Steven Spielberg delivered a rallying cry in his inaugural CinemaCon appearance on Wednesday, telling exhibitors at the climax of a lively Universal session that they had his full support through thick and thin.
“If you ever need a bigger boat, I am that man,” the celebrated director told attendees at Dolby Colosseum in reference to the hard times cinema owners continue to face in an age of diminishing exclusive theatrical windows, consolidation, and streaming.
Praising the studio led by NBCUniversal Entertainment chairman Donna Langley for its recent strategy shift to expand Universal’s minimum theatrical exclusive window to five weekends this year and seven weekends starting in 2027, Spielberg elicited a roar when he declared: “The studio has committed to 45 days. Do I hear 60 days? Do I hear 120 days?”
The iconic filmmaker’s comments delivered a rousing finale to a presentation featuring Christopher Nolan, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert De Niro and Snoop Dogg in which Langley told attendees: “We’ve always been a theatrical-first studio, period.”
Spielberg was in feisty and contemplative mood as he talked on stage with Colman Domingo, one of the stars of the June 12 UFO release Disclosure Day that also stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Eve Hewson. “I’ve been curious ever since I was a little kid with what’s happening in the sky,” the filmmaker said, noting that his father used to tell him “advanced civilisations” existed that were not human. “I’ve been very fixated with the possibilities.”
When he made the trailblazing 1977 sci-fi Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Spielberg recalled that he was speculating as to what the first meeting between humans and aliens might look like. “Now I am about to put out Disclosure Day with a lot more certainty that there’s more truth to this,” he said.
The filmmaker rounded out the session with the Disclosure Day trailer, in which strange occurrences befall people and two strangers portrayed by Blunt and O’Connor realise they are seemingly connected due to reasons beyond their comprehension. Spielberg said to applause that he and Universal’s marketing department agreed they would not give away the third act in the trailer.
Earlier MPA chairman Charles Rivkin presented Spielberg with the one-time MPA America250 Award.
Nolan shows Trojan Horse footage from ‘The Odyssey’
Prior to all that, Nolan had walked on to promote his July 17 tentpole The Odyssey. Eloquent as ever, he showed a montage of scenes including a thriller-like sequence in which Odysseus leads Greek soldiers as they infiltrate Troy hidden in the hollow wooden horse in an attempt to end the decade-long Trojan War.
“It’s not a story, it’s the story,” Nolan said of his star-studded take on Homer’s 3,000-year-old saga, which also features Anne Hathaway as Odysseus’s wife Penelope, and Tom Holland as their son Telemachus. The film was the first to shoot entirely on Imax cameras. “This is a long-held dream of mine. This is the film with which to do it. My crew did an incredible job,” the UK filmmaker said, adding that it will be available to exhibitors in all formats.
“This film has been a nightmare to film, but in all the right ways,” Nolan said. “Matt was an incredible leader for us – in the mountains, in the caves, under the beating sun, in sideways rain. We went all over the world.”
Jack Black, star of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie that has earned more than $636m at the global box office – Langley said the tentpole was “on its way to becoming the first billion-dollar hit of the year” – brought on Illumination Entertainment CEO Chris Meledandri, who showed two scenes from the 1920-set Minions & Monsters (July 1) directed by Pierre Coffin.
Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro banter
Ben Stiller came on and introduced himself to laughs as the one actor not in The Odyssey and talked up November 25 release Focker-In-Law, which he joked followed the third entry in the 26-year franchise after an intentional 16-year gap.
Robert De Niro joined for some banter over the actors’ respective credits before they cued up the new trailer. Ariana Grande joins the returning cast of Owen Wilson, Teri Polo, and Blythe Danner as the headstrong fiancée of Stiller’s son.
Snoop Dogg opened the presentation and performed excerpts from several of his standards including Drop It Like It’s Hot and introduced Jonathan Daviss who will play him in the previously-announced Untitled Snoop Biopic. Dogg promised they would return with a trailer next year and introduced Langley to the stage to the strains of God Save The Queen.
The executive, like president of domestic theatrical distribution Jim Orr who followed her, hailed exhibitors and emphasised the importance of exhibition and the studio’s commitment to windows.
A brief Focus Features segment showcased trailers from Working Title’s Sense And Sensibility (October 16) directed by Georgia Oakley and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles; and Robert Eggers’ Werwulf (December 25) starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, and Lily-Rose Depp.
Focus’s 2026 pipeline includes YouTube and Instagram creator Curry Marshall’s feature debut and 2025 TIFF sensation Obsession on May 15; Paul Greengrass’s The Uprising starring Andrew Garfield as the leader of the Peasants’ Revolt in the 14th century; Anthony Maras’s Second World War drama Pressure with Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, and Damian Lewis; and pop star Hayley Kiyoko’s feature directorial debut and coming-of-age tale Girls Like Girls.
A segment of Universal trailers highlighted Will Gluck’s rom-com One Night Only starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner (August 7); Rob Savage’s horror Other Mommy (October 9) starring Jessica Chastain; and Tommy Wirkola’s dark comedy Violent Night 2 starring David Habour (December 4).
Earlier in the day Universal screened DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island and will distribute the family animation around the world starting in September and in North America on September 25.
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