Warner Bros.’ presentation at CinemaCon on Tuesday night was filled with plenty of big screen spectacle, but also came as rumors have swirled around the future of the studio and its film chiefs, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.
Over the past weekend, reports surfaced that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was in preliminary talks with other executives to potentially replace the former MGM chiefs, who joined Warner following the 2022 merger between Warner and Discovery.
De Luca and Abdy pushed aside even an oblique mention to those reports, instead passionately presenting films that represent their approach to slate building with top budgets for original films, the sort of films that cinephiles lament aren’t being made by mainstream Hollywood anymore.
Two weeks from now, one of those films, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” will hit theaters with early tracking projecting a $40 million start. Warner is banking on Jordan Peele-esque legs for this $90 million, genre-bending occult film starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld.
Then, in September, the studio will release Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which holds an even higher $100 million-plus budget and will get an Imax 70mm and VistaVision release in an effort to build interest among cinephiles and older moviegoers. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor and Regina Hall came onstage to show a clip of DiCaprio as a desperate revolutionary and addict trying to find his lost daughter.
Anderson has never been a Christopher Nolan-level force at the box office, but Warner is going to give his upcoming crime film starring Leonardo DiCaprio a prime early autumn release with event release marketing befitting a potential Oscar contender.
While Abdy expressed enthusiasm for all of Warner’s upcoming films, she showed particular excitement for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” a new take on the Bride of Frankenstein starring Jessie Buckley that comes out in March 2026. Gyllenhaal spoke at length about what inspired her to put the story of the Bride in early 20th century Chicago and how thrilled she was to work with Imax cameras for the first time and play with the unique aspect ratios that the format provides.
That all came before an extremely visceral red band trailer that showed off the film’s stylized violence and unique design for Buckley’s Bride and Christian Bale’s Frankenstein Monster, complete with the expletive-filled tagline: “Here. Comes. The. Mother. Fucking. Bride.”
Still, while those films need to turn a profit to show that big budget originality can work against all odds, it’s not their job to carry the financial load for Warner Bros.’ film division.
That job goes to DC Studios, who finished off Warner’s presentation with a grand finale from studio heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. Zaslav siloed off DC Studios from the rest of the film division shortly after hiring the “Guardians of the Galaxy” filmmaker and the veteran producer, and tasked them with restoring audience interest in the struggling franchise.
All those plans of course hinge on “Superman” being a hit, and Warner and DC showed their confidence in the film by presenting a lengthy panel with Gunn and the film’s cast, led by David Corenswet, who shared numerous stories followed by sneak peek that featured the full clip of Krypto rescuing the Man of Steel…but not before excitedly jumping all over the injured superhero.
Beyond DC and the originals, other films featured during Warner’s presentation included a look at the darkly humorous and extremely gruesome return of New Line’s “Final Destination,” as well as an appearance from “Barbarian” director Zach Cregger to talk about “Weapons,” a disturbing tale of an entire class of elementary school kids who mysteriously disappear.
Warner also presented Apple’s “F1,” which it is handling distribution on and features the team of star Brad Pitt and director Joseph Kosinski. The sneak peek included actual race footage filmed during the 24 Hours of Daytona, and Warner and Apple are hoping that this $300 million tentpole will be able to replicate some of the magic of Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick” and find a foothold against summer franchise competitors.
2026 will also be a big year for Warner Bros. Animation, which showed off a work-in-progress trailer of “The Cat in the Hat” and a sizzle reel of other work that is in development, including “Meet the Flintstones” and “The Lunar Chronicles.”
After an up-and-down 2024 that had hits like “Dune: Part Two” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” alongside flops like “Furiosa” and “Joker: Folie a Deux,” 2025 has been a rough start for Warner Bros. with disappointments and misfires.
Among those films are the New Line horror film “Companion,” which grossed just $37 million worldwide against a $20 million marketing/production spend despite rave reviews; Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17,” which has grossed $120 million worldwide against a reported $118 million production budget, and the $50 million mobster film “Alto Knights,” which has made a paltry $9 million worldwide after nearly two weeks of play.
Help is on the way for both Warner and the struggling box office with Legendary’s adaptation of the hit video game “Minecraft,” which is projected to have an opening weekend of at least $70 million.
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