The reaction to Avengers: Doomsday at CinemaCon is now getting questioned, with Puck News’ Matthew Belloni openly wondering if Disney stacked the room with influencers and paid plants to help juice the response to the footage shown in Las Vegas.
Reports from CinemaCon said the trailer drew a huge reaction and was even played twice for the crowd, which makes Belloni’s comments all the more interesting.
Doomsday hype in question
On his YouTube podcast The Town, Belloni spoke with The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins from The Big Picture while recapping CinemaCon and ranking the studio presentations.
Belloni asked the pair, “Do you believe that all the hoop… the people that were hooting and screaming, do you believe they were paid plants?”
Fennessey said he “genuinely doesn’t know.”
Belloni then added: “Because we talk about this a little on The Big Picture. Disney denies it, but there were clearly influencers there.”
That’s when Dobbins backed up part of Belloni’s point.
“Yes, absolutely,” Dobbins responded, confirming influencers were there. “There was a core group of people who were given access to CinemaCon who were not there last year, and who were very clearly given access because of their particular interest in Doomsday…”
Belloni interjected: “And in it wasn’t just that…”
“It was fanboy culture,” said Dobbins.
“It was the genre stuff,” said Belloni.
Was the CinemaCon reaction real or manufactured?
Fennessey pushed back a bit and suggested he wasn’t all that bothered by it.
“The thing is I don’t I think at my heart I don’t really care if they were there and paid,” he said.
Belloni cut in and explained why he thinks it matters.
“I do. If they’re gaming the system and then these outlets are reporting on the ovations and buzz then that’s fake,” said Belloni.
Fennessey continued and defended what went down at CinemaCon, “But that just means it’s incumbent upon us to say what we think is really happening. To me, this is a trade show. The studios should be doing everything they can to generate excitement for their movies, even if they have to pay people to do it.”
Belloni shot back, “But that crowd is famously not a fanboy crowd. It is a business crowd. It is not a hot room, as they say. You’ve got to really be impressed or bring in a big star in order to get attention. And if you’re just going to pay influencers to cheer at your trailer, then what’s the point of it?”
Amanda Dobbins says Disney’s presentation felt forced
Dobbins then got even more blunt about how Disney’s whole presentation came across in the room.
“I think that Disney is at number four for both me and Sean because in that moment, in the room, it felt, if not fake, than forced…” she said.
Fennessey agreed, “Manufactured.”
Dobbins continued, “The whole presentation to me felt like reheating a souffle… which is I know what Hollywood is at this point…”
Belloni then added, “Welcome to Disney in 2026… it wasn’t being impressive to people who weren’t being paid.”
Maybe Disney should release the Avengers: Doomsday CinemaCon trailer so we can all find out for ourselves?
