Universal’s CinemaCon Presentation Focuses on What Works in Theaters: Sequels and Horror

A lot of the conversation at CinemaCon 2025 has been about trying to find the elusive answer to the question of how to get audiences back in theaters for films that aren’t franchises and horror…the sort of offerings that made up the vast majority of Universal’s CinemaCon presentation on Wednesday afternoon.

The presentation, which kicked off with an elegant, 50-piece live orchestra playing iconic Universal film scores and showcased everything from “Wicked: For Good” to “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” was a notable departure from Warner Bros.’ focus on risky original titles and Lionsgate’s attempts to strike a balance on expanding their franchises and offering some low budget originality. Universal’s message was about stability, offering titles that audiences know and which will likely provide reliable box office while the industry as a whole tries to figure out how to effectively bring variety back to the big screen in a way that the masses will buy tickets for.

Universal’s pitch to theaters began Wednesday morning with an advance screening of this June’s live-action remake of DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon.” If the studio’s confidence that fans of the animated film will turn out in droves to see Toothless ridden by a live-action Hiccup regardless of online grumblings wasn’t clear enough, series director Dean DeBlois was sent out to announce that a remake of “How to Train Your Dragon 2” has already been greenlit for a summer 2027 release.

That franchise focus continued with a presentation of “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” a bet that “Jurassic” fans hunger for dinosaur smashing is so unending that they can launch a brand new story led by Scarlett Johansson. Given that the three previous “Jurassic World” films all topped $1 billion, with the first “Jurassic World” holding the studio record, it’s a pretty easy bet to make.

The sequel focus continued across Universal’s stable of production companies. At Blumhouse, where several recent titles like “Wolf Man,” “The Woman in the Yard,” and “Night Swim” haven’t become breakout successes, the studio will turn to sequels of recent films that have broken out like “M3GAN,” “The Black Phone,” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which got the fans’ rabid fanbase excited when a new trailer dropped online as it was screened to exhibitors in Caesars Palace.

Other sequels include 87North’s followup to “Nobody” starring Bob Odenkirk, and DreamWorks’ animated “The Bad Guys 2,” which looks to build off the $250 million global theatrical run of its predecessor by bringing in families that saw the first film in theaters as well as others who may have seen the film on Peacock or premium on-demand.

And of course, there’s the biggest “sequel” of all: “Wicked: For Good,” the second part of Jon M. Chu’s record-setting Broadway adaptation. Universal took a big gamble on a massive marketing campaign rivaled only by “Barbie” in recent memory to get the world to come see Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande on the big screen, and now “Defying Gravity” has taken over the zeitgeist. The question now is only whether the second part of this duology can top the $747 million global run of last year’s film.

That’s not to say originality was completely absent. While Focus Features’ portion of the presentation also had a sequel with “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” the specialty division also showed off the latest from two critical darlings: Wes Anderson and Yorgos Lanthimos.

After Anderson’s “Asteroid City” found some traction with the Letterboxd crowd two years ago, the filmmaker has returned with his take on the spy genre in “The Phoenician Scheme.” Meanwhile, Lanthimos’ Emma Stone-led “Bugonia,” a film about a CEO kidnapped by a pair of conspiracy theorists, will take the early November release slot that Focus has used as a launch pad for recent Oscar contenders like “The Holdovers” and “Conclave.”

And among the horror sequels was “Him,” a Jordan Peele-produced film that takes the “rise and grind” mentality shown in every Nike and Gatorade sports ad and twists it, showing how a rising football star is coerced by that mentality into joining a satanic cult in which he must show he is willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to achieve greatness.

One topic that wasn’t largely bypassed at the presentation was windowing, an issue that has been pressed by Cinema United CEO Michael O’Leary in his keynote speech and by many exhibitor attendees in industry panels and private conversations. While O’Leary advocated for theatrical windows to expand to 45 days, Universal has stuck by the deal they made with theater chains during the pandemic five years ago to exercise the option to release films on premium on-demand as early as 17 days after theatrical release, or 31 days if the domestic opening weekend exceeds $50 million.

In lieu of this, NBCUniversal Chairman Donna Langley reiterated many of the points she and other Universal execs have cited at past CinemaCons to show its faithfulness to theaters regardless of how it plans windows: its status as the studio with the highest wide release volume of any in Hollywood, its standing with the most films in the top 5 of the annual box office charts of any studio since 2021, and marketing campaigns that emphasize seeing the film in theaters and treat each title as a spectacle best enjoyed on the big screen.

“Our audiences are evolving and we need to work harder than ever to earn a share of their time and wallets,” Langley said. “There’s no question we continue to face an uphill climb, but it is one they will climb together.”

To that end, Universal’s president of domestic theatrical distribution, Jim Orr, praised Christopher Nolan’s “visionary take” on “The Odyssey,” which is currently in production and will be released in theaters next year. “We know this film will be a once-in-a-generation cinematic masterpiece that Homer himself would be very proud of,” he said, also tipping to Steven Spielberg’s mystery UFO film that Universal will release next summer too.

There was one brief mention of theatrical exclusivity during the presentation: Jason Blum, dressed as horror gaming icon Freddy Fazbear, acknowledged that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was released simultaneously in theaters and on Peacock back in 2023, earning an $80 million opening despite that.

But the sequel to “FNAF,” set to liven up a historically quiet early December release period, will be released only in theaters. In a presentation that included a live orchestra, ScarJo jokes, and the return of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Blum’s assurance of that exclusivity got as much of an enthusiastic cheer as anything else.

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