Paramount celebrates 100 years with a surprise appearance from 'The Dictator'

The National Association of Theatre Owners' second annual CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas opened Monday with special "International Day" activities underlining the increasing importance of the overseas markets to the Hollywood studios. Breakfast keynote speaker Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of international distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures, noted that 2011's foreign box-office tally of $13.5 billion was 30% ahead of the U.S., and pointed to the phenomenal growth in markets like Brazil, Russia and China (the latter soaring from $400 million in box-office takings to $2 billion in a mere five years, with $5 billion predicted by 2015).

International Day lunch honored Universal veteran Jack Ledwith, Hoyts Entertainment CEO Delfin Fernandez, and visionary Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, director of the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Lincoln producer Tim Burton was on hand to introduce Bekbambetov and praise his visual imagination, declaring, "I can't think of any better director to make a movie about an American president than a Russian." Bekmambetov said receiving the honor was "a special moment for me," since he doesn't expect to win any critics' prizes. "I make movies for the audience."

The show officially kicked off on Monday night with a special program celebrating Paramount Pictures' 100th anniversary and previewing their lineup for 2012. Called "franchise Viagra" by G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon Chu, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appeared to accept the CinemaCon "Action Star of the Decade" award. That celebrity sighting was followed by Chris Rock's very enthusiastic introduction of 25 minutes from Madagascar 3, which he promised would be the biggest hit of the summer, despite competition from "crap" like The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Returns. Rock  likened the wild 3D visuals of the movie, showcased in a surreal circus production number set to Katy Perry's hit song "Firework," to the work of Salvador Dali and David LaChappelle.

Tom Cruise appeared on tape to promote his upcoming action film One Shot, based on the bestselling book series by Lee Childs. Cruise admitted he doesn't quite match the towering height of Childs' protagonist Jack Reacher, but "Lee felt I was the guy who could drive fast cars and kick the shit out of people." The two clips screened, a five-on-one fight scene and a fierce car chase, were highly effective and muscular, with Cruise persuasively filling the shoes of the kind of hardened anti-hero Clint Eastwood used to play in the '70s. It looks like the Cruise comeback in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was not a fluke.

The big surprise of the evening was Sacha Baron Cohen's march down the aisle of the Caesars Palace Colosseum in his white military regalia as his newest character, The Dictator. Saying he was happy to be at "Cinnabon," Baron Cohen proceeded to make irreverent jokes at the expense of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg ("I thought I was the only dictator in the house"), John Carter, and recently fired Disney chief Rich Ross ("In my country they just shoot the executives. Oh wait, you did.") The Dictator screened for the first time at a local Rave cinema following Paramount's after-party, so web reports should be streaming in soon whether Baron Cohen's behavior on screen is as outrageous as his antics at Caesars.