By Movieguide® Staff
The Dolby Colosseum at Caesars Palace is not a subtle room.
It seats thousands, its ceiling disappears into darkness, and the sound system could rattle the fillings out of your teeth. On Tuesday evening, Warner Bros. claimed that space like a studio that just swept the Oscars — because it did. Fresh off Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay wins, the storied studio arrived in Las Vegas with something to prove and, frankly, plenty to show off.
I was there. And it was something.
Patton Oswalt, and the Shadow in the Room.
Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt took the stage as emcee. He opened with a pep rally’s worth of studio boosterism, and the crowd loved it. Studio heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy were introduced to strong applause, with Abdy noting that when they joined in 2022, the studio was down to just six releases.
The energy was celebratory — but an elephant sat in every row. Warner Bros. is being acquired by Paramount Skydance. The duo didn’t address the ongoing controversy surrounding the planned merger — but earlier that week, over 1,000 actors, filmmakers, and creatives, including Don Cheadle, J.J. Abrams, and Denis Villeneuve himself, had signed an open letter opposing the deal. De Luca and Abdy pressed forward. They had movies to sell.
They revealed Warner Bros. will release 14 films this year, with another 18 potentially on the way in 2027. They also unveiled a brand new label called Warner Bros. Clockwork, dedicated entirely to non-IP-driven, original fare — with the first release being Sean Baker’s follow-up to his Best Picture-winning Anora, titled Te Amo, slated for 2027.
Tom Cruise Walks Into the Room
If you want to feel what electricity in a movie theater feels like, witness Tom Cruise walk onto a stage.
Cruise and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu appeared together for Digger to huge applause. Iñárritu revealed they shot the film in VistaVision — the same wide-film format Paul Thomas Anderson used for One Battle After Another.
Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a reclusive Southern energy tycoon, donning old age make-up and a fake pot belly who ignores a key warning about one of his pipelines, causing a global catastrophe — and is then ordered by John Goodman’s U.S. president to fix what he broke.
Based on the extended teaser screened exclusively in the room, the film felt like it would be a global warming political statement movie but we only saw the teaser. Wait till we see the full film to know more.
MOVIEGUIDE® Family Note: Digger releases October 2026. This is clearly an adult-skewing prestige satire. Parents should expect thematic content around corporate greed, catastrophe, and likely mature language. Wait for our full review before bringing teenagers.
Supergirl Flies In — John Wick Style
DC Studios head Peter Safran took the stage, noting that James Gunn is busy filming the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, with cameras set to roll the following week. But the night belonged to Kara Zor-El.
Milly Alcock, star of House of the Dragon, entered to the thudding beats of Blondie’s “Call Me” as streamers fired from the edges of the stage. Then Jason Momoa pulled up — literally — riding in on an intergalactic motorcycle to portray bounty hunter Lobo, a character he said he’d wanted to play since he was 12 years old.
The extended clip showed Kara’s ship boarded by space pirates — and her response was hand-to-hand combat described as more reminiscent of John Wick than Christopher Reeve’s Superman.
MOVIEGUIDE® Family Note: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow hits theaters June 26. The comic storyline it’s based on is darker than the classic Supergirl mythos — this isn’t Helen Slater territory. Expect significant action violence. Our audience will want to pay attention to the content rating when it drops.
Clayface: DC Goes to Horror
In October, Clayface takes the DC universe in a decidedly darker direction. Taking a page from Todd Phillips’s original Joker, director James Watkins — who previously directed multiple Black Mirror episodes — appears to be pursuing a Cronenberg-esque horror approach for DC’s first genuine horror film since Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing in 1982.
MOVIEGUIDE® Family Note: Families, consider this a red flag on the calendar. A DC horror film channeling both Black Mirror and body-horror director David Cronenberg is not family fare. This movie looked like a dark no for families and adults alike but wait for the review.
Practical Magic Is Back — With Witchcraft and All
Oh, Sandra. Oh, Nicole.
