Posted in: Cinemacon, Dune, Legendary, Lucasfilm, Movies, Sony, TV, Warner Bros | Tagged: cinemacon

On the CinemaCon 2026 Opening Scenes: Dune, Star Wars and Spider-Verse

Dune: Part Three, The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse all showed off their opening scenes at CinemaCon. Let's talk about what they accomplished and what they didn't.

There are quite a few common occurrences at CinemaCon. There are usually people who break the rules against taking pictures and leaking footage, which makes it harder for those who actually follow the rules to do their jobs. There will be a movie or two that comes out of nowhere and changes the energy of the entire room. This year, the movie that pulled that move was probably Whalefall, a film whose sounds will be in my head for the next couple of months.  Lots of other movies showcased entire scenes, such as Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Toy Story 5, and others. It's very common for a scene to be paired with a new trailer or teaser. However, showing the opening is different because this is how everyone will experience the film; these are the minutes where everyone will or won't get on board in theaters, and they need to uniquely speak for themselves. Two, maybe three, different films; Dune: Part Three, The Mandalorian and Grogu, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (probably?) showed off their opening scenes, so let's talk about them.

Dune: Part Three is going to be an interesting beast for anyone who has read the book. In many ways, it's an extended epilogue with a lot of internal thoughts, and there are entire moments in the trailer and the opening scene footage where it's unclear which part of the book this is set in. We already know they are going in different directions because, at the end of the first movie, Chani didn't stick around to become Paul's concubine after he married Irulan. It didn't fit the character they portrayed in the other two movies.

We don't see any of the film's primary characters in its opening seven minutes. Instead, we are dropped into one of the fights in Paul's galaxy-wide jihad. The Freman are on a planet with rain, which is blowing their minds, and they are also getting slaughtered by a giant tower that may or may not be alive. It's a very harsh and bloody reminder of what Paul is leading these people into, following the events of the previous two films and even into Dune: Part Three. 

Star Wars is another major pillar of science fiction that is coming to the big screen this year. While Dune: Part Three seems like a sure thing, we live in a world where The Mandalorian and Grogu very much does not. They screened the first 20 minutes of the movie last night, which begins with a bounty mission Djin and Grogu were both on, followed by the opening credits. We then get the setup for how Djin gets his new ship and the mission that is likely kicking off the film's plot, such as how he got involved with the Hutts again. 

The frustrating thing about the footage from The Mandalorian and Grogu is that there's nothing technically wrong with it. It doesn't look bad; it's not badly shot, the special effects look pretty good, and the setup is exactly what you expect. The problem is that the expectations this time are for a major Star Wars film, not a streaming series, and there is a difference in scope. During the presentation, director Jon Favreau talked about how they had weeks to turn things around with the show, whereas with this, they had years. However, none of that is apparent on screen. There isn't a single piece of footage from this film that looks years better than the show. The single best shot we have seen from any footage of this film is a scene of the X-wings against the orange sun, which runs during the opening credits.

Finally, this one is a bit more ambiguous because we cannot, for the life of us, remember if they specifically said the scene they screened for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was the opening scene. It seems very well could be, since we were told this film picks up directly after the events of Across the Spider-Verse, but there could be a prologue with another character who will be there. Either way, we're going to mostly count it as the opening of the movie.

We've seen Beyond the Spider-Verse turn up a bunch at CinemaCon, and this time we got footage that looks a lot more complete than last year's. Sony released some images, but the footage we saw showed Miles facing an alternate version of himself and his uncle. The animation is stunning, and it has a great callback to the very beginning of this trilogy. Miles is attempting to explain what a canon event is to a version of himself who doesn't know what the multiverse is or what is going on. The whole thing is beautiful and a great way to open the film. It's unique, but with elements from the beginning of the interrogation of Peter B. Parker from the first film, it reminds us where we started and how we ended up here.

So what did these three opening scenes accomplish? Dune: Part Three did a good job of showcasing the film's scope while keeping all plot elements to itself. That is a good way to tease audiences while keeping them hungry for more. The Mandalorian and Grogu attempted to drop audiences in medias res, and while they don't do a bad job of it, the footage doesn't really prove why this film needed to be on the big screen. Finally, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse looks amazing, but that's about as surprising as the rising sun.

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