4D Movie Theaters Coming to U.S.

[MovieBob]

4D Movie Theaters Coming to U.S.

New theaters will throw water and fog at audiences for a premium price. M&Ms thrown by teenagers in back row still free.

Korea-based theater technology outfits CJ 4DPlex and AEG are bringing their so-called "4DX" cinema experience, already a hit overseas, to U.S. shores; with the first installation opening in Los Angeles this past Thursday. A competitor in the same field, MediaMotion, opened a version of their own in Oxnard one day later.

Essentially a version of "immersive" theater experiences popular in amusement parks for years refitted for mainstream multiplexes; 4D theaters are equipped with seats that vibrate or shift, wind machines, temperature-controls and rigs that can spray fog, "rain" or specific scents into the theater auditorium timed to relevant events of the film. The two California theaters serving as the U.S. launch-market are both using Transformers: Age of Extinction [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/9485-Transformers-Age-of-Extinction-Better-Than-The-First-Three] as their debut feature.

While the technology is currently most-popular in China, Korea and Mexico, CJ 4DPlex's Brandon Choi explained: "The U.S. is very important to us as a strategic market - and L.A. is the center of the movie industry." Meanwhile, MediaMation is boasting that 4D presentations are already being set for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Lucy, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and the new TMNT.


Source: THR [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/4d-stakeholders-battling-us-cinema-715204]

Permalink

 

[Scorpid]

Oh this is back... christ. No one wants to be spritzed with fucking water while watching a movie. It's a gimmick and will go no where like it did so long ago.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I remember way back when movie theaters often used to be an experience. You'd get several movies and many of which would have weird gimmicks like actors running around in the audience, weird props hanging from the ceiling and such. It is funny how we have gone full circle.
All of this stuff sounds stupid but I mean really, I can't think of a good reason to actually go to see a film in theaters without it promising an awful lot to make it different from seeing it in the comfort of my own home.

 

[Zontar]

New theaters will throw water and fog at audiences for a premium price. M&Ms thrown by teenagers in back row still free.

Not for me, I'm that teen throwing the Smarties (much better then M&Ms).

OT: this idea is just... wow. Does that actually make money? I mean I understand the motion theatres which have you in a seat which moves along with the 3D movie you're watching (and I was saddened when the one at my local theme park turned into the Nintendo centre (who's old building was turned into a haunted house no one ever visits)) but that's for a 10 minute ride, not a 2 hour movie. I wouldn't pay money for that, I'd be out before the first act was done.

 

[Zontar]

I remember way back when movie theaters often used to be an experience. You'd get several movies and many of which would have weird gimmicks like actors running around in the audience, weird props hanging from the ceiling and such. It is funny how we have gone full circle.
All of this stuff sounds stupid but I mean really, I can't think of a good reason to actually go to see a film in theaters without it promising an awful lot to make it different from seeing it in the comfort of my own home.

I don't know, going to a movie is quite the experience in and of itself (I remember scheduling my semester classes so that Friday afternoon would be empty just so I could see movies the day of release when there is little to no crowd), I don't see how anything but the movie achieving what you expected (entertainment wise) can be the determnining factor.

I also have no recollection of any of the things you listed ever happening, though it could be an American thing I'm not aware of (up here the only real thing which has changed is that now when a movie which has been out for years is rescreened it's part of some (usually sci-fi) film festival).

 

[Roxas1359]

Crap, I thought these things still only existed at the Shrek 4D film they would show at Universal Studios. Place your bets here on the prices for it. Down here regular movie tickets cost $15 at it's cheapest, with IMAX 3D being $30, so I'm gonna bet 4D movies down here will be between $30 and $50.

 

[Darks63]

Well at least this isnt as bad as that Spy Kids 4D(smell-a-vision) movie where you were smelling fart and diaper smell cards. Sounds like a great idea though now on top of IMAX sound rupturing my eardrums, I now can also get sick from being in a damp, wet, and cold area for a sustained period.

 

[mrverbal]

why is this called 4d? Isn't that essentially the joke from this dilbert?

http://www.dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/100000/20000/0000/600/120633/120633.strip.print.gif

 

[Maxtro]

From the source article linked

--------------------

The 104-seat CJ theater at L.A. Live comes with an $8 premium, meaning that a general adult 3D ticket price is $26.80. General ticket prices for the 108-seat MediaMation theater are $21.25 for a 3D movie or $18 for a 2D movie.

Both theaters are opening with Transformers: Age of Extinction. According to Fandango, the first three L.A. Live shows sold out.

 

[Vkmies]

As far as I know, the fourth dimension isn't just "feelies".

 

[Rad Party God]

Can we travel through time and space?. Oh, fog and water. How dissapointing.

 

[Richard Becker]

I remember way back when movie theaters often used to be an experience. You'd get several movies and many of which would have weird gimmicks like actors running around in the audience, weird props hanging from the ceiling and such. It is funny how we have gone full circle.
All of this stuff sounds stupid but I mean really, I can't think of a good reason to actually go to see a film in theaters without it promising an awful lot to make it different from seeing it in the comfort of my own home.

William Castle! He was the king of this crap in the 50's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Castle
I would love it if they carried this gimmick to the next level and just hung an automated skeleton above the crowd,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_on_Haunted_Hill
only then to have kids just knock it down.
Or better yet, have some buzzers placed on the seats to go off at choice moments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tingler#Gimmicks
THAT would be a theater experience.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

There is no way in hell I'd pay extra money for cheap fog effects, vibrating seats, water being sprayed in my face.

 

[Fasckira]

Ive seen the people that work at the local cinema. I dont trust them to keep this kind of tech in any kind of decent shape; give it a few weeks and it'll dribble a few dregs of water and a bit of fog might randomly fire off in one corner of the room.

 

[CelestDaer]

Yet another way for movie companies to inflate movie prices? Hell no.

 

[Daverson]

I, for one, am glad we've finally discovered that the W dimension is not, as prominent scientists and mathmaticians have theorized, either a temporal dimension or massively complex string-a-ding-thing (I haven't studied string theory, so that might not be the correct term), but rather, just having water sprayed in your face. I'm certain this will revolutionize, not just cinema, just all science as we know it.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Hm... nope! It's bad enough that 3D showings are competing for time slots, I don't need "4D" showings further slimming-down the movie time selections.

 

[Tanis]

Ha...ha...O, this isn't from The Onion?
Well, damn.

But, seriously, this is so stupid.
When I go to the theater, I go to WATCH A MOVIE.

Not to see some shitty 3D crap, or have fucking WATER and FARTS tossed at me.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

wait, how is this just now coming to the US? I'm fairly certain I went to one of them bloody things when I was in NYC like 5 years ago.

 

[lacktheknack]

Two words: Freaking gimmicks.

This'll be in and out of theatres like red-and-blue 3D.