Part 2/17:
Throughout CinemaCon, there was an unsettling pattern: industry executives fixated on protecting outdated business models and promoting ideological narratives, ostensibly to save theatergoing. This is so pervasive that their panel titles alone—longer and more elaborate than the sessions themselves—serve as a metaphor for their complex grasp on reality. Instead of confronting the problems facing cinemas, they focus on what they think is needed to "save" them: longer windows, gimmicky theater experiences, or marketing strategies rooted in nostalgia.