The second full day CinemaCon just kicked off in Vegas with a presentation from Lionsgate celebrating their success in 2023 with the likes of the franchise of John Wick and The Hunger Games and what is to come in 2024 (even beyond 2025!!). With many first looks with trailers, clips, and featurettes exclusive for the CinemaCon audience, we were in for a massive treat.

The Lionsgate presentation started out with reel full of footage we’d see later on and in the presentation (and some we didn’t get a good look at but NOW WE SEE!). It was followed up with an announcement of many new franchises in the works at Lionsgate. While in the very early stages, these new franchises not only sound thrilling to see on the big screen in the future but will be an exciting partnership for Lionsgate and the team behind each franchise. Chad Stahelski will remain in the Lionsgate family as he directs the highly anticipated Highlander films. These films have been in discussion with Stahelski for quite some time, but thrilling to hear it is moving forward as a planned franchise. Later in the presentation, Henry Cavill, the star of the franchise, says he’s a big fan of the original Highlander movie, “for better or worse.” He teases incredible sword work in the upcoming film. “You haven’t seen anything yet.” Daniel Destin Cretton will be writing and directing the Naruto live action film for Lionsgate and they are confident this will be a new franchise for the studio. Jason Blum in the Lionsgate x Blumhouse deal will be producing a reboot of The Blair Witch as a new franchise. And the biggest reaction for a new franchise announcement went to the partnership of Margot Robbie, LuckyChap, and Lionsgate teaming up for a Monopoly set of films. Robbie is confirmed to produce the films in development.

Up first for footage of films releasing in 2024 was The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare from Guy Ritchie, which is set to open next week. While some have already seen the film, Lionsgate followed it up with a trailer for a new Ritchie and Cavill film coming in 2025. In the Grey also stars Eiza González, Rosamund Pike and Jake Gyllenhaal and will release in theaters in January 2025. The footage shown was a high octane action feast typical of Ritchie. Cavill was on hand to discuss what keeps him working with Ritchie, his facial hair, and a bit about Highlander.

Lionsgate then transitioned to the scares with footage of the first of three Stranger films we’ll get this summer. These are prequel stories and tease how the Strangers came to be. Footage shown of The Strangers: Chapter 1 was incredibly tense and brutal; it will be very interesting to see how this is told over three films in one year. The footage evoked the same eery feelings the original film brought out in audiences of ‘is that a noise or just our house?’ Our favorite killers in masks were on stage to terrify the audience into the mindset of the film itself.

Up next, we had Eli Roth and Ariana Greenblatt on hand to chat about the new trailer for Borderlands, which was met with quite the enthusiastic response from the audience. The film looks massive in scale with Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Greenblatt having a ton of fun alongside the rest of the ensemble cast. As someone unfamiliar with the source material, I can’t comment on the vision brought to life, but looks like it will be a fun time in theaters in August. Roth had a fun time discussing Blanchett training with guns and her eagerness to take this on. The director also spoke so highly of Greenblatt, who shot Borderlands before Barbie. Borderlands will definitely be a fun time in the cinema.

Highly anticipated for me, The Crow was introduced next. Lionsgate Chief Adam Fogelson talks about how The Crow has been circling around Hollywood for decades now until this version came to Lionsgate from director Rupert Sanders and stars Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs. Fogelson spent quite a bit of time confirming this is not a remake of the Brandon Lee film but a reimagining of the comic book series. The new trailer starts off with a bang and gives much more of a backstory to the relationship of Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (Twigs). The Crow looks absolutely brutal with intense violence much more visceral than most comic book adaptations. Skarsgård seems much in his element to not only be a brooding leading man but also a visceral action star. Whatever your thoughts are on this film, The Crow will definitely be an intense, blood-soaked experience at the theaters this August.

Directed by Alexandre Aja, Never Let Go follows a mother and her two sons in an apocalyptic world trying to survive and stars Academy Award Winner Halle Berry. The film was described by Berry, on hand to discuss the project, as a beautiful nightmare and she spoke at length about wanting to do a horror/thriller film about mothers. The trailer is full of tension, suspense, and still leaves so much to be answered when audiences see the film in theaters in September.

Adapted from a novel of the same name, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever opens in theaters in November and CinemaCon audiences were treated to a first look at the trailer. The film stars Judy Greer and Pete Holmes as a couple who are putting on the Christmas Pageant in their town despite some hijinks. It looks like a potential family going hit when it opens up in theaters the month before Christmas. The Killer’s Game brings Dave Bautista back to Lionsgate as he stars in the film as a hit man who gets some unfortunate news. He finds out he has a terminal illness and sets up a hit on himself to die quickly. When he finds out he’s not sick, he has to call it off, but the rest of the assassins are too keen on taking him out. The film also stars Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Ben Kingsley, and Pom Klementieff.

A trailer was shown for a new Mark Wahlberg film directed by Mel Gibson that seems to spend most of the runtime contained on a tiny plane. Flight Risk also stars Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace and will open in 2025. Shadow Force stars Kerry Washington, Omar Sy, and Academy Award Winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph in what seems like a standard spy thriller. Mark Strong rounds out the cast as the boss of the secret spy organization.

Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut, Good Fortune, was met with huge laughs and applause not only after the trailer ended, but throughout Ansari on stage discussing his career, the film, and process of getting Keanu Reeves in the film. Good Fortune stars Seth Rogen, Reeves, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, and Ansari. Reeves is a guardian angel to Ansari’s character who is down on his luck, sleeping in his car, and tired of working for rich people. Ansari spoke at length about how theatrical comedy is not dead and he’s so excited to have this film be in theaters.

John Wick Presents Ballerina is still in production with the original Wick team producing some big action set pieces, but Lionsgate still treated the CinemaCon audience to a thrilling first trailer. Ana de Armas stars in the spinoff film that is set between the third and fourth installment of the John Wick franchise. The trailer featured many of our favorite Wick characters and locations as well as de Armas being an absolute badass on par with the original franchise. The Baba Yaga does make an appearance in the footage we saw, so stay tuned Wick fans for more John!

Lionsgate rounded out their presentation with a first look at Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic currently shooting as we speak. The footage shown makes the film feel a cradle to grave biopic showing a very young Michael up to around at least in the late 80’s. The film will feature at least 30 songs and per the producer on hand, ‘acknowledges the accusations and complicated nature of Jackson’s life, and promises it will be a part of the film.’ It’s hard to comment on the quality of what we saw because the film is clearly still in production, while some shots seemed pretty standard for a musician biopic, there were some impressive shots. Antoine Fuqua’s Michael will release on April 18, 2025.