20th Century Fox Won't Show New Footage at Comic-Con 2016 Because of Piracy
It feels like we're at a turning point when it comes to San Diego Comic-Con and the way studios approach the convention. In terms of movies, I think the convention peaked around the time The Avengers united on stage for the first time, and it's been going downhill ever since — Marvel Studios didn't even bother to show up last year, and with Disney's D23 Expo and Star Wars Celebration splintering off into their own events, it seems that moments like last year's concert are going to be harder and harder to justify for studios. It's so expensive for them to pimp their movies there, and there's no guarantee of success outside of the con crowd — Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the prime example of this.
Now it looks like 20th Century Fox is going to be contributing to the con's decline for movie fans, because The Wrap reports that the studio will not be showing any exclusive footage because of fears that it will leak online. Of course it will leak online — that's a given at this point when people are streaming entire panels from inside the hall through Periscope. The studios should just be ready to upload everything they reveal in Hall H on YouTube immediately after it plays at the con, so the people who waited in line can be the first to witness it in person, and everyone else can see it online afterwards in a legitimate HD version instead of some crappy cam.
But it sounds like Fox isn't willing to do that, so fans won't get to see anything from Assassin's Creed, War For The Planet of The Apes, Deadpool 2, Wolverine 3, or any other geek-friendly movie they have in the pipeline. There are rumors that Disney might bail on this year's con as well, and that would be a huge blow for fandom: no Marvel, no Star Wars. For the record, Disney apparently denies this claim, but since they have their own conventions already, it almost doesn't make sense for them to trot things out at SDCC anymore. The only major players left are going to be Warner Bros. and the DC Extended Universe movies and maybe Paramount's Transformers and G.I. Joe properties, and while the diehard fans are still going to show up at the con regardless of which studios bring content, it seems like the Golden Age of Comic-Con is in the past.