Are movies back? All the exhibitors gathered in Las Vegas for CinemaCon would clearly like to think so, but they might actually be right; box office in 2026 so far is strongly up on last year, and on Monday, Sony Pictures wowed the con with an impressive slate. Warner Bros. followed it up on Tuesday with an equally bullish showing, capitalizing on the studio’s massive 2025: Between A Minecraft Movie, Superman, F1, Sinners, Weapons, and more, it made over $4 billion at the global box office.
As well as announcing the cast for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and a new sci-fi movie from Weapons director Zach Cregger, WB showed off footage from Supergirl, Mortal Kombat 2, Evil Dead Burn, and original sci-fi movies The End of Oak Street and The Great Beyond, and confirmed the title for its upcoming Game of Thrones movie. Footage from Dune: Part Three and Tom Cruise’s Digger got the biggest reactions from people in the room.
Dune: Part Three
The opening seven minutes of the concluding part of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy were shown, and seem to have stunned the CinemaCon crowd. A large-scale scene of space war sees a battalion of Fremen led by Javier Bardem’s Stilgar attacking mountain-sized cannons. IGN said it was “basically the Normandy beach scene from Saving Private Ryan but on an alien planet.” IndieWire called the footage “staggeringly epic.” The Playlist said “it looks incredible” and recommended Disney should move Avengers Doomsday off the two movies’ shared Dec. 18 release date “as soon and quietly as possible.”
On stage, Villeneuve described the film as “more of a thriller, action-packed, and more emotional” than the previous two installments, with “a broken love story” between Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides and Zendaya’s Chani at its heart. Chalamet hinted at the dark direction his character is heading in, calling him “the all-powerful dark emperor of the universe.”
Digger
The next-biggest spectacle at the Warner Bros. presentation was Tom Cruise in some makeup. A lot of makeup. The star is said to be unrecognizable in Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger as a portly, bald oil tycoon whose gas drilling threatens to unleash some kind of world-ending catastrophe that only he can prevent. The Playlist said Digger was “the most visually inspired thing Iñárritu has tackled in years or perhaps ever,” the footage was “astounding,” and Cruise’s performance “the most effortless we can ever remember him being on screen.” Deadline said the reaction in the room was “ecstatic” and predicted Cruise is heading for his first-ever Best Actor Oscar. Digger will be released on Oct. 2.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
Warner Bros. confirmed Ian McKellan, Elijah Wood, Lee Pace, and Kate Winslet for Andy Serkis’ new Lord of the Rings movie, and announced that Jamie Dornan will take over the role of Aragorn/Strider. A quick clip was shown of Gollum in a familiar setting, cowering in a cave and talking to himself. The Hunt for Gollum is scheduled for Dec. 17, 2027.
Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest
Warner Bros. gave a title to its Game of Thrones movie: Aegon’s Conquest, confirming the reports that it will focus on Aegon Targaryen I’s conquest of Westeros 300 years before the events of the HBO series. This is the guy who forged the Iron Throne. The movie doesn’t have a release date but featured in WB’s “2027 and beyond” slate at CinemaCon.
Mortal Kombat II
IGN has a breakdown of the scene shown, which features Karl Urban as Johnny Cage facing off against Baraka while Liu Kang and Jax look on. Movie star Cage doesn’t seem to be much of a fighter, saying “My stuntmen do this shit for me,” but he does surprise Baraka with a punch in the groin. It sounds funnier than the surprisingly serious trailer suggested. Mortal Kombat II is out on May 8.
Supergirl
The CinemaCon audience was shown a scene and a montage from Craig Gillespie’s spinoff from last year’s Superman. Out on June 26, Supergirl has been pretty extensively trailered already, but The Playlist offered a detailed breakdown of the footage, which shows Milly Alcock’s Kara having to recharge her powers to take part in a melee on a space transport after partying on a planet with a red sun. The Playlist seemed pleasantly surprised by the tease, saying it “might surprise even the staunchest of naysayers.”
Evil Dead Burn
The next Evil Dead movie, directed by Sébastien Vaniček, is being released on July 24. The trailer shown was, by all accounts, pretty gnarly, with lots of gore and a giant wolf, for some reason. The Playlist said it looked “utterly terrifying.” Oh, and there’s another Evil Dead movie called Evil Dead Wrath following in 2027 “or beyond.”
The End of Oak Street and The Great Beyond
Warner Bros. has not one but two original sci-fi movies this year coming from production company Bad Robot: The End of Oak Street from It Follows‘ David Robert Mitchell (Aug. 14) and The Great Beyond from Bad Robot big cheese J.J. Abrams (Nov. 13), his first film as director since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The first of these already has a trailer, but nothing much is known about The Great Beyond; even though some mysterious footage was shown featuring Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey, and Samuel L. Jackson, The Playlist said it “did not leave a lasting impression.”
Clayface
A brief assembly of footage from the “horror-thriller” featuring the Batman villain, and set in the official DC Universe (not the The Batman universe) was shown. Viewers were split, with IndieWire saying it looked like “more of a body horror film” but The Playlist arguing it carried over Superman‘s “bright” aesthetic and wasn’t scary at all. It’s out on Oct. 23.
An absolute ton of other movies
Warner Bros. also showed footage from Practical Magic 2 starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and its animated The Cat in the Hat movie, and mentioned what seemed like dozens more. James Gunn’s Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow is about to start shooting. M. Night Shyamalan has Remain, his first ghost movie since The Sixth Sense. A Minecraft Sequel is coming, as is The Batman: Part 2, a new Gremlins movie, a shark movie starring Keanu Reeves called Shiver, an Ocean’s Eleven prequel starring Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper, the seventh Final Destination movie, another Conjuring, and lots more on WB’s “2027 and beyond” slate.
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