CinemaCon brings serious star power to Las Vegas

It isn’t the biggest convention in town. Heck, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, with approximately 5,000 attendees, it doesn’t even crack the top 50.

But for sheer star power, nothing in Las Vegas — at least until Floyd Mayweather Jr. steps into the ring with Conor McGregor — can top CinemaCon.

The annual convention of the National Association of Theater Owners will bring some of the biggest names in the world to Caesars Palace from Monday through Thursday to tout their upcoming movies in front of theater owners and their representatives.

And 2017 will have more studios than ever showing off their stars. Joining Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros. and relative newcomer STX will be first-time attendees Amazon and Focus Features.

Last year brought out the likes of Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Hart, Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and Margot Robbie. Previous years have included everyone from Clint Eastwood to Sacha Baron Cohen, in character from his movie “The Dictator.”

And while the organization likes to keep a tight lid on the celebrities who will be attending each year, it’s already announced the winners of its annual Big Screen Achievement Awards, many of whom traditionally make the People’s Choice Awards look like the Nobel Prize.

Based off the announced winners of the annual Big Screen Achievement Awards, John Cena, Charlie Hunnam, Salma Hayek, Jessica Chastain, Goldie Hawn, Naomi Watts and Jordan Peele — the “Get Out” writer-director and one-half of Key and Peele — will be making at least one appearance inside the Colosseum.

None of the CinemaCon events are open to the public, but you never know who you’ll run into — sometimes literally — around the resort.

One year, I was hurrying through the Appian Way Shops to get to a presentation when the woman in front of me stopped short and bent over to adjust her shoe. I mumbled something unflattering while swerving to avoid a collision. Then I looked back and saw who it was: “Hunger Games” star and “Pitch Perfect 2” director Elizabeth Banks.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch.