Motion seating at the movies was once derided as a gimmick, but its rise and resiliency over the decades proves that immersive movie experiences have a role to play in exhibition for years to come. The immersive seating category in cinema is currently experiencing a boost in popularity thanks to the wave of demand from audiences for premium movie experiences. As the technology gains further traction among domestic and international audiences alike, box office receipts show that the ROI potential of motion seating can make a real difference in cinema operators\u2019 bottom lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe [immersive seating] auditoriums in our theaters are the most productive screens,\u201d says Eduardo Acu\u00f1a, the newly appointed CEO of Cineworld, the second-largest multinational circuit in the world and parent company of Regal Cinemas. \u201cThere is a real appetite for customers to experience this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acu\u00f1a\u2019s certainty comes from the results he\u2019s witnessed in his first year as chief executive of Cineworld. The multinational chain signed a landmark agreement with CJ4Dplex, the South Korean company behind immersive seating technology 4DX, back in 2018, when the circuit was led by its prior management team. That deal announced a commitment from Cineworld to install 145 4DX screens in its global circuit, including 85 across Regal locations in the United States. Acu\u00f1a took over the role of Cineworld CEO following the circuit\u2019s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy\u2014and it didn\u2019t take long for him to see the benefits immersive seating was bringing to its circuit. \u201cThe numbers show it: these are the most productive screens we have in the company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cineworld\u2019s interest in immersive seating reached a major milestone earlier this year when the circuit unveiled the largest 4DX auditorium in the world at its Regal Times Square location in New York. With a capacity of 296 seats, the auditorium features a 60-foot-wide screen, 30 rainstorm fans, four fog machines, and eight shaker amplifiers that provide extra motion for the seats. \u201cCineworld and Regal are our biggest partners\u2026and [the Times Square location] is our crowning achievement\u2014merging a 60ft-wide PLF screen with our technology,\u201d says Don Savant, CEO of CJ 4DPlex America. \u201cThe demand for all premium formats has amplified since the pandemic\u2026in 2023, we had a $937,000 per-screen average in our theaters here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sixty-two 4DX screens are currently operating in the North American market, with many more scheduled to open in the coming months. The format celebrated a major milestone earlier this summer with the release of Twisters<\/em>, which posted the top opening weekend of 2024 in the 4DX format. Those 62 sites alone represented nearly 3 percent of the film\u2019s $80 million debut across over 4,100 screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cinemark, the third-largest circuit in the nation, is similarly convinced of the potential of immersive seating. The circuit has long partnered with Montreal-based D-Box for its motion seats, engineered with precise haptic feedback directly integrated with a film\u2019s soundtrack. D-Box is the global leader in immersive seating technology, with a presence at more than 900 auditoriums across 40 countries worldwide. That footprint is the engine behind its production team\u2019s efforts in coding up to 65 new movies each year with its unique haptic technology. The Canadian company pioneered motion seating in North America in 2009 when it launched its first D-Box title\u2014Universal\u2019s Fast & Furious<\/em>\u2014in the first two locations it could secure: Hollywood\u2019s iconic Mann Chinese Theatre\u2026and a local cinema in Surprise, Arizona. Any concern about the format\u2019s reception was dispelled that summer when the company secured its first major exhibitor, Canada\u2019s Cineplex, in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D-Box distinguishes itself from other immersive seating formats by eschewing ambient effects and focusing solely on the haptic response to the action on-screen. \u201cWe\u2019re not looking to deliver a theme park ride; we want to make sure the experience we bring enhances the storytelling,\u201d says Sebastien Mailhot, D-Box president and CEO. Adding to guests\u2019 comfort is a control panel installed in every D-Box seat, where moviegoers can control the intensity setting for their individual seat\u2019s haptic response instead of having to go along for the ride of a preprogrammed row of seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For exhibitors considering immersive seating who are still deciding whether to retrofit an entire auditorium, D-Box offers the flexibility to add zone seating to any cinema space. \u201cThose big auditoriums with 200 to 300 seats are rarely at capacity. Our zone seating allows cinema operators to limit their CapEx across one or several rows of D-Box seats, creating a premium area within that auditorium while still benefitting from the ROI our technology brings,\u201d says Mailhot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boom in immersive seating has also inspired other providers. Argentina\u2019s Lumma 4D E-Motion has made important strides in Latin America, increasing its footprint in Ecuador\u2019s Multicines circuit to seven sites since first launching there in 2019. Lumma operates 4D E-Motion screens in 45 locations across 13 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. MX4D has expanded its presence with B&B Theatres, the sixth-largest circuit in North America, to a total of nine locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Motion seating at the movies was once derided as a gimmick, but its rise and resiliency over the decades proves that immersive movie experiences have a role to play in exhibition for years to come. The immersive seating category in cinema is currently experiencing a boost in popularity thanks to the wave of demand from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":35030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,22],"tags":[42,44,74,76,5321,204],"class_list":["post-35028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition-features","category-from-the-magazine","tag-4dx","tag-cj-4dplex","tag-d-box","tag-immersive-seating","tag-lumma-4d-e-motion","tag-mx4d"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}