Will 2026 be the long-awaited rebound for movie theaters?

As cinema owners and Hollywood executives converged on Las Vegas for the annual CinemaCon trade convention last week, a rare sentiment was emerging — hope

- By Samantha Masunaga

After just one day at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, there was a palpable sense of relief in the air.

Attendance at this year’s show was up about 5% from last year, according to Cinema United, the trade group that organizes the four-day convocation of thousands of movie theater owners, studio executives and industry folks at Caesars Palace.

Groups of people wearing orange-colored lanyards were everywhere throughout the hotel and casino, with many filling the Colosseum on April 13 for a presentation from specialty film companies Angel Studios, Sony Pictures Classics and StudioCanal.

“The energy in every room reflected a sector that believes deeply in its own future,” said Stephanie Silverman, owner of the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville who serves on Cinema United's strategic planning committee. “For independents, that sense of collective purpose is powerful — we're not just holding on, we're building toward something real and lasting.”

Amid such upbeat sentiment, CinemaCon allows theater owners and their business partners to see what’s coming from each studio and get a snapshot of the year ahead.

Provo, Utah-based Angel Studios showed footage from its upcoming film “Young Washington,” about the early life of the first U.S. president, as well as a trailer from an animated retelling of George Orwell's “Animal Farm.”