AMC Entertainment is announcing a partnership with Dreamscape Immersive that will bring up to six Dreamscape Immersive VR centers to the US and the UK.
The VR centers will be built over the next 18 months – some as repurposed movie theaters and others as standalone installations.
Dreamscape’s system uses a motion-tracking technology developed by the Swiss foundation Artanim. It is comprised of a head-mounted display, small sensors worn on the hands and feet, and a backpack computer along with a suite of motion-tracking cameras.
AMC will contribute $10 million toward content creation as part of the deal. Dreamscape are yet to announce any specific titles or content partnerships just yet.
Dreamscape CEO Bruce Vaughn told The Verge: ““It’s something I learned at Disney: don’t try to put people in scenes of the movie as if they’re the actor. What you really want is the fantasy that this world actually exists, and I want to step into that world and have my own experience.”
A study from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) suggests that VR technology will soon go mainstream.
Including VR in its annual Entertainment & Media Outlook forecast for the first time, PwC predicts a growth rate of 64% annually for the next five years. That would make the technology a $5 billion industry – in the US alone – by 2021. It will generate almost half as much as the cinema box office, which will grow at just 1.2% to $11.2 billion.
Meanwhile Imax has introduced a concept where consumers sit in pods to watch short form content in a chair that moves and vibrates according to the action on screen. The Imax VR Experience Centres are located in Los Angeles and New York and offer content including Raising a Rukus, an animated series from The Virtual Reality Co, co-founded by Maleficent director Robert Stromberg.
Image courtesy of Dreamscape
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/26/16365352/amc-theaters-deamscape-immersive-virtual-reality-steven-spielberg
