Celebs Flock to Las Vegas: Big Stars Show Up for Cinemacon 2022
There is no doubt that movies are back. That is thanks (in no small part) to this year’s showing of
Toni Gonzales
There is no doubt that movies are back. That is thanks (in no small part) to this year’s showing of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars at Cinemacon 2022 in Las Vegas.
The Trailer Version of Cinemacon – What Is It?
Cinemacon, put simply, is the Comic-con of cinema. Every year thousands of theater owners, exhibitors and merchandisers descend on the Vegas desert to pay homage to the big screen. In turn, Hollywood brings their latest and greatest to show what those owners and (let’s face it) fans can expect in the coming months.
Each studio takes a few hours to present their slates to the masses. The biggest stars come with beaming smiles and genuine excitement to present the newest trailers, sneak peeks or exclusive looks of their respective projects. Sometimes entire movies are brought out to premiere.
This year Top Gun: Maverick from Lionsgate and The Black Phone from Universal were shown to audiences.
Celebs Come Out for Cinemacon 2022
From Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson to Robert Deniro to Keanu Reeves, there is no fair way to decide who to talk about first. The only solution is to do it chronologically.
Day one was kicked off by Sony and their bombshell news of the first Latino led live-action Marvel film, El Muerto. The movie will be led by Bad Bunny, a.k.a. Benito Antonio Martínez Oscasio. Bad Bunny was on site to bring the first 15 minutes of Sony’s Bullet Train.
Also starring Brad Pitt, that flick is guaranteed to be a bullet straight to the top of the box office.
Viola Davis was also given the first ever “Trailblazer of the Year” award and presented The Woman King to the audience along with a standing ovation.
Tuesday’s celeb highlight belonged to the one and only Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The Rock shocked audiences after starting with a taped presentation/apology for not being in Vegas this year. Turns out, he was right around the corner and surprised the audience with his trademark big smile and even bigger arms.
The Rock gave the audience a look at DC League of Super-Pets and Black Adam, both of which are under the Warner Bros. umbrella. While there, he also picked up the ‘Entertainment Icon of the Decade” award.
The other big celeb moment happened when Olivia Wilde was presenting Don’t Worry Darling. The actress and director of the film was served legal papers from ex Jason Sudeikis during her presentation. At the time the crowd (yours truly included) thought it was a stunt. If Wilde was rocked by the incident she sure didn’t show it.
“This is for me?” Wilde asked onstage. She opened the envelope marked “personal and confidential,” in front of the crowd and nodded, then continued on… like a boss I might add. The trailer for her film was met with applause and the audience was completely unaware of the action. Don’t Worry Darling also stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles.
Also inside the Warner Bros. presentation was an appearance from Helen Miren to promote Shazam! Fury of the Gods along with her castmate Zachary Levi.
Hump Day was far from an average Wednesday. Universal and Focus Features pulled out big stars for their presentation. Appearances included Jeff Goldbloom and Bryce Dallas Howard to promote Jurrasic World Dominion. Bryce admitted to Jeff in front of the crowd that she had the biggest crush on him growing up.
The original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis strutted on stage in black shiny leather pants to promote her final go at Michael Myers in Halloween Kills. You have not lived until you’ve seen Jamie Lee Curtis strut in shiny leather pants on stage.
Joy Koy brought a big dose of his comedy to the crowd as he introduced Easter Sunday, a film about his family.
David Harbour brought the dirty language and the laughs to his intro for Violent Knight, an action film starring… Santa (yeah, you read that right).
And Steve Carrell brough Gru to the stage for an intro to a look at the latest in the Minions franchise, Minions: The Rise of Gru.
The star power on Thursday belonged to Lionsgate. Their lineup of films made the saying, “save the best for last,” 100% true. Robert Deniro and Keanu Reeves were just some of the star talent on hand to promote their films.
Keanu Reeves and director (and former stuntman) Chad Stahelski were on hand to promote John Wick: Chapter Four. “And to think, this all started with a puppy,” Keanu told the crowd.
Deniro, Kim Cattrall, Leslie Bibb and Sebastian Maniscalco presented About My Father. The movie written by Maniscalco (who also stars in the film) is about his immigrant father (Deniro).
To promote Hello God, It’s Me Margaret was Rachel McAdams and upcoming star Abby Ryder Fortson. Both received Cinemacon awards this year. Rachel got the Vanguard award and Abby received the Rising Star of 2022.
And that folks, as they say in Hollywood, for the big celebs, is a wrap on Cinemacon 2022.