4 tech innovations we saw at CinemaCon that could radically change the movie theater experience

4DX_with_ScreenX CJ 4DPLEX

Every year the movie industry goes to Las Vegas for CinemaCon, a convention where the studios show off their upcoming slate to the theater chains.

But it’s also where bold new innovations in the business are born.

Business Insider had a chance to look at a handful of them. From an interactive movie magazine to a company that’s looking to redefine the preshow experience at the multiplex, there could be a lot of changes coming soon to a theater near you.

Here are four things that grabbed our attention:

4DX with Screen X

You may have seen a movie in 4DX (where the seats in the movie theater move with the action on screen) or a movie in Screen X (panoramic, 270-degree screen), but you’ve never done it at the same time!

That’s because both features have not been combined in any theaters yet. Business Insider got to experience a demo of a 4DX/Screen X viewing at CinemaCon and it’s certainly a different way to go to the movies. As your seat moves and rumbles with the action of, say, “Rampage,” you are immersed in the viewing as the movie picture expands to the sides of the theater.

There are 500 4DX screens in existence and 142 that are Screen X. It’s unclear when theaters will have the combined version (one is opening in South Korea), but it’s almost inevitable that it's coming.

myCinema

Though box-office numbers are high, there are fewer and fewer people coming to the movie theater. So myCinema thinks offering more alternative content to theaters could get more butts in the seats — especially during down times at the theaters.

Beginning in the coming months, Nagra — the digital TV division of Swiss company Kudelski Group — will launch myCinema, which will be offering thousands of shows, movies, and specials to movie theaters that can stream the content directly into their digital projectors. This will make the content easier (and quicker) for theaters to get compared to digital prints by services like Fathom.

With a library that will feature everything from kids content to faith-based titles to live concerts, you could see myCinema soon at independent arthouses that are always struggling to find audiences to come through the turnstile on a regular basis.

Noovie ARcade

Ever get to the movies early and have to sit through a bunch of boring commercials before the trailers start? National CineMedia hopes it has a better alternative.

NCM’s Noovie ARcade preshow lets you combine your phone with the big screen in front of you. Through downloading the ARcade app you are prompted to point your phone at the theater screen and play a variety of shooting, catching, and tossing games through your phone.

You are playing with everyone else in the theater who also has the app, so at the end of each game a leader board ranks everyone’s score.

Noovie ARcade has launched at 1,650 theaters nationwide through AMC, Cinemark, and Regal, as well as 50 regional and local exhibitors.

Check out if it’s available at your local theater next time you’re there.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider