As part of what might become a new tradition at CinemaCon, Cinema United invited three film distributors outside of Hollywood’s mainstream — Angel, StudioCanal and Sony Pictures Classics — to present their upcoming films to theaters.
“Films released by these companies don’t just fill our screens. They build audiences, audiences that become voracious and curious and eager for something unique or exciting and fun, quirky, thought provoking, yes, maybe even edgy,” said Tori Baker, film producer and President/CEO of the Salt Lake Film Society. “They deepen the love of motion pictures, and they tell stories that feel intimate and human and that’s personal, showing us a new way to see the world.”
The presentation comes as movie theaters — particularly smaller chains and family-owned locations — are looking for ways to expand the types of films they offer to their customers.
While Cinema United CEO Michael O’Leary told TheWrap that the addition of this presentation was not done in direct response to the potential Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, the ongoing consolidation in Hollywood threatens to reduce the number of films theaters have to screen right at a time when that volume has been rising, increasing optimism for a potential $10 billion domestic box office in 2026.
With movies like Angel’s “David” and Markiplier’s “Iron Lung” becoming recent breakout independent successes, theaters are becoming more open to screening films from outside the Hollywood system. Meanwhile, international films like Neon’s “No Other Choice” and GKids’ “Godzilla Minus One” are slowly developing a new generation of arthouse moviegoers.
During its time onstage, Angel presented a slate that shows its next steps in trying to expand beyond its core faith-based audience. While the studio still has films for that core audience like “Zero A.D.,” a biblical epic from “Sound of Freedom” director Alejandro Monteverde coming this Christmas, there’s also broader fare like a remake of the John Wayne western “Angel and the Badman” starring Zachary Levi, Neal McDonough and Tommy Lee Jones, which will likely try to court older moviegoers when it hits theaters in October.
America’s 250th anniversary was also a major focus of the Provo studio’s 2026 slate with films like “Young Washington,” a biopic about George Washington’s days as a young soldier that will be released on Fourth of July weekend, and “The Brink of War,” a true story Cold War thriller starring Jeff Daniels as Ronald Reagan, which recounts his fateful negotiations on a nuclear treaty with the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland.
And on the family side, Angel will try to expand beyond faith-based stories with a very unusual choice: “Animal Farm,” Andy Serkis’ adaptation of George Orwell’s cautionary novel about the nature of revolutions and power. During the presentation, Angel gave a nod to the deep skepticism that the film got online when it was announced, quipping that it is a movie that “nobody has an opinion about.”
“This slate demonstrates that with engaging subjects, established stars, and engrossing storytelling, Angel has gone from aspiring to achieving,” said Neal Harmon, co-founder and CEO of Angel. “This marks an exciting step forward in our mission to launch projects created with our audience, not just for them.”
StudioCanal, which has produced and distributed European films like the “Paddington” trilogy and “Shaun of the Dead,” made its CinemaCon debut Monday, a sign of how Cinema United is expanding the spotlight as the French company does not distribute films directly in the U.S., instead working with American partners on its productions.
Among those productions were two re-imaginings of classic ’80s genre films: “Escape From New York,” which starred Kurt Russell, and the Joe Dante werewolf film, “The Howling.”
Among the films showcased by StudioCanal were Aardman’s hit “Wallace & Gromit” spinoff franchise “Shaun the Sheep,” which will have a new film “The Beast of Mossy Bottom” in theaters this year with GKids as the U.S. distributor. Exhibitors were also shown the teaser for the Eli Roth horror film “Ice Cream Man,” which was released publicly on Monday.
The crowd in Vegas also laughed in shock for the teaser for Taron Egerton’s darkly comedic thriller “Everybody Wants to F*ck Me,” in which the “Rocketman” star plays a man wading into London’s dating scene…and finds himself being chased by zombie-like people who don’t want to kill him but rather want to…well, the title says it all.
On the more mature side, Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman will star in “Elsinore,” a true story drama about actor Ian Charleson’s final performance as Hamlet while dying of AIDS. Finally, “28 Years Later” director Danny Boyle came onstage to present his 2027 film “Ink,” which stars Jack O’Connell and Guy Pearce as journalist Larry Lamb and media titan Rupert Murdoch as they launched the tabloid that in 1969 permanently changed British media: The Sun.
Sony Pictures Classics was a late addition to the CinemaCon slate, replacing the financially struggling Row K. But Sony’s specialty wing was on hand to show some of the festival acquisitions it had acquired this past winter, including David Wayne’s “Gail Daughtry’s Celebrity Sex Pass” starring Zoey Deutch as a woman who must have sex with Jon Hamm (played by himself) to save her relationship with her boyfriend after he has sex with his favorite celebrity.
Noah Segan’s “The Only Pickpocket in New York” was also acquired by SPC at Sundance, starring John Turturro as an aging petty thief falling behind in an increasingly digital world. In a clip shown to exhibitors, Turturro offers some advice to a younger pickpocket about how he can pull off his subway heists better.
SPC also showed the Saudi murder mystery thriller “Unidentified” from director Haifaa al Mansour, which follows a police department receptionist in Riyadh who is asked by an all-male detective unit to help solve the mystery of an unidentified woman found in the desert. The studio will also bring anniversary re-releases of Danny Boyle’s “Trainspotting” and Jane Campion’s “The Piano” as well as Pedro Almodovar’s next drama “Bitter Christmas.”
