Warner Bros motion pictures group co-heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy presented the studio’s CinemaCon slate on Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas ami
Warner Bros motion pictures group co-heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy presented the studio’s CinemaCon slate on Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas amid speculation over their future in the wake of a string of box office disappointments.
In a somewhat muted session, the studio co-chairs and co-CEOs, who were hired three years ago, called on the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jessie Buckley, Bill Hader, Joseph Kosinski and Nicholas Hoult to promote a high-pedigree pipeline featuring Superman, F1, and One Battle After Another.
However the slate is not without its risks, made all the more acute in delicate of the report on the eve of CinemaCon that Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been talking to potential studio head candidates following the recent performances of Mickey 17, Alto Knights (which Zaslav championed and pushed through the pipeline), and 2024’s Joker: Folie a Deux, and Furiosa.
F1 and Superman were the main draws. Kosinski and producer Bruckheimer brought the first 10 minutes of F1 starring Brad Pitt, their June 27 follow-up to 2022’s $1.5bn global smash Top Gun: Maverick.
Warner Bros is the theatrical distribution partner on the Apple Original Films feature, however there is confusion over Apple’s theatrical strategy and exhibitors must be hoping the film does not go the way of Pitt’s last feature with the tech giant, Wolfs. Apple initially planned to release it wide through Sony Pictures only to give a narrow one-week release in September before debuting the film on Apple TV+.
DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran presented a long segment dedicated to Superman, the first release from the rebooted division that will be a litmus test when it opens on July 11. The filmmakers took a break from post-production to join David Corenswet (Superman/Clark Kent), Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane), and Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor) on stage for a long promotional conversation.
More than an hour earlier, De Luca and Abdy had kicked off the session at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace with Paul Thomas Anderson’s September 26 murky comedy One Battle After Another. They brought on DiCaprio, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor to whet appetites with quirky extended footage of DiCaprio as a frazzled former revolutionary who reunites with his comrades to rescue one of their daughters.
The latest feature from multiple Oscar nominee Anderson is a large bet. None of the auteur’s films has grossed more than $40m in North America and $77m worldwide (There Will be Blood in 2007), and according to reports One Battle After Another will need to earn in the region of $350m to break even given the $130m budget.
The Bride! director Maggie Gyllenhaal and Buckley dropped by to discuss Gyllenhaal’s reimagining of James Whale’s 1935 horror Bride Of Frankenstein, her second directorial outing after The Lost Daughter. Buckley described her character’s on-screen love with Frankenstein played by Christian Bale as “the punkest love that ever existed” imbued with the spirit of Bonnie And Clyde. The Bride! opens in spring 2026.
De Luca and Abdy name-checked April 4 release A Minecraft Movie, and Ryan Coogler sent a video message ahead of April 18 release Sinners, a vampire film set in the Jim Crow era that stars Coogler’s Black Panther, Creed, and Fruitvale Station collaborator Michael B. Jordan as twins.
New Line president and chief imaginative officer Richard Brener drew an enthusiastic response when he introduced his segment, showing footage from May 16 release Final Destination: Bloodlines, and chatting to Zach Cregger about his witch horror Weapons, out on August 8. New Line’s Mortal Kombat and The Conjuring: Last Rites will also open in 2025.
De Luca cued up the Warner Bros Pictures Animation section, pointedly noting that he and Abdy revived the division when they joined Warner Bros in July 2022. Division president Bill Damaschke brought on Bill Hader to show the first trailer for The Cat In The Hat, out in February 2026.
Jeff Goldstein, president of global theatrical distribution, sandwiched the Warner Bros presentation. He introduced De Luca and Abdy at the start, and returned at the end dressed as Krypto the dog from Superman.
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