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The Future. 4DX screenings — the immersive cinema format that utilizes 20 off-screen special effects to make audiences feel like they’re in the movie — had its two best weekends ever this summer with the releases of Twisters and Deadpool & Wolverine. If audiences continue to be drawn to the format, it’s possible that some filmmakers may start making the experience a part of their creative vision from the start.
Twist and shout
4DX screenings may have just had their IMAX moment.
- Although 4DX tech has been in the US since 2014, Twisters officially brought it into the mainstream — it accounted for 15% of the movie’s domestic opening weekend gross ($2.1 million) and has remained a huge audience draw.
- Deadpool & Wolverine continued the hot streak, with 4DX accounting for $2.5 million of its opening weekend box office (6% of the total) — showing that the audience for the format is sustaining and even growing.
- Exhibitors have been psyched by the results, with theater owners saying they’ve expanded 4DX screenings to keep up with the demand and they’re making preparations for upcoming films like Alien: Romulus, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Gladiator 2.
The market for 4DX, which is overseen and designed by South Korea’s CJ Group, has plenty of room for growth, especially in the US — there are 727 4DX screens internationally but only 64 in the US. CJ Group has already said it plans to build a “significant number” of additional theaters.
Hollywood studios and theater owners hope that 4DX has a future more like IMAX than 3D — a format with lasting appeal rather than flash-in-the-pan popularity (other than the Avatar films, of course).
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