals our first look at Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer. The visual effects look pretty good and will likely look even better when the film hits theaters in July. Silver Surfer asks the Fantastic Four if they are protectors of Earth before telling them that they have been marked for death.
Reed then tells Sue that this is his fault, hinting that some of his research or experimentation may have opened the door to cosmic threats. “I stretched the bounds of space and they heard,” Reed troublingly says.
The same shot of Galactus from the first trailer was then presented, followed by a new shot that shows Galactus’ massive shadow hovering over New York City.
The Fantastic Four are then shown at some kind of press event or public hearing in which they are facing a barrage of questions. Someone asks the team if Earth is safe. A concerned Reed looks down before meekly replying, “I don’t know.”
Another shot of the Silver Surfer (this time surrounded by some kind of lava) is followed by a young girl running to pick up her action figure of The Thing from the ground as a massive boulder falls from the sky.
The trailer concludes as Reed says, “We will protect you.”
The footage from The Fantastic Four: First Steps was (aptly) fantastic. The alterante futuristic Tomorrowland-esque 1960s world is beautifully realized, while the stakes seem high. How this film, which clearly takes place in another universe, will connect to the main universe in which the MCU is set remains unclear. However, this trailer does confirm the existence of Franklin Richards and gives us our first look at the Silver Surfer.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25, 2025.
Him
Easily the standout of Universal’s presentation and among the standouts of CinemaCon 2025 overall was Him. The new horror film from producer Jordan Peele and director Justin Tipping was previewed by stars Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers in-person at CinemaCon. Withers plays Benny Mathis, a college football player who experiences a traumatic brain injury while playing. In the aftermath of the injury, Mathis’ idol and NFL legend Connor Dane (played by Marlon Wayans) takes Mathis under his wing and takes him on a blood-chilling journey into the inner sanctum of fame, power, and the pursuit of excellence at any cost.
The trailer sets up the movie well, not revealing much other than the initial premise. The film seems to be very hallucinogenic, featuring a variety of visions and disturbing imagery. One of the world’s best comedian Tim Heidecker briefly appears in the trailer during one of these hallucinogenic, marking another horror collaboration between Heidecker and Jordan Peele.
Withers told the audience that they have never seen Wayans like this before, and the trailer certainly backs that statement up. For as talented of a comedian Wayans is, it is nice to see him take a darker role here.
The trailer features lots of shouting, primarily by Wayans directed at Withers. If anything can be gleaned from the trailer, it is that Him looks to be a decidedly different horror movie than anything we’ve seen before. Sports and horror rarely, if ever, intersect, making Him standout even further.
Him hits theaters September 19, 2025.
One Battle After Another
From one renowned director to another, Ryan Coogler then passed the torch to Paul Thomas Anderson. Although Anderson was not in attendance, his upcoming film One Battle After Another certainly left an impact at CinemaCon.
In Anderson’s absence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor were all in attendance to speak of their work on One Battle After Another.
“I’ve been wanting to work with Paul [Thomas Anderson] for almost 20 years now,” DiCaprio said. “I think with this film he’s tapped into something politically and culturally brimming beneath our psyche….It is an incredibly epic movie with scope and scale.”
Regina Hall also spoke glowingly of the film, saying that it “has a lot of everything. It’s funny, humorous, and also heartfelt.”
Teyana Taylor then spoke of her character in One Battle After Another, who she described as an unpleasant and controversial figure. Taylor described that her character plays an integral role in kicking off the plot of Anderson’s next film.
Although a first trailer of the film recently debuted to the public, Warner Bros. offered the CinemaCon crowd an exclusive preview of the film in the form of a full scene and a new trailer.
The scene takes place in a grimy apartment with Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro present. A distressed DiCaprio, whose character’s name is Bob Ferguson, is sitting on a chair when he makes a phone call to an individual named Comrade Josh. Bob is seemingly a revolutionary who has difficulty recalling a date that serves as the key to speaking to higher ups in Comrade Josh’s organization. Bob’s daughter has seemingly been kidnapped and he needs to speak to fellow revolutionaries to secure her safety. Bob explains that he is an alcoholic and drug “lover” and that his misuse of substances have hindered his cognitive functioning. As the conversation goes on and Comrade Josh refuses to pass Bob on without him saying the correct date, Bob gets increasingly frustrated. DiCaprio certainly gives off Rick Dalton vibes in the scene, portraying Bob with a certain dopiness, intoxication, and anger.
As the scene concluded, a new trailer for One Battle After Another screened to the crowd. The trailer keeps much of the film’s plot under wraps, although there is certainly a lot going on. Sean Penn sporting an odd blonde haircut and a military uniform is taken hostage. Regina Hall grills DiCaprio’s character. A pregnant woman shoots an automatic weapon. And there’s a few explosions thrown in there too.
One Day After Another hits theaters on September 26, 2025.
Hurry Up Tomorrow
The Lionsgate presentation closed out with Hurry Up Tomorrow. The new film directed, co-written, and edited by Trey Edward Shults (Waves, It Comes At Night) hits theaters on May 16, 2025 and is a companion piece to Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s album of the same name.
Shults described the film as unlike anything that has ever been made (quite the ambitious statement). He elaborated that it is “a singular, visceral cinematic experience. I think it is very soulful.”
Jenna Ortega, who also stars in the movie, accompanied Shults on stage to discuss Hurry Up Tomorrow. Ortega said that she joined the project after she received an email with the script and was drawn to a scene that reminded her of the horror classic Possession. Ortega initially thought that she was up for the role of a side character, before being pleasantly surprised that she was offered the role of the co-lead.
A new trailer for Hurry Up Tomorrow as presence to the CinemaCon crowd and can be seen below….
After the trailer, Lionsgate concluded their presentation in resounding fashion with a live performance from The Weeknd. The CinemaCon crowd went wild as The Weeknd, backed by a full band, delivered an incredible and immersive performance that Lionsgate head Adam Fogelson said was akin to a “religious” experience for him.
Hurry Up Tomorrow hits theaters on May 16, 2025.
Overall verdict….
Out of our top 12 movies previewed at CinemaCon 2025, three are from Disney, two from Warner Bros., two from Lionsgate, one from Amazon MGM, one from Paramount, one from Sony, and one from Universal. By this measure, Disney were the winners of CinemaCon 2025 for us, additionally exemplified by the sheer diversity in their slate of upcoming releases that seemingly demand viewing on the biggest screen possible.
If we were to pinpoint a single film that stuck with us though, it would have to be Zach Cregger’s Weapons. Cregger reshaped the boundaries of what horror films can achieve with Barbarian and his next effort Weapons promises to be as thrilling and unpredictable. We think Warner Bros. has a big hit on their hands with this one.
Meanwhile, Tron: Ares and The Naked Gun were the films that took us by surprise the most. Reimagining a comedy classic starring the incomparable Leslie Nielsen is a dangerous feat to attempt, but it seems like Paramount Pictures has landed on the perfect way to bring The Naked Gun back to audiences. Liam Neeson, in a role that pokes fun at his two decades of seemingly endless action movies, seems to be the perfect successor to Nielsen, while the humor overall appears to evoke the on-the-nose charm of the original series.
More than anything though, the overwhelming message embedded within every studio presentation of CinemaCon 2025 was a proclamation to retain the movie theater experience. Watching a film unfold in a cinema is an unrivalled experience, a passion the host of A-list stars and top studio executives conveyed throughout the four-day event. As CinemaCon concluded and we were treated to footage from 80+ upcoming movies, our desire to return to a movie theater couldn’t have been greater. CinemaCon 2026 can’t come soon enough.