Is 4D the Solution 4theDeath of Theaters?

By Jiwon Lee

As an international student from Korea, there were two things that shocked me when I first visited an American theater. For one thing, they don’t have different flavors of popcorn – in Korea, we can choose from sea salt, onion, cheese, caramel, kimchi…you name it. And, more importantly, they don’t have 4D theaters. Technically speaking, yes, there are a handful of 4D theaters here in the United States, but they are not nearly as common as they are in Seoul where most blockbuster films are watched in 4D. Why is this the case? And will 4D rise to the equal status in the land of Hollywood?

What is 4D?

While you might be familiar with 3D cinema, 4D may be a relatively new concept for most American audiences. 4D cinema is officially defined as “the combination of a 2D or a 3D film with physical effects that occur in-sync with the images on screen” (Layton). The first 4D theater was the “Sensorium,” which debuted at Six Flags in Baltimore in 1984 with the film Scent of Mystery. It featured “multiple track discrete sound system, bodysonic seats…and a series of smells released in sync with the film” (Maddox). Unfortunately, the Sensorium really only played the role of an additional attraction at an amusement park, and the technology did not grow to be applied in an actual movie theater — at least in the United States. 

Currently, one of the most widely used forms of 4D theater is the system developed by the Korean company CJ , known primarily as the company behind the success of Parasite (2019). Named 4DX, the system offers “three degrees of freedom…chairs move with the pitch (a forward-and-backward rolling motion), the yaw (a left-and-right turning motion) and the heave (an up-and-down elevating motion)” (Murphy). It, of course, doesn’t stop there. 4DX auditorium also includes “wind machines, strobe lights, snow simulation, smoke cents and a device inside the seats that thrusts into the shoulders of audience members” called ‘the back kicker’ (Murphy). 4DX debuted in Seoul in 2009 alongside Avatar (2009), and it was a complete success, attracting 2.7 million 4DX moviegoers (CJ 4DPLEX). After experiencing Avatar in 4DX, Korean audiences could not get enough of this multi-sensory cinematic experience, and the novel technology has been more widely installed across Korea and in various countries including China, Mexico, and the United States.

I myself was an avid 4DX moviegoer. Since its early introduction in Korea, I have watched most Hollywood blockbusters in a 4DX Theater. After many trips to a 4DX movie, the routine is forever installed in your brain. When you enter the theater, you receive your 3D goggles from the attendants. Then, you have to climb up to your super high seat (the seats are higher than your typical seats because they have to move). Then, you would put your popcorn and drinks in their designated space, so that you don’t spill them. And once the movie begins, you sit on the edge of your seat the whole time as the chairs move, the seats vibrate, and water and scented fogs are sprayed at you.

While some may believe the supposed reality-altering power of 4D is a hoax and does not truly enhance the experience of film-watching, 4D theaters left me with physiological sensory memories that will forever remain. Particularly, I remember the “back-kicker” during Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Ivividly remember the feeling of being hit in different areas of my back every time Superman and Batman would punch each other. While I don’t remember the exact context of the fight (I think it had something to do with their mother’s name), that physical sensation of watching and experiencing it has stayed with me for years. I also remember deciding to watch Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) twice because I liked the feeling of the chairs seeming to glide at different angles as the camera flew through the air to reveal a metallic dinosaur — it was the closest I’d felt to flying. What is so interesting about my memories of these movies is that I did not necessarily appreciate the movies themselves. If I had to watch those movies in a normal theater, I probably would not have chosen to go. I don’t remember much of these movies themselves (if someone were to ask me the plot of Transformers, I wouldn’t be able to explain it).

Yet, I still enthusiastically made my way back to the theater to watch that movie twice because I had so much fun experiencing the movie physically the first time. This was my poor man’s version of paying a hundred dollars for a ride at an amusement park. But just because my moviegoing experience was memorable and entertaining, can it be called true movie-watching? 

What is ‘Movie-watching’?

Critics might argue that 4D is not truly “movie-watching.” With its fancy movements and back-kickers, it can be seen more as a gimmick rather than a technological

advancement of cinema. Yet, one must remember that cinema has always been about the

marriage of art, technology, and most importantly, entertainment. In fact, early theaters were just that. Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope played movement in a continuous loop so audiences could spend their time looking at, for instance, a racing horse. Before becoming a filmmaker in the early 1900’s, Georges Méliès was a stage magician,using special effects to dazzle the audience. The working-class would visit Nickelodeons and pay five cents to forget their troubles in fifteen minutes to hour-long pieces of escapist entertainment. When sound was first introduced in the theaters, the industry doubted that it would sit well with the audience. Yet, after the success of the first talkie, The Jazz Singer (1927), studios were scrambling to the sound race. Today, sound is as important as the image is in understanding film. In that vein, 4D perhaps can be seen as a direct descendent of the root of cinema itself — using technology to provide the purest form of primal entertainment to the audience. Just as sound is an obvious requirement for a modern movie, perhaps every film of the future would come with its own fog effects, or chair movements. 

All of this to say, it is also true that the concept of movie-watching has diversified over film history. Film is now considered “serious” art, and just as people go to watch blockbuster films for its entertainment value, people also choose to go to the theaters to support arthouse films. 

2023: The Death of Theaters?

Let’s turn, then, to the current trends of movies and theaters. At this year’s Oscar nominee luncheon, Spielberg famously thanked Tom Cruise for “saving Hollywood’s ass” (Buckland). He perhaps unknowingly implied that, due to the dire effects of the pandemic on the entertainment industry, the only movies that are keeping the theaters alive are the big blockbuster films.

