IMAX wants to open six VR cinemas worldwide this year

IMAX plans to open a number of physical locations for virtual reality. The company says it wants to create locations where users are more “immersed” in the virtual reality experience than what people can currently get at home.

The company wants to open these VR centers in locations such as large shopping centers and cinema complexes. The plan follows the announcement that IMAX will partner with Google to design a new Jump camera system for 360-degree video. The first VR center will be in Los Angeles, after which the rest of the world has to be conquered, including China.

IMAX is also partners with the Swedish company Starbreeze, which together with Acer is developing a VR headset with a field of view of 210 degrees horizontally and 130 degrees vertically. IMAX wants to start using this VR headset. This will initially be with games and not movies, although IMAX hopes to get filmmakers to make movies and other entertainment for the VR centers, writes the Wall Street Journal.

With the VR centers, IMAX wants to further expand its portfolio. Although the company thinks VR will also find a place at home, it wants to offer an ‘experience’ that cannot be had at home and that is also a ‘social experience’.

One of the things IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond initially fell for was developing VR content that can be linked to movies, making it a “natural extension” of the movie theater. He imagines short ‘experiences’ of about ten minutes that cost between 7 and 10 dollars.

It is not yet known when these kinds of additions to theaters will be shown. Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint thinks the centers could be about five years ahead of what people can do at home. It is not known how much IMAX is investing in the systems.

Starbreeze headset at Cannes film festival. Source: WSJ/Alexander Sandvoss/DPA/Zuma Press