Just when you thought IMAX 3D was an immersive film experience, there's a new type of moviegoing that is sure to change everything you know about "heading to the theater."
4DX is a concept that started in Seoul, South Korea in 2009 with the release of "Journey to the Center of the Earth." This new take on watching films incorporates everything from smells and seat movements to air blasts and rain to make moviegoers feel like they are actually part of the movie.
While 4DX theaters have been popping up internationally over the past five years, the United States has yet to see their own... until now.
In June, the Regal Cinemas LA Live location starting offering the 4DX experience and according to statistics, has been outperforming traditional movie theaters. The 104-seat theater -- significantly smaller than a typical IMAX theater -- saw an average of a 63% occupancy rate regardless of the day of the week or showtime.
Big blockbuster hits this summer were among the first to be played with the 4DX experience and outperformed traditional theaters by a landslide. The latest Transformers movie for example, "Transformers: Age of Extinction," generated over $105,000 in just 13 days compared to a U.S. national average of just over $44,000. Similarly, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" took in an impressive $94,247 in 13 days at one location compared to the average of $38,404.
So what really makes the 4DX experience drastically that much different other than a few extra bells and whistles?
For a motion picture to use 4DX (assuming that it is being shown in a 4DX-equipped theater), a unique 'track' that is in-sync with the movie is programmed on top of the video and audio tracks. While it seems quite complicated to control all sorts of environmental variables that match up with the movie, the process of developing the 4DX track generally takes less than a month.
Some of the immersive effects that 4DX theaters incorporate are seat motion (tilting and up/down motions), facial air jets, left and right neck air jets, water spray, rain, wind, leg ticklers, back pokers, lightning, fog, scents (there is a collection of 1000 to choose from) and bubbles.
When incorporated into a scene that features robots fighting in a thunderstorm for example, the audience would feel a combination of rain, lightning, fog, smoke scent, and air blasts, among other 4DX effects.
While the Regal Cinemas LA Live 4DX experiment has been met with great success, it is still the only current location to offer 4DX. Based on their performance against the national averages, however, we should expect to see quite a few more 4DX-equipped theaters popping up in the very near future.
