You’ve heard of surround sound. Now get ready for surround imagery. ScreenX is bringing theatergoers a whole new way to experience movies… and it just might be the future of immersive cinema.
What is ScreenX?
ScreenX is the world’s first multi-projection immersive cinematic platform. It’s a unique model focused on giving moviegoers a 270-degree viewing experience. Practically, this means projecting across 3 different screens in a single theater space: the traditional front-wall screen, as well as screens running up the left and right sides of the theater space.
The goal is to give fans a unique, immersive, and entertaining experience unlike any other while watching a movie.
How does ScreenX compare to other immersive theater experiences like 3D?
ScreenX isn’t the only moviegoing experience that bills itself as a more fun, interesting, and immersive way to watch a film in theaters… but it might be the best of the bunch.
For a while now, 3D has been the “standard” format for making a movie more immersive. It’s not without its fun, but the immersion factor of 3D is basically limited to making it feel like things are flying in your face all the time. It works sometimes, but there’s a certain unnaturalness to it, too. (I mean, how often are you dodging things flying at your face in real life?) 3D often feels like it tries so hard to push the immersion factor, it actually takes you out of the film.
In contrast, the ScreenX experience feels immersive in a much more natural way. In real life, you observe your surroundings by just… looking around. And that’s what ScreenX gives you: the option to look around within a movie as if it’s something you’re really experiencing.
The unique blend of immersiveness and personal agency really makes the ScreenX experience. Unlike 3D, where you don’t have any choice in what pops out of the screen at you, you get a choice in how you view something on ScreenX. You can focus on the extended screens on either side of you whenever you choose (or if you really want, you can ignore them completely). Because you’re in control of how you immerse yourself in the film, it feels that much more real and less gimmicky than watching something made for 3D.
What should I go see at ScreenX?
So, now that you know about ScreenX, what’s worth watching in 270-degrees?
Two major types of films come to mind for me. The first is concert recordings. Now, I’ve never personally really understood watching concert replays in movie theaters; it seems like reducing that experience to staring ahead at a screen defeats the purpose of attending a concert. But with ScreenX, I can see the appeal. Being able to look to either side and see hyped-up concert attendees would definitely help draw you into the excitement of the original atmosphere.
But I think the ScreenX experience will really shine the most while watching a classic action blockbuster.
I tested out ScreenX for the first time with an advance screening of Top Gun: Maverick at CVG Los Angeles, and it was probably the perfect film to get the ScreenX treatment. When Tom Cruise climbs into the cockpit of a jet and the runway extends left, right, and center as far as you can see, you feel like you’re standing right there waiting to send him off. When the jet takes off and the open sky extends all around you, you’re flying too. And when the enemy planes come swooping in, you’re Maverick’s wingman, looking around to spot the trails of smoke in the sky.
Top Gun: Maverick on its own is an excellent blockbuster. But watching it on ScreenX made it that much more of a memorable experience. Streaming movies from your couch is perfectly fine, but 270-degrees of big-screen action is an experience you just can’t replicate at home.
Try 270-degrees of movies for yourself
Ready to venture out for your own ScreenX experience? Find your nearest ScreenX theater here and get ready for a whole new way to immerse yourself in the movies.
If you’ve seen a movie on ScreenX before, we want to hear from you. What did you think of the immersive experience? Did you prefer it to 3D like we did? Let us know in the comments below.
Top Gun on Screenx was amazing. I hate wearing 3d glasses so 3D movies are not my thing. Screenx is far superior. The movie probably matters – Top Gun is the perfect Screenx movie! I wouldn’t care to see a romantic comedy in Screenx, but Top Gun was amazing!