CAN VIRTUAL REALITY FIND AN AUDIENCE AT THE MULTIPLEX?
There are numerous reasons why virtual reality has gotten off to a shaky start at home: cost, complexity, slim content, and the fact that you must wear this contraption on your head. Will VR fare better at the multiplex?
IMAX and AMC Theatres have just opened a series of experiential VR pods in the lobby of the AMC Loews Kips Bay 15 theater in Manhattan, the second of ten such VR centers that IMAX plans to launch worldwide this year, and the first in a multiplex. IMAX’s initial pilot VR venture was in Los Angeles. Others are coming to Toronto, Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Manchester and elsewhere.
Each pod features a different virtual setup— with either an HTC Vive VR or Starbreeze Star VR headset. The VR content also varies from pod to pod, with choices such as Ubisoft’s Star Trek:
Bridge Crew, Skydance’s Archangel, and an experience I tried, Starbreeze’s Mummy Prodigium Strike.
Sort of like a modern- day arcade, each pod also has a screen so that while you’ve got a headset on your noggin, your pals can watch what you’re doing ( though it will cost a lot more than 25 cents to play). And some experiences are multiplayers, so you can compete against pals in another pod or eventually, another location.
Though there are obvious tie- ins to a movie that might be playing in the same theater as The Mummy was, AMC and IMAX are treating these separately. You’ll have to buy a ticket to see amovie; you’ll pay to wear the VR headsets.
The VR experiences last between seven and 10 minutes; IMAX VR charges $ 10 to $ 15 to play a VR game. So if you’re planning to see amovie, munch popcorn and buy a soft drink the price can add up fast, especially if you’re bringing the family.
AMC and IMAX may experiment with bundled pricing.
“One of the reasons why this is in the lobby of the theater is you don’t actually need to buy a ticket to see the movie to enjoy the IMAX VR experience,” says Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Theatres. “And we actually think the IMAX VR experience is going to be a standalone attraction.”
Virtual reality parlors are one of a slew of upgrades and features movie theaters have planned as a bid to stoke attendance in an age when more consumers can watch movies at home and on the go using increasingly varied streaming options and unlimited data plans.
Movie attendance was close to flat last year, though box office sales reached a record thanks to rising ticket prices.
The hope: customers will hang out longer just to have a go at VR. In early tests, around 70% of the people who’ve tried IMAX VR have experienced virtual reality for the first time.
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond also hopes to draw in people from outside the multiplex, especially during hours when the theater is less busy.
“We have to recognize over the long term, this has to coexist with the home,” he says. “So what we’re trying to provide here is something more premium, something more social and the first place you can see the hottest new content. … Our idea is not only to get a head start, but to maintain a permanent advantage.”
AMC has 650 theaters in the U. S. and 350 or so in Europe. According to Aron, the VR experience will work well in theaters with a lot of public space, where “we can afford to steal some of it.” At Kips Bay, IMAX VR takes up about 2,900 square feet of a lobby that is about 6,900 square feet.
If the consumer response is strong enough, Aron envisions placing VR in between 50 and 200 theaters “in the blink of an eye.”
Weapon in hand, I had fun blasting away nasty creatures during my Mummy VR experience.
That is, until the screen went dark and I hit technical snags. AMC and IMAX will have to have staff in place to service consumers and deal with any problems. In the early going, IMAX says under 1% of customers have faced problems.