Amazon MGM Joins Legacy Hollywood With Slate of Thrillers, Dramas, Sci-Fi & Ryan Gosling at CinemaCon

If you run into Bob Bagby at CinemaCon, you are more likely than not to see a smile on his face. No matter what the state of the box office, or the crises besieging the future of movie theaters, the chairman of Cinema United and the CEO of the family-owned B&B Theaters always wears his optimism on his sleeve.

But he also has an extra reason to be happy at this year’s CinemaCon: MGM is back, this time under the ownership of Amazon, and they’re ready to put a full slate of films back in theaters. At a breakfast with reporters on Tuesday, the theater exec made it quite clear what he wants to see from Amazon as it made its first main stage presentation at CinemaCon:

“I hope they can be the next Fox,” he said. “We’ve said over and over that we need more films, and to have another studio putting out a full wide release slate is fantastic for all of us.”

Days after Jennifer Salke’s sudden exit from the company, Amazon MGM turned the page with a CinemaCon showcase aimed at giving Bagby and the rest of the exhibitors in attendance even more reasons to smile — including a promise to release 14 films in theaters in 2026. With its James Bond plans still in very early stages, the focus was primarily on original titles and book adaptations, and much of what was shown was met with intrigued cheers and applause as the studio rolled out a diverse slate that made clear where Amazon is going with its film strategy.

Like Bagby, several other theater owners who spoke to TheWrap also made comparisons between Amazon MGM’s arrival and the departure of 20th Century Fox from CinemaCon thanks to Disney’s 2019 acquisition. While 20th Century Studios is still making some films for theaters — most notably another likely $2 billion hit in this December’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” — it is contributing five or six films at most to theaters under Disney, compared to the 16-18 it released during its final years as its own studio.

The threat of studio consolidation remains one that exhibitors fear, so for Amazon to decide — following its 2021 purchase of MGM — to use its theatrical infrastructure and the institutional knowledge of execs like distribution chief Kevin Wilson to commit full time to the big screen was a blessed relief for many attendees at CinemaCon, who stayed deep into the evening to see the 8:15 p.m. presentation.

Hours before taking the stage, Wilson told TheWrap that he wanted to send a clear message to theater owners that the films they would see in the showcase would be released and marketed as theatrical events and that their run on the big screen would be given equal priority to their eventual release on Prime Video.

“I welcome that comparison to Fox,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any other studio better positioned to fill that hole than we are.”

The Gang’s All Here

Technically, this isn’t the first time Amazon has been at CinemaCon. Last year, the studio had a closed doors preview of their Christmas film “Red One,” which would have been a flop by legacy studio standards but ended up setting movie viewership records on Prime Video while grossing $97 million domestically, providing some small relief to theaters who were in the middle of a drought when it was released before the Thanksgiving bonanza of “Moana 2,” ‘Wicked” and “Gladiator II.”

And many years before that, Amazon held a lunch presentation of their upcoming films in 2018 that infamously included a grisly scene from Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria.” The Caesars Palace convention ballroom was filled with the sounds of snapping bones, leaving many attendees dropping their forks and pushing away their grilled chicken and roast vegetables.

But for their main stage debut on Wednesday night, Amazon MGM pulled out all the stops with Wilson and film chair Courtenay Valenti alongside marketing chief Sue Kroll and Amazon MGM/Prime Video head Mike Hopkins.

“I’ve had my eye on this night ever since we acquired MGM – a deal that really speaks to our belief in the future of the theatrical film business, and also the potential of partnering with all of you,” Hopkins said on the stage. “It’s still early days for us and we have a ton of work to do. As we’ve said, we are working to deliver 15 big, bold, cinematic films annually into your theaters by 2027 – and we’re ahead of schedule with 14 titles already lined up for 2026.” 

Of course, the biggest film in their future is the next James Bond, and Valenti has tasked veteran producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman to take over the franchise from longtime stewards Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Valenti briefly acknowledged the hire and thanked Pascal and Heyman as they begin work casting the next Bond in London. 

In the meantime, Amazon MGM showed off footage that primarily focused on their 2026 slate, the one that will mark the true start of Valenti’s master plan. Among the top titles is a remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair” directed by and starring Michael B. Jordan, an adaptation of “Verity,” a bestselling thriller from “It Ends With Us” author Colleen Hoover, and the one other major franchise film aside from Bond, “Masters of the Universe.” 

Some of the films on the slate are the sort that exhibitors are concerned have lost their big screen pull with audiences regardless of how strong the reviews are, falling into the growing chasm of “wait until streaming” that only the biggest blockbusters and thriftiest horror films are guaranteed to avoid. 

