Yanira D. Kivi 
Virtual reality rooms have been around for a little while now. Last year, / Film’s Peter Sciretta wrote about visiting IMAX’s flagship VR experience center in Los Angeles, a physical location where you can don a headset and haptic backpack to play VR games. in pods rented by the hour. But Paramount Pictures has worked with companies like Oculus, Samsung, and Microsoft to launch a new VR movie theater that you can visit without leaving your couch. Would this be another step towards the phasing out of the theatrical experience?
Deadline reports that Paramount, in partnership with a company called Bigscreen, will launch an all-virtual theater experience next month in which consumers with any brand of VR headset can log into bigscreenvr.com and step into a “theater.” virtual reality game in which they’re going to ‘sit’ and watch a movie unfold on a big screen that looks like the one you would actually visit in a brick and mortar location. The virtual location will be embellished with theater sheets and even trailers before the start of the screening.
Some VR designers have simulated experiences like this before, but the new angle here is that “moviegoers will be seated in a virtual audience and can chat before the movie starts with everyone next to them. or with them “. It is therefore about creating a social experience without having to physically move.
The virtual theater opens on December 3 and consumers will be able to watch Top Gun 3D free. Here’s the downside: You can only watch it in 30-minute increments, and it’s only available for 24 hours. It’s unclear how much time must pass between 30-minute sessions before you can watch the movie again.
It should be noted that there are real physical locations for virtual reality theaters around the world, like the Amsterdam VR cinema. The difference is, you wear a helmet, sit in swivel chairs with other people, and experience a 360-degree story as a group. But Paramount’s new venture seems to be removing the physicality of the movie-watching experience entirely … and while it might sound odd, it might actually be a better method of watching something for moviegoers who are fed up with annoying crowds. who always check their phones or talk throughout a movie. Imagine sitting in a movie theater and able to mute the people talking while still getting the perfect sound from the movie you are watching.
So what’s the difference between that and just renting a movie on VOD? Not much, as far as I know. It just gives you the simulated experience of watching a movie on a cinema screen instead of standing in line on your TV or laptop screen. Corn Tom hayesParamount’s senior vice president of new media sees this as a big step:
“This launches a possible new platform for the film industry,†said Hayes. “Obviously you can add all kinds of bonus content with questions and answers from filmmakers, games, trivia, for example, afterwards. There is no limit to what we can do …
Paramount wants to be where the consumers are and the media landscape is changing and we want to be as forward thinking as possible. We need to make theaters a bigger and better experience. Jim G [Paramount chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos] is a progressive thinker, and we want to move forward and see where the public wants to go. There is a big cultural difference between high tech and Hollywood. Here we are testing something that turns the pages of media history. “
Do you think that completely virtual theaters like this could be another step towards phasing out regular theaters? I know VR headsets aren’t in every household in America yet (not by far), but looking to the future I can imagine a future in which going to a physical theater will become a much rarer thing. and a lot of people decide to save gas, time, and (presumably) money by just pushing their VR headset and heading to the movies without leaving home. What do you think?