Sandra Bullock set up Nicole Kidman to quote her famous AMC ad back at the theater owners: “We come to this place for magic.” The crowd erupted. It felt like there was a personal beef between Sandra and Nicole on stage. The two Oscar winners are returning for Practical Magic 2, with Bullock’s character Sally now having two grown kids, and Kidman’s Gillian owning a cat. The teaser introduces a new man, played by Lee Pace, into the Owens family — but Gilly warns him darkly, “Everyone we love dies.”
MOVIEGUIDE® Family Note: The original Practical Magic was a spiritually problematic film rooted in witchcraft, spells, and occult themes. The sequel looks to be more of the same.
J.J. Abrams Returns — And Goes Big
J.J. Abrams stepped to the podium for The Great Beyond, his first film since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 and his first original feature since Super 8 in 2011. Starring Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey, and Samuel L. Jackson, the film takes place in a world on the verge of a close encounter, opening with an H.G. Wells quote and a hint of alien mystery.
MOVIEGUIDE® Family Note: A sci-fi mystery from Abrams could go in many directions. The cast skews toward adult audiences. We’ll track content details as more footage releases.
The Moment the Room Held Its Breath: Dune: Part Three
Nothing — nothing — in the evening hit harder than this.
An army of Fremen marched to the CinemaCon stage as footage from Dune: Part Three played on the screen behind them. Two of those Fremen were then elevated by wires into the Colosseum rafters as Denis Villeneuve entered to massive applause, joking, “I always travel with my army with me.”
It was one of the most spectacular theatrical entrances I’ve ever witnessed at an industry event. The crowd — a room full of hardened exhibitors who’ve seen everything — went genuinely electric.
Villeneuve confirmed a 17-year time jump between the second and third films. “The first two movies are like B-movies split in two,” he said. “This one is a thriller — it’s more action-packed, intense, and definitely emotional.”
Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Jason Momoa joined Villeneuve onstage. Chalamet said of Paul Atreides, “He’s become his worst vision. He’s struggling to retain the parts of himself he sees the most.” Zendaya added that Chani has been hardened: “That youthful outlook is completely gone.”
Then Villeneuve screened seven minutes of footage exclusively for the room — opening on Javier Bardem’s Stilgar leading an assault on a water-soaked world, before the sequence pivoted sharply into something described as channeling Saving Private Ryan as the Arrakis forces are overwhelmed by heavy firepower.
The room was silent. Then it erupted.
MOVIEGUIDE® Family Note: Dune: Part Three adapts Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert’s darker, more politically despairing novel. Paul Atreides’ arc becomes deeply tragic — a messiah figure who becomes the thing he sought to prevent. There is war, violence, and moral ambiguity throughout. Older teens who’ve followed the series will want to see this; parents should preview the rating when it drops. The filmmaking is extraordinary. The worldview is complicated.
The 2027 Preview: Reasons to Smile
Jack Black composed and performed an original song celebrating the 2027 slate, which includes A Minecraft Movie 2 — now featuring Kirsten Dunst — M. Night Shyamalan’s Remain (a ghost story), a Margot Robbie-led Ocean’s Eleven prequel, Keanu Reeves in a shark thriller called Shiver from Deadpool director Tim Miller, and Andy Serkis slipping back into his Gollum voice to tease The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
What our audience will love: A Minecraft Movie 2 remains the rare studio franchise safe for the whole family. And The Hunt for Gollum — Andy Serkis directing and starring — is the Tolkien content faithful audiences have been waiting for. MOVIEGUIDE® will be watching both closely.
The Bottom Line
Warner Bros. is riding high — deservedly so. The creative ambition on display in that Colosseum was genuine. Tom Cruise and Denis Villeneuve alone represent two of cinema’s most committed storytellers, and the Dune presentation was a masterclass in how to build anticipation for a movie.
But families — our 82 million families — deserve to know: this is a slate heavy on darkness, moral complexity, violence, and occult themes. There are reasons to be excited about what’s coming. There are also reasons to be discerning.
That’s always been our job. And the movies Warner Bros. just unveiled give us plenty to talk about.
Stay with MOVIEGUIDE® as we review each film upon release. We’ll tell you exactly what’s in it — so you can decide.
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +4