Sony Will Play Venom Sequel on 270-Degree Movie Screens

If Venom: Let There Be Carnage didn’t already look brutal enough, Sony is upping the wow factor this September by playing the movie on wrap-around 270-degree screens. It’s the first notch in a 15-movie deal that spans the next 3 years.

4D movies have been popular in South Korea since their introduction in 2009 through Journey to the Center of the Earth and Avatar. Through a partnership with CJ 4DPlex, Sony will bring some of the 4D movie craze to America—beginning with Tom Hardy and his strange alien symbiote. CJ 4DPlex, who developed the “4DX” film format that will be used in partnership with Sony, operates hundreds of movie theaters in 65 countries.

“As audiences come back to movie theatres post-pandemic, CJ 4DPlex is positioned better than ever with our super premium immersive and dynamic theater formats that are distinctly different from the home experience and will motivate audiences to get out of their house and enjoy the theatrical experience once again with friends and family,” says CJ 4DPlex CEO Jongryul Kim. “Our deal is also a strong signal of Sony Pictures’ and our commitment to the theatrical movie industry.”

The concept is exciting, but its execution isn’t quite what you’d expect from a major enterprise who wants movies to “wrap around your face.” Rather than a smooth, semicircle-shaped theater screen, the viewer is seated at the center of three separate rectangular screens with bezels in between. It’s a bit like looking at a three-monitor desk setup but on a larger and more dramatic scale. Sony is likely hoping the immersive viewing experience will allow moviegoers to forget the screen’s borders are even there—kind of like forgetting that you can technically look down at your nose.

Still, the partnership between Sony and CJ 4Dplex is bound to provide a far more engaging experience than your typical movie. Beyond just surrounding the viewer with giant screens, CJ 4Dplex plans on making Sony’s films 4-dimensional with effects like motion-synchronized seats, wind, fog, rain, lightning, snow, bubbles, vibration, and scents. The company’s Wikipedia page describes six different seat designs: “disk,” for horizontal rotation; “ride,” which is made up of a cluster of seats on a 6-axis motion platform; racing, for films about exactly that; “sway and twist,” in which seats engage in twist and side movements; “motion chair,” which includes VR headsets; and “sports,” for films with specific bike, snowboard, and kayak features.

Sony and CJ 4DPlex plan on releasing nine more immersive titles within the next year alone, including Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Man from Toronto.

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