Can virtual reality find an audience at the multiplex? – USA Today – USA TODAY

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IMAX VR in the lobby of the AMC Loews Kips Bay 15 in Manhattan.(Photo: IMAX)

NEW YORKThere 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. IMAXs 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 setupwith either an HTC Vive VR or StarbreezeStarVR headset. The VR content also varies from pod to pod, with choices such as Ubisofts Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Skydances Archangel, and an experience I tried, Starbreezes Mummy Prodigium Strike.

Sort of like a modern-day arcade, each pod alsohas a screen so that while youve got a headset on your noggin, your pals can watch what youre doing (though it will cost a lot more to play). And some experiences are multiplayer, 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. Youll have to buy a ticket to see a movie; youll pay to wear the VR headsets.

The VR experiences last between sevenand 10 minutes; IMAX VR charges $10 to $15 to play a VR game. So if youre also planning to see a movie, munch on popcorn and buy a soft drink the price can add up fast, especially if youre 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 dont 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. In that regard, I dont think a $10 price point is that expensive.

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 and spend money longer at the theater just to have a go at VR.In early tests, around 70% of the people whove 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 were 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.

A player tries The Mummy VR experience at AMC Kips Bay theater in Manhattan.(Photo: Edward C. Baig)

AMC has 650 theaters in the U.S. and another 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 2900 square feet of a lobby that is about 6900 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.

The Navy wants to recruit you with Virtual Reality

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 saysunder 1% of customers have faced problems.

Yet another potential issue is that some consumers might get queasy or frightened during certain VR adventuresonescary option at Kips Bay is to virtually experience The Walk along a wire some 110 stories above ground between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Customers do have to sign a waiver. And experiences are open to 7-years olds on up, with some better suited for an older audience.

As joint venture partners, AMC and IMAX share in the price of the content and share in the investment and proceeds. It cost between $250,000 to $400,000 to deploy IMAX VR at Kips Bay, not factoring in the tech or the content. In L.A., the most popular VR attractions so far have been for Star Wars and John Wick.

An IMAX VR player in Los Angeles has a go at Star Wars.(Photo: IMAX VR)

The results of L.A. are encouraging. The early results of (Kips Bay) are also encouraging. And Im changing my mindset from `does it work? to a different question which is `where does it work?, Gelfond says.

For his part, Aron says, Im almost as certain as I can be that fast-forward a year or two and were going to have a lot of installations.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter

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Can virtual reality find an audience at the multiplex? - USA Today - USA TODAY