Hollywood strikes back: San Diego Comic-Con to have major star power this year
SAN DIEGO — Hollywood is so back.
San Diego Comic-Con International this week will be a star-studded affair again after a year with no actors. The biggest pop culture film outfit of them all — Marvel Studios — will be on hand and some of the world’s biggest movie stars, like Ryan Reynolds, are confirmed to attend.
It was only 12 months ago when one publication declared “Comic-Con 2023 in shambles” as a writer and actor strike resulted in all major studios pausing plans. It wasn’t a disaster: The event still sold out, hotel owners didn’t report cancellations and free outside attractions were bigger than ever.
Still, the San Diego Convention Center’s 135,000 attendees are likely more excited this year with the biggest franchises, from “Star Trek” to “The Walking Dead,” descending on America’s Finest City from July 24 to July 28. Not to mention everyday San Diegans having a (slim) shot at running into Hugh Jackman, Chris Hemsworth and Rebecca Ferguson.
Heidi MacDonald, editor of the comic book news website The Beat, said a down year at the box office — where predicted hits like “Mad Max: Furiousa” bombed — is clearly not enough of a reason for Hollywood to stay home.
“Having an event like San Diego Comic-Con, where you get everybody together and it gets so much attention, is really irresistible,” she said of studios.
Another thing that makes the Hollywood presence even sweeter: Early predictions questioned if studios would feel like showing up after box office woes and diminishing returns for streaming ventures. That fear evaporated quickly as the schedule for the 6,500-seat Hall H was released and fans could see the biggest studios were back.
Hall H has reached legendary status in pop culture and can create incredible buzz for projects, MacDonald said. It was where “The Avengers” cast made its first appearance, where Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill reunited onstage for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and countless other moments.
A Comic-Con appearance isn’t always a slam dunk for movie studios. In 2022, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson dressed up as his character from the Warner Bros. film “Black Adam” and was raised up on a platform — with a fog machine and lightning display — above the Hall H crowd. The stunt was one of the most talked about, and photographed, events of the convention. Yet the movie, about a lesser known, not particularly popular comic book villain, was a box office bomb.
“Comic-Con cannot make a movie that no one wants to see a hit,” MacDonald said. “But it can create buzz and excitement (for a movie or TV show) and that is really hard to do these days.”
Comic-Con is hoping this year is more of a return to form. It went online-only for two years during the pandemic. When it returned in 2022, there were strict mask and vaccination requirements, and many properties decided to skip the convention floor out of an abundance of caution. Last year was supposed to be the return to normal. Then, the strikes happened.
“My hope is people will look at this show in the same light as 2019 and the shows before then as well,” said David Glanzer, chief communications and strategy officer for Comic-Con. “We want people to have a great time, and the way it’s shaping up, we’re going to have that this year — better than in previous years.”
For locals who couldn’t care less about superheroes, the economic impact of the convention continues, with sales and hotel tax revenue that filters down to everything from road repairs to libraries.
San Diego State University estimates the impact of the convention is more than $165 million in overall spending with more than $90 million in direct attendee spending. That takes into account hotel stays, restaurants and numerous businesses that surround it.
For San Diegans without a ticket who want to experience the 55th Comic-Con, expect plenty to do outside. It’s hard to forget past highlights: HBO building a small castle in the Gaslamp Quarter for “House of the Dragon”; Warner Bros. constructing a Superman statue in front of the Omni Hotel; and FX building a mini-Japanese village for the “Shōgun” show near the waterfront.
It’s still somewhat of a mystery what will show up this week, with promoters covering sites with barriers to avoid spoiling the surprise. Some other activations, such as Hulu Animation’s waterfront installation, have already started promoting.
Another draw is the increasingly elaborate building wraps, which cover much of the Gaslamp Quarter and beyond. New York-based KAP Media Group, the main company that does the wraps, said it will have its most ever with 25. That’s up from 23 last year, and 18 in 2022.
KAP founder Lori Brabant didn’t want to give much away, other than to keep an eye for AMC, with its “Interview with the Vampire,” “The Walking Dead” and “Orphan Black” shows. She said the entertainment company went to great lengths to create detailed artwork around the hotels and other buildings.
Getting a last-minute ticket or hotel room will be difficult. There were 14 tickets for sale last week on secondary ticket platform Vivid Seats. Single-day passes started at $330 before fees, and there was a four-day pass going for $715.
San Diego County’s biggest hotel, the 1,628-room Manchester Grand Hotel, was booked up far in advance. General manager Dena Roady said the majority of the rooms, 1,400, are set aside at lower rates for Comic-Con attendees.
The hotel will be hosting a major Comic-Con event in its Harbor Ballroom this year — the Her Universe fashion show on Thursday night. Fan-favorite actress Ashley Eckstein, known most for her voice role of Ahsoka Tano in “Star Wars” shows, started the event, which features 25 designers showcasing fandom-inspired wears. This year’s theme: Barbie.
Comic-Con staying through 2026, but what next?
There’s a bit of a dark cloud over the convention this year, despite Hollywood’s triumphant return. Comic-Con organizers announced earlier this month that they would stay in San Diego until 2026 but balked at signing a longer contract.
For a city that has lost two professional sports teams to Los Angeles, any perceived departure can seem like an Avengers-level threat.
The issue, the organization said, was some hotels are hesitant to agree to offer discounted room rates. Each year, roughly 60 hotels, largely in downtown San Diego and Mission Valley, agree to provide discounted room rates. It is typically a fair trade-off for hotels: They lose potential money on some rooms, but can charge a lot for the remaining ones and make money selling conference space and other promotions.
The tourism authority had asked Comic-Con to sign a contract that would keep them in San Diego until 2027, but that didn’t happen.
Carl Winston, founding director of the Payne School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at San Diego State University, said he mainly considers Comic-Con’s frequent threats to leave as a negotiating tactic and has a hard time believing it would split town.
“If this was in L.A., how spread out would it have to be and what would happen to the feel of the event?” Winston said. “It would just evaporate.”
He said in San Diego, you can get from the airport to the convention in 10 minutes, walk to your hotel or to get food in the Gaslamp, and easily get to off-site installations.
Over the course of the past decade, San Diego Comic-Con has been growing more and more outside the actual event, with arguably more activities outside the Convention Center than inside. The largest free interactive installations usually take up the entire Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade, San Diego Children’s Park and San Diego Bayfront Park. Many official panels and events — for ticket holders — are inside hotels this year: Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, Manchester Grand Hyatt’s Harbor Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront’s Indigo Ballroom and Omni San Diego Hotel.
A frequent complaint over the years by Comic-Con is that they are limited to 135,000 attendees because the Convention Center is too small (New York Comic Con is now the biggest comic convention in the U.S. with roughly 200,000 attendees). Winston said an argument could be made that, with the addition of all the hotel space around the convention center, San Diego Comic-Con has a much larger footprint than it says and would be hard-pressed to find something similar in Anaheim or Los Angeles.
Comic-Con has seen its finances improve since the pandemic, something that might stop it from doing something rash like leave. The nonprofit organization, which also runs Anaheim’s Wonder Con, brought in $26.6 million in program service revenue in 2022, according to its tax filings. It was an improvement from the online conventions in 2020 and 2021 that brought in $4.8 million total. Tax returns for last year’s convention were not yet available.
What to expect
The most-watched panel this year will come from Marvel Studios on Saturday night. The studio has made Hall H appearances an art form with the biggest reveals and shock announcements.
Marvel Studios, for the first time, will have two panels and its Thursday night event — a late addition to the schedule — is highly sought after. The stars of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, will take over Hall H the week the movie opens. The entrance into Hall H for the panel was determined via a lottery for ticket holders.
The other big panel sure to gather interest is Amazon Prime’s “The Boys” on Friday morning. A wildly popular superhero spoof, “The Boys” has already announced almost all of its large cast for Hall H.
Other draws will be panels for “Transformers One,” an animated film for the robot franchise with Chris Hemsworth as voice talent, on Thursday; the zombie franchise “The Walking Dead” with two panels on Friday; the latest Alien film, “Alien: Romulus” on Friday; The Lord of the Rings show, “The Rings of Power,” on Friday; Paramount+ with several of its “Star Trek” shows on Saturday; and two “X-Men ’97” panels on Sunday for the animated hit.
“Game of Thrones” is the biggest absence this year, which typically goes all out for its series of shows. While its latest installment, “House of the Dragon,” is a ratings juggernaut — drawing 8.1 million viewers for its fourth episode, said Variety — it appears HBO decided to use its typical Saturday slot for a new Batman show, “The Penguin.” The Colin Farrell-led show is a spinoff of the 2022 film “The Batman.”
The wider DC film division, to which Batman is a part, will be absent. Although, that was expected as DC film chief James Gunn said on Threads back in March that he would not be able to go because he would be filming the new Superman movie at the time.
Disney-owned Lucasfilm will also not be at Comic-Con to break any news about the “Star Wars” universe. In recent years, it tends to do that at its own convention, Star Wars Celebration, and leave the other Disney property, Marvel, to shine in San Diego.