The top ten movies at the domestic box office in 2022 range from action films like Top Gun: Maverick (2022) to animated films like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). However, they have this in

common: a budget of around $100 million or over. Typically, a title costing more than $80 million is considered a big-budget movie. In other words, our theaters were dominated by big budget blockbusters last year. This is especially concerning considering the big drop in the number of titles that have been released overall in 2022. While 42 titles were released in the summer of 2019, the numbers dropped to almost half of that – with 22 titles released in the same season, three years later. Naturally, because of the low number of titles that studios can afford to put out to the theaters, they prefer to bet on the success of big-budget blockbusters that will sell worldwide. Or, as Daniel Loría of Boxoffice Pro put it, “studios are releasing fewer movies to movie theaters…but the ones they do…they’re swinging for the fences, they’re going for the home run” (Asmelash). This leaves very little room to mid-budget films (generally defined as between $5 million to $70 million budget), which would typically be various forms of comedy or drama. Unlike a decade or two ago, it has become much more difficult to see mid-budget titles in the theaters. This is not to say that those films were not released at all, though. They in fact found new homes in streaming platforms, best exemplified by Rian Johnson’s murder mystery series Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which only got a limited week-long theatrical release. Let’s also not forget smaller budget films like The Whale (2022) or Women Talking (2022), which usually began with a limited theatrical release in the past, and often remained that way.

With such limited titles and therefore falling attraction for theaters, theaters have begun closing throughout the country. Since 2019, the number of total screens in the U.S. has “decreased by around 3,000 to just under 40,000” (Whitten). Theaters are scrambling to adapt to post-pandemic Hollywood. The two common tactics theaters have taken on is to either innovate or turn to event cinema. That is, innovating in terms of selling premium tickets for better theaters with recliners or IMAX screens, and niche programming in terms of hosting themed screenings such as Warehouse Cinema’s “Pajamas and Popcorn,” which offered free popcorn to customers who wore PJs to the theater (Whitten). It seems only natural that the next ‘inventive’ step for American theaters would be to include 4D.  It seems that audiences do not want to go to a ‘normal’ theater anymore. Theaters have to provide extra entertainment beyond the movie — whether that be free popcorn or moving theater seats. As if to prove this, the recent Marvel title Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) offers screenings in 4DX and so does the upcoming film Creed III (2023) — note, again, that both of these films are franchise films of decent budget.

This is not to suggest immediate drastic change in theaters. With the now decreasing effect of the pandemic in the industry, mid-budget and ‘normal’ theaters are bound to make an eventual comeback. However, recent changes will — one way or another — leave somewhat of an effect in theater management. ‘Pajamas and Popcorn’ might not be here to stay, but an expensive investment into 4D most likely will. With studios’ continued focus on blockbusters, theaters might catch onto 4D to further profit for those films and, one day, the U.S. might have as many 4D theaters as Korea does. While this might mean fewer theaters’ survival (as not many of them can afford multiplexes with 4D screens), this does ensure the survival of theaters themselves. If this trend continues, the future of theaters would consist of 4D and IMAX multiplexes and a number of arthouse theater chains such as Alamo Drafthouse. And in that trend, 4D, the newest screening technology commercially available today, will most likely be here to stay. Permanently.

Despite progressing changes, it stands to reason that every kind of film will find its place — like they always have. Blockbusters will sell (even more) through the various forms of new technology installations, medium budget films will find their place in streaming, and low budget films will (if they’re lucky) reach their niche audiences through continued limited theatrical releases. As someone who’s been holding off on watching the new Avatar film because I couldn’t bear the thought of simply sitting and watching blue people for three hours, I am more than happy to welcome this diversification of theater-going experience. Maybe if the chairs spray water in my face, I’ll finally really feel like I’m in Pandora.

Works Cited

Asmelash, Leah. “Mid-budget movies as we know them are in decline. What does that mean for cinema?” CNN, 26 February 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/26/entertainment/mid-budget-movie-declinecec/index.html#:~:text=Generally%2C%20it's%20a%20movie%20that,%2415%20million%20to%20%2460%20million.

CJ 4DPLEX. “4DX Draws Highest August Performance With 2.7 Million Attendees, $32 Million in The Global Box Office.” Cision, 11 September 2019, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/4dx-draws-highest-august-performancewith-2-7-million-attendees-32-million-in-the-global-box-office-300916561.html

Box Office Mojo. “2022 Domestic Box Office.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2022/

Buckland, Eve. “Steven Spielberg tells Tom Cruise 'you saved Hollywood's ass' and Top Gun: Maverick 'saved the entire theatrical industry’ in moving clip from Oscars luncheon.” Daily Mail, 14 February 2023, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11751185/Steven-Spielberg-tells-Tom-Cruise-saved-Hollywoods-ass-Gun-Maverick.html

Layton, Daniel. “How 4DX Works In Movies | Behind the Screens.” YouTube, Cineworld

Cinemas, 24 June, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wiNbX0aAsk&t=25s

Maddox, Garry. “Cinema with a new dimension.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 2011, https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/cinema-with-a-new-dimension20111006-1la3c.html

Murphy, J. Kim. “Inside 4DX: Meet the Masterminds Making Movie Theater Seats Shake, Spray, Wobble and Roll.” Variety, 5 August 2022, https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/what-is-4dx-movie-theaters-moving-seats1235333619/

Whitten, