Hollywood Breakdown
News from CinemaCon: That's A Lot of 'Avatars'
The CinemaCon gathering for movie theater owners used to be a small event. But now that it has a much larger platform via the media and Internet, studios use it as an opportunity to show off their upcoming slates.
By Kim Masters • • 3m ListenAt this year's CinemaCon James Cameron announced that there would be not just one or two Avatar sequels, but four. The first sequel was supposed to be in 2014, but now Cameron says the follow-up to the 2009 film will land in 2018, with more to follow. In Sony's presentation, they showed a clip from Passengers, the outer space love story starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. The film was a very expensive project, especially for studio head Tom Rothman, who likes to be thrifty. Thankfully for him, the presentation got a good reaction. Also, Adam Aron, the new head of AMC set of a firestorm when he suggested that certain theaters may allow texting in the future. There is a very vocal group of people who absolutely do not want this to happen.
