Last night in Sao Paulo, Brazil, CCXP (Comic-Con Experience) opened their doors to preview night for the first time. While the biggest Comic-Con in South America has been running for a few years now, this is the first year they’re doing a preview night like San Diego Comic-Con, and based on the crowds, I’m pretty sure this is the new norm.
If you’re not familiar with CCXP, the con was started by my friends at Omelete in Sao Paulo a few years ago to try and bring a big Comic-Con like the one in San Diego to Brazil. While they were nervous it would take a few years to grow to a respectable size, even in their first year, the con was a smashing success. Last year they had 200,000 people attend the four-day con, and this year they’re expecting it to be 20% bigger which includes 60,000 people a day!
Before the con started the four-day badges and a few of the single day badges had already sold out. It’s an incredible success story and it also explains why so many movie studios and entertainment partners have large booths and panels where they will world premiere footage from some of the biggest films and series coming next year. While I can’t reveal what’s coming, it’s the kind of stuff people would camp out overnight in San Diego to see.
Anyway, while walking around before the convention yesterday (at times before the doors opened which explains why it was empty) I was able to take hundreds of pictures. While I normally don’t take so many pictures of what is being sold at a con, I figure almost none of the Collider readers are here and wanted to show everyone as much as I could. Besides the cool merchandise, you can check out the movie studio booths which include Warner Bros., Netflix, Sony, Marvel, HBO and 20th Century Fox. As you’ll see in the pics, the studios are promoting Ready Player One, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, other Marvel movies, Rampage, Jumanji, Bright, Deadpool 2 (including the free tattoo parlor), New Mutants, Tomb Raider, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Westworld, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Okja, Star Trek: Discovery, and so much more. In addition, Netflix world premiered the costumes from Altered Carbon in a cool display and with the streaming service hosting a panel this weekend, I’m very confident they’re going to world premiere a full trailer for one of my most anticipated shows of 2018.
Besides newer movies and TV series, the studios brought plenty of props and cool stuff from things like Supernatural, Justice League, X-Men: Apocalypse, and so much more. Like I said, CCXP is as close to San Diego Comic-Con as I’ve ever seen.
One of the big surprises at the con were the various food options. It seems like they have a lot of interesting vendors in attendance which includes food trucks and mainstream fare like pizza and hamburgers. It’s a lot more options than San Diego and it’s something that SDCC should actually look into. I know San Diego doesn’t have many areas to house food trucks and inside the con it's packed wall to wall, but I’d love for them to find a place to raise the bar.
Which brings me to another thing CCXP actually does better than San Diego: the width of the convention floor aisles. Unlike San Diego, which is packed together, CCXP expanded the aisles this year to allow for more foot traffic and it absolutely works. Even when a booth is crowded it’s incredibly easy to navigate and get to where you want to go. Granted it’s not Saturday and the convention wasn’t sold out last night, but even when I was surrounded by people it’s never claustrophobic like San Diego. Again, I know San Diego doesn’t have many options to expand the floor without reducing dealers, but I appreciate what CCXP has done and it's worth mentioning.
While I’ve been to many Comic-Cons around the world, CCXP is the first one that looks and feel like San Diego Comic-Con. Considering this is only its fourth year, I can’t wait to see what this place will look like a decade from now and how much this convention might become more of a world stage.
Check out all the pics below and look for plenty more coverage from CCXP over the next few days.
click on any image for high-res
