Day Four of CinemaCon 2026 belonged to the House of Mouse, and if you had any doubt that Disney still runs this town — well, they spent about ninety minutes making sure you didn’t leave with that delusion intact. Walt Disney Studios took over the Dolby Colosseum at Caesars Palace for their annual theatrical showcase, which is less a film presentation and more a full-scale corporate coronation, complete with celebrity cameos, carefully scripted banter, and enough IP to choke a screaming child in a Goofy hat.
Leading the charge was Alan Bergman, Chairman of Disney Entertainment, who wasted no time reminding the assembled exhibitors whose been feeding them. Zootopia 2 crossed $1.9 billion globally, becoming the biggest Hollywood animated film of all time. Avatar: Fire and Ash pushed the franchise to $6.7 billion. Disney has been number one at the global box office for nine of the past ten years. These facts were delivered not so much as information but as a warning. Bergman handed the stage to the presentation’s MCs: Andrew Cripps, Head of Distribution, and Matt Kalavsky, SVP General Sales Manager, who guided exhibitors through the slate with the practiced enthusiasm of men who know their bonuses depend on it.
The Mandalorian & Grogu
Director Jon Favreau took the stage to introduce the feature film continuation of the Disney+ series, and the room was sold out the second Baby Yoda — sorry, *Grogu* — appeared on screen. Favreau spoke with genuine warmth about his love of Star Wars, recounting how his father took him to see the original and how he later worked as an usher for Return of the Jedi. It’s a good story. He’s told it before.
The film stars Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian and Jeremy Allen White in an undisclosed role, with Sigourney Weaver playing a New Republic official who gives Mando his bounty missions. The score is by three-time Academy Award winner Ludwig Göransson, and Dave Filoni serves as second-unit director. Favreau noted that the production boasts over 49 minutes of expanded aspect-ratio footage shot specifically for IMAX, along with practical sets, stop-motion creature work, and motion-control miniatures.
We were shown the final trailer and the first fifteen minutes of the film. The verdict? As I said on the Film Threat Livecast right afterward: “If you just forget that the first six movies exist, you’re gonna say Mandalorian looks pretty good.” Chris Gore put it more bluntly: “This movie is for kids. It truly is.” The opening sequence is pure Indiana Jones structure — Mando takes out an imperial warlord, reports back to Weaver’s character, gets his next assignment, and a shiny new Razor Crest as a down payment. The effects look big. The story, as Chris put it, “felt very small and episodic.” His exact words: “This may as well be the Star Wars Outlaw full motion video story wraparounds to a video game.” Regarding Sigourney Weaver’s casting, one viewer in our chat said she’s miscast—and honestly, we agreed. She’s very Sigourney Weaver in it.
The Mandalorian & Grogu opens May 22.
Toy Story 5
The nostalgia bomb of the afternoon arrived in the form of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, taking the CinemaCon stage together for the first time ever. Their riff on the indignity of aging was genuinely funny — Allen admitted he wasn’t wearing compression socks when they made the first one; Hanks noted that watching their early footage made them look like their own grandchildren. The Pixar team back home was praised lavishly — “each one of them is sort of like a Walt Disney unto themselves,” as Hanks put it while quite clearly reading from a teleprompter.
An exclusive clip was shown. Pixar remains technically extraordinary. Whether the world needed a fifth Toy Story is a question no one at this presentation was prepared to ask.
Toy Story 5 opens June 19.
Moana (Live Action)
Dwayne Johnson arrived like he always does — enormous, charismatic, completely in command of the room — to present the live-action remake of the 2016 animated hit. Johnson, reprising his role as the demigod Maui, delivered a heartfelt speech about his late grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, whose spirit he says inspired the character a decade ago. He held up a photograph. People cried. This is what Dwayne Johnson does, and he is very, very good at it.
Johnson then introduced Catherine Laga’aia, the 19-year-old Australian-Samoan actress playing Moana, who was 17 during principal photography. It’s her first major film role. Laga’aia said simply, “It’s been a complete dream come true to be a part of this moment. I grew up watching Moana with my family, and now I get to be a part of her story.” She received the 2026 CinemaCon Rising Star Award later that evening. A sneak peek was shown.
Moana (Live Action) opens July 2026.
The Dog Stars (20th Century Studios)
From 20th Century Studios comes the first of two literary adaptations on the slate. Based on Peter Heller‘s acclaimed 2012 post-apocalyptic novel, The Dog Stars is directed by Ridley Scott — who appeared via video message because he’s Ridley Scott and he’s always in the middle of something. The film stars Jacob Elordi as Hig, a young pilot surviving the end of the world alongside a paranoid survivalist played by Josh Brolin. The ensemble includes Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney, and Benedict Wong. Scott described it as an “intense epic thriller set in a world where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice.” The man made Gladiator and Blade Runner, so the bar is set.
The Dog Stars opens August 2026.
Whalefall (20th Century Studios)
Also from 20th Century Studios, Whalefall is adapted from Daniel Kraus‘s novel — reportedly inspired by a viral video of kayakers being swallowed by a whale, which is either terrifying or the best pitch meeting in publishing history. Written and directed by Brian Duffield, the film stars Austin Abrams as Jay Gardner, a young man who dives searching for his missing father (also played by Josh Brolin, who apparently signed a deal to appear in every 20th Century film this year) and ends up trapped inside a sperm whale with one hour of oxygen. A scene screened for exhibitors.
Whalefall opens October 2026.
Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight Pictures)
This one earned genuine curiosity. Martin McDonagh — writer-director of In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and The Banshees of Inisherin — returns with a dark comedy set during the 1973 Chilean coup. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play CIA officers dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, played by Steve Buscemi, with Tom Waits and Parker Posey completing a cast that reads like someone’s dream dinner party. An exclusive clip was shown for the room. McDonagh’s track record makes this the most intriguing non-IP offering on the entire Disney slate.
Wild Horse Nine opens November 6.
Also in the Pipeline
A few titles got brief mentions without major presentations. Behemoth, written and directed by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Andor) and starring Pedro Pascal, is coming. Sweetie, starring Cate Blanchett, is on the way. And Broken Lizard‘s Super Troopers 3 arrives in August, which either sounds like exactly what you want or exactly what you don’t, with no middle ground.
Hexed (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
The Thanksgiving offering from Walt Disney Animation Studios introduces Billy, a teenage girl from a boring town who accidentally discovers she’s a witch and gets pulled into a hidden magical realm — accompanied, against her will, by her uptight mother. This is either the studio’s most relatable premise in years or a formula so familiar it could write itself. The saving grace is the voice cast: Hailee Steinfeld as Billy and Rashida Jones as her mother — an inspired pairing that could genuinely elevate the material. An exclusive first-look clip was screened.
Hexed opens November 25.
Ice Age: Boiling Point
It has been ten years since Manny, Sid, Diego, and Ellie last appeared on a big screen. A decade. Long enough, apparently, to warrant a return trip. Ray Romano, Denis Leary, and Queen Latifah took the stage to herald Ice Age: Boiling Point, the sixth installment in a franchise that has collectively earned over $3.2 billion globally. The new adventure takes the herd to “the Lost World,” featuring an active volcano and a baby Scrat. Leary admitted he couldn’t read the back teleprompters. Romano noted he’s now a grandfather and can’t wait to show the new one this movie.
In the theater, the response to the Ice Age footage was genuinely warm. As Chris Gore noted on the livecast: “These were the faithful, and they ate up everything.” The Disney CinemaCon crowd cheers for Ice Age the way a sports crowd cheers for a returning veteran. Whether the rest of the world still cares in February 2027 is the actual question.
Ice Age: Boiling Point opens February 5, 2027.
Gatto (Pixar)
Pixar will release Gatto on March 5, 2027 — an original animated film centered on an “adorable and mischievous black cat.” That’s the whole pitch right now. After the studio’s recent billion-dollar resurgence, Pixar has earned the benefit of the doubt. For now.
Avengers: Doomsday
And then the machine delivered its biggest gear.
Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios — introduced as “the architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe” — took the stage to announce that Avengers: Endgame would return to theaters in September as an “Infinity Vision” release, with new footage and, Feige teased, “a few new surprises.” Before the main event, Feige unveiled “Infinity Vision” — Marvel’s new premium large format branding, announced with considerable fanfare. As Chris Gore explained on the livecast: “They don’t have access to IMAX screens because Spider-Man Part Three has them.” Infinity Vision is, as Chris put it, “just something Marvel made up” — a rating system for large screens with premium sound, invented to compensate for the IMAX lockout. “It sounds like a BS thing,” he said. He’s not wrong, but the exhibitors in the room seemed happy to have a new marketing hook, which is exactly who Infinity Vision is designed for.
Feige brought out Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, and now Avengers: Doomsday. Anthony Russo called Victor Von Doom “the greatest Marvel villain of all time — greater than Thanos.” The Russos spoke about bringing the Avengers and the X-Men together on screen for the very first time.
Then the room lost its mind.
Robert Downey Jr. appeared — dramatically, from the back of the Dolby Colosseum — not as Tony Stark, but as Doctor Doom. He teased spoilers. He showed footage. He introduced a new trailer. And then, trading on fifteen years of cinematic history, he brought out Chris Evans — Steve Rogers, Captain America, back in the fight. Evans told the crowd, “I said I would only come back if there was a real reason, and in Doomsday, there is a very real reason that these heroes need Steve Rogers.”
As for what was actually in the trailer: Doom stopping Thor’s axe Stormbreaker cold in its tracks. Cyclops going full Cyclops. Professor X and Magneto. Shang-Chi versus Gambit. Mystique impersonating Yelena. It was, as I put it on the livecast, “like a picture of steak. You’re looking at a really nice slab of steak and you want to eat it.” Chris Gore was measured: “I don’t think the trailer is a fail… I do think this is a good teaser trailer.” But he added: “We didn’t really see enough to judge.” No story revealed. Doom is bad. The heroes are assembling. December 18 is coming.
Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, 2026. In Infinity Vision, whatever that means.
Disney’s CinemaCon 2026 presentation was exactly what it always is: overwhelming, impressive, occasionally moving, and just slightly exhausting. They have sequels, remakes, reboots, re-releases, and exactly enough genuine surprises — McDonagh’s dark comedy, Ridley Scott back in survival sci-fi, the Ice Age crew aging alongside their audience — to keep things from feeling entirely like a content delivery system.
The machine runs. The calendar fills. The screens will not be dark.
Whether any of it is art is somebody else’s problem.
