![]() over the coming year.ĬJ4D Plex's Killoren said the group built 10 new installations between March and the CinemaCon convention in April, and has plans for further announcements this year. ![]() D-Box said in February that the number of theaters worldwide equipped with MFX grew 31 percent over the previous 12 months, and had plans to install 20 more screens at Cinemark theaters in the U.S. The companies say demand for motion seats is growing. "We don't think anyone else brings that combination of features," says Chief Marketing Officer Angela Killoren of CJ4D Plex America. Even scents, from raspberry to burnt tires, help audiences immerse themselves in the on-screen world. Leg ticklers reach out to give you a surprise tingle, lightning is punctuated with a strobe light. The company also has thousands of pre-set rumbles, which speaks to its experience in the field.ĬJ4D Plex, behind the 4DX format, says its experience offers many more sensations than other seat-movers. When multiple vibrations are layered on top of each other, for example - say when a rumbling tank fires off a shot and you feel the shell exploding - D-Box encoders take care to avoid harmonic distortions by keeping vibration frequencies at least an octave apart, Auclair said. "We've evolved so much, it feels so much better now." The company's experience stretches back to the time it made motion seats for wealthy home theater owners along with industrial-grade car and flight simulators. "We are 15 years ahead of them," said motion artist Jesse Auclair, during a visit to D-Box's encoding studio in Burbank. The range of motion is more subtle, though the company argues it's also more refined than newer entrants. While the less-expensive installation cost has helped D-Box grow quickly at theaters, there's no snow, fog, scents or strobe lights. However, its seats only sway, vibrate and jostle, and are usually placed among non-moving seats in auditoriums. leads the pack with nearly 330 installations of its "MFX" seats at theaters worldwide, including 175 in North America, most of which are in the U.S. Another company, Torrance, California-based MediaMation Inc., has outfitted about two dozen theaters worldwide with its similar "MX4D" system, but there's just one in the U.S. "The attention it's garnered for our cinema has been fantastic," Russell said.ĤDX is backed by Korean conglomerate CJ Group, which has set up 170 theaters in 33 countries, but just one in the U.S. who come for the theme parks and studio tours and drop by the 4DX theater for another thrill, he said. The setup has helped attract visitors to L.A. "If you ever rode bumper cars as a kid, you'd like this." "I loved it," Koenig said, having forked over $26.25 for a "4DX" ticket at Regal Cinemas L.A. With domestic movie theater attendance stagnant in recent years, more theater owners are looking to provide these immersive jolts to goose both moviegoers and box office revenues. ![]() The 46-year-old software salesman's Wednesday matinee was a "4-D" movie experience, the kind of rollicking thrill factory once reserved for theme park rides. Wall-mounted fans in the theater gusted desert winds and fog machines pumped smoke from the mayhem. As bullets whizzed by Furiosa, the movie's heroine played by Charlize Theron, puffs of air shot out of Koenig's headrest. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mike Koenig sat back in his seat for a recent screening of "Mad Max: Fury Road." But this was no ordinary theater chair.Īs the theater darkened and death machines rumbled across the desert on screen, Koenig's chair rumbled with them.
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