One possible example is Orion Pictures’ stylized, afropunk-inspired revenge film “Is God Is,” an adaptation of Aleshia Harris’ award-winning play starring Vivica A. Fox as the dying mother of twin sisters who orders them to kill their father. 

Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock also pointed to “Crime 101,” a heist film starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Halle Berry that might seem too similar to other heist films audiences have seen in the past. 

“It is so great to see them taking big swings, but at least with this first batch of films, they may find themselves facing a reception from audiences on films like ‘Crime 101’ that this is the sort of film they’ve seen so many times as a streaming exclusive over the last few years,” Bock said. 

Others, like Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s “Project Hail Mary,” do clearly have that big screen spectacle. Attendees applauded with excitement when provided their first look at the space odyssey starring Ryan Gosling as a schoolteacher tasked with a potential suicide mission to stop the sun from exploding, and he’s the polar opposite of Neil Armstrong.

But a film like that will require an extremely effective marketing campaign to get a foothold in an increasingly franchise-driven marketplace. Specifically, it will need to find a way to bring in people over the age of 45 who may feel that there are few, if any, films for them. It helps that the film is based on a book by “The Martian” author Andy Weir and has a screenplay by that film’s screenwriter Drew Goddard — the Matt Damon-starring space film grossed over $630 million worldwide in 2015.

Marketing to those older moviegoers has been a big challenge for Hollywood, especially given the decline of linear TV, once the most reliable way to reach them. But Amazon may have the secret key: being Amazon.

The Marketing Strategy

“We believe in bespoke campaigns that create cultural moments and eventize the communal theatrical experience,” Sue Kroll told exhibitors. “And thanks to Amazon’s incredible reach, we can scale that ambition like never before—with integrated, cross-platform campaigns that tap into every corner of our business to ensure our films break through, build anticipation, and ultimately bring audiences to all of you.”

Wilson told TheWrap that while the details of the studio’s marketing plans are still being ironed out, the MGM team plans to use all of Amazon’s assets, from Twitch and Audible to “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts and ads on the checkout page of Amazon. Boomers may be less likely to watch CNN and MSNBC these days, but they still partake in online shopping, and that might be the best place to let them know there are films for them in theaters. 

“We already started taking advantage of that Amazon ecosystem last year with ‘The Boys in the Boat,’ and I think that was a big reason why that film overperformed,” he said. “There are so many ways to reach those consumers through Amazon, and we’re doing a lot internally right now to figure out and really create ways to reach each film’s audience.”

Theatrical Windows

Coming out of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, the initial reception from theater owners was generally positive, at least in terms of the films on the slate. One common point of praise was the focus on non-franchise films, which was a breath of fresh air after seeing so many sequels and IP titles from other studios. 

But the next steps may be harder. Wilson said that he’s spending the next nine months talking with domestic exhibitors about the films he just presented while building out an international distribution network to bring overseas release of the studios in house in time for the next Bond film. Up to this point, Amazon MGM has relied on other studios like Warner Bros. for overseas distribution. 

“I’ve gotten a lot more gray hairs in the last six months because of that,” he quipped. 

And when he talks with distributors, he’s going to have to tackle the issue of windowing, which was pressed at CinemaCon by Cinema United CEO Michael O’Leary and Cinepolis CEO Alejandro Ramirez, both of whom have called for studios to increase the period of theatrical exclusivity to 45 days. AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron has also stumped for that expansion in earnings calls. 

“Without a true statement of intent on their theatrical ambitions, it’s hard to make sense of a release strategy that puts ‘The Accountant 2’ in theaters one week and sends ‘Another Simple Favor’ straight-to-streaming a week later,” Boxoffice editor Daniel Loria told TheWrap. 

Wilson said he is open to discussing the windowing issue with exhibitors in the months ahead, but stopped short of backing off of changing window lengths from film to film and doing a slate-wide standard length. His reasoning echoes that of executives at other studios who have spoken to TheWrap about why they are sticking to bespoke windowing for their films.

“The last thing we want is for a title go into theaters, and then we’re out of a significant number of theaters after three weekends, and now our movie sitting on the shelf for however long is left in the window,” Wilson said. “I think there’s a middle ground that’s going to work for both studio and exhibitor. And over the next several months we’re going to try to find out what that is.”

As theater owners continue to push the windowing issue, the talks on how long studios should wait until releasing films on PVOD, not to mention whether they openly advertise home platforms while they’re still in theaters, Wilson is just one of the many distribution executives they will be negotiating with. Each studio’s approach will affect the others as exhibitors reach for the brass ring that is an industry standard on windowing at a time when it is more atomized than ever.

But those tough talks are to come. For now, exhibitors are just celebrating in Vegas that a streamer is, at least for now, on their side.

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