Dolby Cinema hit a major milestone in its young history with this summer\u2019s inauguration of its 100th location at the AMC South Bay Galeria 16 in Redondo Beach, California. The Dolby Cinema concept has grown gradually in recent years, expanding its presence in key markets in Europe and Asia as its U.S. presence, through a partnership with AMC, has simultaneously expanded. AMC has been the early driver in open locations, representing 77 of the concept\u2019s 100 active sites. The U.S. circuit is scheduled to reach a total of 160 Dolby Cinema locations by the end of 2018.<\/p>\n
A steady content pipeline is crucial for any new premium concept, an area the company has focused to grow as more Dolby Cinema locations pop up around the world. More than 100 titles have already been announced or released for Dolby Cinema, including upcoming high-profile releases like IT<\/i>, Kingsman: The Golden Circle<\/i>, Flatliners<\/i>, Granite Mountain Hotshots<\/i>, Darkest Hour<\/i>, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Dolby Cinema\u2019s journey began in Barcelona, at Cinesa\u2019s La Maquinista location. \u201cThat was actually kind of our proving ground,\u201d says Stuart Bowling, Dolby\u2019s director of content and creative relations. \u201cWhen we started this program, we wanted to do this in a commercial environment where we wanted to be way off the radar. So we actually started fleshing out the concept in Maquinista. That theater has actually changed several times since we started, because we started the concept even before the projection technology was ready. So originally that theater had a specific design with special projectors to help make the picture brighter. Then we were able to finalize the look and feel of the overall concept of a Dolby Cinema, which is the faceted ceiling. We then went back into Maquinista and finished out that design, with a swap once the Dolby digital projectors became available.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big part of the concept\u2019s success is precisely the exhibitor\u2019s ability to customize different aspects of Dolby Cinema according to each venue\u2019s specifications. \u201cThere is give and take in what we do. In some instances, we change some of the aesthetic of the theater to help fit within what works for the exhibitor,\u201d says Bowling. \u201cThere are the main principles of Dolby Cinema, which are across every theater around the world, and then there are some design elements that we allow change in, depending on the exhibitor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dolby\u2019s partnership with AMC in the United States is a prime example of that approach. The Dolby Cinema auditorium in AMC\u2019s Empire 25 location in New York City\u2019s Times Square has undergone several changes since becoming one of the first Dolby Cinema locales in the country. \u201cIf you look at that room, the design aesthetic of what we did there, AMC has actually morphed over time,\u201d Bowling says. \u201cThe red lighting on the speakers has gone away\u2014there have been design-change elements like that. We have flexibility with the exhibitor as to what they want to do. Another unique example with AMC is that they have transducers inside the seats. We haven\u2019t seen that anywhere else yet. That\u2019s something AMC wanted and we were able to accommodate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
French exhibitor Gaumont Path\u00e9 is the latest to join the bandwagon, announcing 10 Dolby Cinema locations to open in the coming months in select sites in France and the Netherlands. Reel Cinemas has also emerged as a close partner in the Middle East, with plans to open two locations in Dubai this year. In Asia, the Chinese exhibition boom has already brought 19 Dolby Cinema locations through Wanda Cinema Group\u2014with plans to reach the century mark in the coming years.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest turning points for the Dolby Cinema concept came with Dolby\u2019s acquisition of SLS Audio in 2014. It gave Dolby the ability to incorporate speakers and amplifiers into the system from the start. \u201cWe bought SLS for that reason,\u201d admits Bowling. \u201cWe wanted to redefine how amplification works in a movie theater. Traditionally, amplifiers are either stereo or maybe four channels. But we said, \u2018No, we have Dolby Atmos. We\u2019re now amplifying all of these surround speakers. How can we do it differently?\u2019 The team were fantastic to come up with a Dolby amplifier. You\u2019re saving money; you don\u2019t have to have all these racks to put the amps in. You\u2019re cutting down on installation time, since it\u2019s all plug and play. That adds more value back to the theater operator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Improving the technology while reducing exhibitors\u2019 investment has been part of the magic formula for Dolby Cinema\u2019s proliferation around the world. The timing couldn\u2019t be better, stresses Bowling. \u201cThere\u2019s a big investment cycle happening. New screens? Obviously, in Europe there\u2019s not a lot of new screen activity compared to China, which is still prolific. A lot of the investment here is all about refreshing and renovating theaters, providing newer technologies. Especially as we\u2019re coming out of our cycle of VPF as well. They\u2019re looking at \u2018What is the next thing I should invest in?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dolby Cinema hit a major milestone in its young history with this summer\u2019s inauguration of its 100th location at the AMC South Bay Galeria 16 in Redondo Beach, California. The Dolby Cinema concept has grown gradually in recent years, expanding its presence in key markets in Europe and Asia as its U.S. presence, through a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"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],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-5364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exhibition-features","tag-dolby-cinema"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364","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=5364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}