Universal and Warner Bros. celebrate record box office at CinemaCon

On day 2 of CinemaCon in
Las Vegas, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. both touted their box-office
performances in 2012, and each had bragging rights to a record. Adam Fogeleson,
chairman of Universal Pictures, reported the biggest year in the studio’s 100-year
history, with eight films surpassing $200 million at the worldwide box office.
This, despite the very expensive summer flop Battleship, a miscalculation from
which the studio “learned a lot,” Fogelson admitted, while taking pains to
point out that Universal is sticking with director Peter Berg for his next
movie.

Fogelson also revealed
that there would be sequels to the 2012 releases Snow White and the Huntsman
and Pitch Perfect, the latter a modest sleeper hit which Fogelson said has
become the fourth-biggest domestically downloaded movie.

At the morning
presentation, Fogelson chose to highlight Universal’s five summer releases,
with four of them seemingly competing for loudest trailer of the week.
R.I.P.D. and Kick-Ass 2 each combine comedy and frenetic action, while 2 Guns
is a variation on the mismatched-cops genre, teaming up Denzel Washington and
Mark Wahlberg, the respective stars of Universal 2012 hits Safe House and Ted. Sequences from Despicable Me 2, with those irresistible yellow minions, got a warm response from the audience; the sequel to the Illumination Entertainment animated hit adds the voices of Kristen Wiig as Steve Carell's potential love interest and Al Pacino as a villain called El Macho.

The finale paid homage to the success of the Fast & Furious franchise, which has earned $1.5 billion
for Universal and has grown exponentially with each film (due in large part to its massive social-media following). Stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang and Gina Carano took to the stage. Fan favorite Rodriguez returns to the series after an absence and has a major fight scene with Carano, the mixed-martial-arts pro turned Haywire star, and Rodriguez volunteered that in real life Carano would "kick my ass." Gibson teased the handsome Walker about certain hygiene issues, while Diesel lavishly praised the studio and producers for the ethnic mix of the cast. He also revealed that there will be a Fast & Furious 7 in 2014.

Warner Bros. had even more to celebrate: a $4 billion worldwide gross in each of the past four years, and 12 consecutive years of $1 billion domestic box office. Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov offered advance looks at a lot of the upcoming slate, with a taped introduction by Baz Luhrmann for his riotously lavish 3D The Great Gatsby and live appearances by directors Todd Phllips (The Hangover Part III), Zack Snyder (Man of Steel) and Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim).

Phillips got laughs joking about him mother's complete lack of interest in movies, before declaring that "comedies need to be seen in a theatre with groups of people who can laugh together." As for any fears of going up against Fast & Furious 6 on May 24, Phillips shrugged off the competition: "It's f---ing Vin Diesel."

Snyder presented the world premiere of the trailer for Man of Steel, and emphasized that his impressive-looking reboot of the Superman franchise was shot on film; for him, celluloid was crucial to his goal to make "a big giant movie movie."

Del Toro testified that making Pacific Rim "has changed my life," giving him the opportunity to
utilize "a scope and a palette I haven't tried before." The film, he said, came "from the deepest part of my being...the ten-year-old kid who is in love with giant monsters." The ever-enthusiastic del Toro said he never grew tired of watching his footage during the long production process: "Every week I was smiling like a goddamn moron."

Some brief 3D footage from Alfonso Cuarón's outer space thriller Gravity intrigued, and two other surprises emerged: The trailer for We're the Millers, starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis, got big laughs and could be a hit comedy raunch-fest. And footage from the missing-child drama Prisoners looked very promising; acclaimed Quebec director Denis Villeneuve makes his Hollywood debut with a cast including Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis.

Tomorow: CinemaCon's 2012 Filmmakers Panel, with Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi and Oliver Stone.