Sony Pictures kicked off CinemaCon wifh Paul Rudd and Jack Black from set of Anaconda to introduce Sony Pictures Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman. As in years prior, Rothman spoke passionately about cinema before jumping into Sony’s upcoming slate. Rothman began the presentation by quoting William Goldman, “Nobody knows anything” but that “Great filmmakers make great movies”, which set the tone that this year, their directors would be coming on stage to announce their projects.
First up was Danny Boyle talking and dropping the trailer for 28 Years Later which would complete his trilogy to the series. Boyle was then joined on stage by director Nia DeCosta for the 2026 release of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and for that film a creepy picture of actor Ralph Fiennes reminiscent of a war boy from Mad Max: Fury Road was shown.
One of the most successful franchises for Sony has been the Spider-Verse franchise. The first film in the trilogy, Spider-Man: Across Spider-Verse, won an Oscar so to talk about the upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse, Sony brought out producer Phil Lord and directors Justin K. Thompson and Bob Perischetti to show the first footage and announce the film’s release date which has been slated for June 4, 2027.
A first-time appearance for Darren Aronofsky at CinemaCon brought the trailer for Caught Stealing which played like a fun Guy Ritchie-inspired movie, based on the book by Charlie Huston and seems like quite the departure from Aronofsky’s more somber films.
Next, Sony revealed that the Resident Evil franchise will be rebooted and Barbarian director Zach Cregger is in charge of the adaptation. The previous big-screen adaptation of the popular PlayStation franchise was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and was criticized for not being true to the games. Cregger suggested that his film would be more loyal to the source material.
With a release date of September 2025, a film that is likely to make a run during awards season is A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. The project was announced by director Kogonada and stars A-listers Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. The film’s trailer revealed the plot which focuses on the idea of what if you could go back in time and revisit your past, but with a fresh take of bringing someone along the journey and having them witness it with you. This feels like a more dramatic romantic take of Back To The Future, but without a DeLorean and instead, going through magical doors.
Out from director Tyree Hillihay with a 2026 release date is a family animated film called Goat about a basketball-playing goat where being underrated is his superpower and loosely based on professional basketball player and producer Steph Curry who graced his presence on screen with a pre-recording.
Shifting from directors to Sony executives, President of Sony Pictures Releasing Adam Bergerman announced a few anime titles with footage, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, Chainsaw Man, and Scarlet. Bergerman also discussed Until Dawn by director David F. Sandberg, another Insidious sequel, and showed a debut trailer for I Know What You Did Last Summer showing the return of original cast members Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. and how they return to the franchise.
Sanford Panitch, President of Sony Motion Pictures took over to announce Klara and the Sun directed by Taika Waititi, and The Breadwinner which will star comedian Nate Bargatze. It was also revealed that Jake Kasdan will return with Jumanji 3 which has a release date in late 2026. For Sci-Fi fans, Neil Blomkamp will be directing a new film based on the cult-classic Starship Troopers but it was noted that the film would not be a remake. Sony also revealed that one of Nintendo’s biggest games of all time, The Legend of Zelda, will be finally turned into a feature film that will be directed by Wes Ball. Closing out this section of the Sony presentation was Karate Kid: Legends which was introduced with a Japanese drum ceremony and some martial arts, before actors Ben Wong and Ralph Macchio took to the stage to introduce two scenes and a new trailer.
As mentioned above, Spider-Man has consistently been the biggest franchise for Sony, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when they brought out director Destin Daniel Cretton to reveal that Spider-Man: Brand New Day was now in production. Cretton didn’t reveal the title himself but instead threw it to a video of a pre-recorded message from Peter Parker himself, Tom Holland.
However, Sony saved its biggest announcement for last when director Sam Mendes took to the stage alongside Tom Rothman to reveal The Beatles. It was noted that Mendes and Sony have obtained all of the music rights and although we’ve seen many films about The Beatles previously, this will be unlike anything we’ve seen before. The Beatles will be a four film series with each of the films being told from the point of view from each Beatle. The films will also be released simultaneously in April 2028. But that wasn’t all, the four actors were also announced, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and they came on stage briefly spoke channeling the Beatles and took a bow.
Talk about a great way to end a presentation and kick off CinemaCon 2025.
