The 15 movies we're most excited about after seeing footage at CinemaCon, the biggest movie-theater conference

hobbs and shaw universal

On Thursday, CinemaCon, the annual movie-theater conference, wrapped up in Las Vegas. And once again the big takeaway was that the major studios aren't abandoning their theatrical businesses any time soon.

The main purpose of CinemaCon — outside of taking countless meetings — is for studios to fly in with their stars in tow and give presentations that dazzle exhibitors about their upcoming slates of movies. This can range from trailers, to select scenes, to 15-20 minute sections of movies, and in some cases screenings of entire movies.

The goal for studios is to put on such a presentation that theaters don't just run their movies, but show them on multiple screens and over a long period of time. (Warner Bros.’ “A Star Is Born” was in theaters for 6 months!)

And this year, the studios came to Vegas with titles that could make 2019 as big or even bigger than the record-breaking box office ($11.9 billion domestic; $41.1 billion global) and tickets sold (263 million) in 2018.

After spending the last four days at CinemaCon, Business Insider returns with 15 movies that you shouldn’t miss:

Warning: Minor spoilers below

“Avengers: Endgame”

This one is kind of obvious. The anticipation for this movie is so huge that when advanced tickets for the movie went up earlier this week, it overworked the servers of most of the places you go to get online movie tickets.

At CinemaCon, we got to see around five minutes of the movie and it had the mixture of tension and dry comedy that is perfect for the chapter that follows the shocking end to “Infinity War.”

We have a feeling all that time you spent the other day trying to get an advanced ticket will be worth it.

In theaters: April 26

“Crawl”

I don’t really know if anything will prepare you for this movie. From producer Sam Raimi (“Evil Dead,” early 2000s “Spider-Man” franchise) and director Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes” 2006 remake, “Piranha 3D”), we follow a woman trying to rescue her father from his house as a hurricane is about to hit. But there’s only one problem: As the water rises, alligators are everywhere.

The first trailer of the movie was shown at CinemaCon and it has a mix of scares and hilarity as the leads (Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper) try to escape the countless alligators who are everywhere as the house is overcome by rising water. The gators are coming into the basement, busting through windows, and even swimming around the bathroom while the main character hides in the tub.

In theaters: July 12

“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”

Though the trailer already publicly released for this movie is crazy, wait until you see the one shown at CinemaCon.

The new one is less playful than the trailer now online. Sure, there is stuff that makes you laugh, like Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Shaw (Jason Statham) both battling bad guys in rooms divided by glass so both can see their handiwork (and Shaw having a tougher room than Hobbs). But there’s more of a sense of family. Shaw is trying to keep his sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) out of danger, while Hobbs’ Samoan family helps them fight the cyborg villain Brixton (Idris Elba).

In one amazing scene that really only works in the “Fast and Furious” universe, Hobbs and Shaw try to bring down Brixton in a helicopter with the tow truck they are in. The truck isn’t heavy enough, so the truck Hobbs and Shaw is in connects to another truck. That doesn’t work so they are able to attach to another truck. Oh yeah, and they are driving toward a cliff. It all leads to an incredible visual that would seem only possible for kids playing with toys in the backyard.

In theaters: August 2

See the rest of the story at Business Insider