Sony kicked off the annual exhibitor convention in Vegas with the kind of slate that makes you remember why movie theaters exist in the first place.
CinemaCon, the annual Las Vegas convention where studios attempt to convince theater owners that cinema isn’t dead, kicked off its 2026 edition on Monday night. And Sony Pictures, traditionally the first studio to take the stage, did not come to play around.
The studio’s two-hour presentation was anchored by two words that tend to make the internet lose its collective mind: Spider-Man. Sony showed new footage from “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” and the presentation offered a glimpse at Peter’s eyes turning black, hinting at the rumored Man-Spider transformation. The footage paired expansive, larger-than-life action with intimate character work, set to Tame Impala’s “Loser.” The film, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, arrives July 31.
Then came the animated side of the Spider-Verse. Directors Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson took the stage alongside writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to present “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” announcing a release date of June 18, 2027. The footage shown opened from the cliffhanger ending of “Across the Spider-Verse,” with Miles confronting his Prowler counterpart, and apparently included enough visual wizardry to leave the room breathless. For a franchise that has already redefined what animation can look like, that’s saying something.
Beyond the web-slinging, Sony dropped a fascinating surprise: Aaron Sorkin took the stage to introduce “The Social Reckoning,” his follow-up to David Fincher’s “The Social Network.” The teaser featured Mikey Madison as Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, Jeremy Allen White as reporter Jeff Horwitz, and Jeremy Strong — in convincing makeup — as Mark Zuckerberg. Sorkin writing a sequel to one of the defining films of the 2010s about the catastrophic second act of social media? That’s the kind of swing that either wins big or crashes hard, and it’s exactly the kind of movie CinemaCon was designed to get theater owners excited about.
The horror fans in the room weren’t neglected either. Zach Cregger, the director behind the surprise hit “Barbarian,” presented footage from his “Resident Evil” reboot, starring Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, and Paul Walter Hauser. The trailer featured a snowy setting, a flipped-over police car, and plenty of zombie carnage pulled straight from the aesthetic of the original games. The film hits theaters September 18.
And Sony closed the night with spectacle: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart took the stage for “Jumanji: Open World,” showing a trailer where the game’s avatars escape into the real world for the first time. Johnson paid tribute to the late Robin Williams, the star of the original 1995 film. Christmas Day release.
What made Sony’s presentation notable wasn’t just the individual titles — it was the breadth. A massive superhero blockbuster, an animated masterwork-in-progress, a prestige drama sequel, a horror reboot, a family franchise tentpole, and sprinkled among them, Taika Waititi’s “Klara and the Sun,” a sci-fi adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams. That’s a studio making the case that theatrical moviegoing isn’t just viable — it’s a buffet.
Warner Bros. presents Tuesday. Universal and Amazon MGM on Wednesday. Paramount and Disney close it out Thursday. If this is the appetizer, CinemaCon 2026 is going to be a feast. Keep your popcorn close.
