Aksarben Cinema: CinemaCon 2013 Pt. 2

My CinemaCon 2013 Pt. 1 post concluded with our Tuesday night screening of The Heat starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. So now we jump into Wednesday!

We started the day with a seminar on "Meeting the Expectations of Today's Savvy Moviegoer". Not to toot our own horn, but we already have a lot of their ideas in place. They focused a lot on community involvement, doing specialty screenings for local organizations, and becoming a vibrant gathering space. We did take away some new ideas, and look forward to continuing to grow in this area in the coming months.

Next came one of the presentations I was most looking forward to, Disney. I am a sucker for Pixar films and couldn't wait for our screening of Monsters University, which did not disappoint. They also presented the following titles The Lone Ranger (which looked fantastic & Johnny Depp made an appearance), Planes (opening Aug. 9th), Delivery Man (starring Vince Vaughn & opening in October), Thor: The Dark World (opening in November), Frozen (opening Thanksgiving weekend), and finishing the year with Saving Mr. Banks starring Tom Hanks. Saving Mr. Banks is the story of how Mary Poppins made it to the big screen.

Following the studio presentation, we were off to the Filmmakers' Luncheon, which featured Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi, and Oliver Stone. They discussed the horror genre of films, and how they grew up loving movies. This is becoming one of my favorite highlights each year at CinemaCon.

This lead us into the Sony Pictures studio presentation. They kicked off their presentation with After Earth starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith, which opens May 31st. On June 14th, This is the End, starring James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, "follows 6 friends trapped inside a house after a series of strange events devastate Los Angeles". They also have White House Down (opening June 28th), Grown Ups 2 (opening July 12th & they brought out the whole cast!), The Smurfs 2 (opening July 31st), Elysium starring Matt Damon (opening August 9th), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (opening August 23rd), and The Monuments Men (opening December 18th). In 2014 they will bring us RoboCop, The Equalizer, Popeye, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

Our final day, Thursday, included 2 studio presentations, and the final night Achievement Awards. The first presentation was from 20th Century Fox. Their summer kicks off with the animated film Epic (opening May 24th), The Internship starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson (opening June 7th), The Heat (two thumbs up from us! opening June 28th), Turbo (opening July 17th), The Wolverine (opening July 26th), and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (opening August 7th). The next presentation was from the studio that brought you The Hunger Games, Lionsgate. They kick off their summer season with Now You See Me starring Morgan Freeman, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Mark Ruffalo. Now You See Me is about a team of illusionists in a cat and mouse game with the FBI, and opens on May 31st. The rest of their year includes Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain opening July 3rd (Kevin Hart emceed their presentation), Red 2 (opening July 19th), You're Next (opening August 23rd), Escape Plan (opening September 27th), and Ender's Game (opening November 1st). This brings us to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire which opens November 23rd. I don't know about you, but November 23rd can't get here soon enough. They also round out the holiday season with Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas which opens on December 13th.

Now on to my favorite part, the awards show, but first my funny story about meeting Elizabeth Banks. I knew she was receiving an award that night for "Award of Excellence in Acting" and my goal was to meet her. Before the awards started, I headed towards the women's restroom, and guess who I see washing her hands?! I go straight to the sink and wash my hands next to her and let her know I love her. Most people may think it is weird to say that to someone you don't know, but I really do love her. She told me she loved me back, so that was good enough for me!

The award honorees were as follows:

Breakthrough Filmmaker of the Year- Joseph Gordon- Levitt

Breakthrough Performer of the Year- Aubrey Plaza

Cinema Icon Award- Morgan Freeman

Male Star of Tomorrow- Armie Hammer

Female Star of Tomorrow- Hailee Steinfeld

Director of the Year- Justin Lin

Rising Star of 2013- Asa Butterfield

Award of Excellence in Acting- Elizabeth Banks

Comedy Duo of the Year- Owen Wilson & Vince Vaughn

Lifetime Achievement Award- Harrison Ford

Male Star of the Year- Chris Pine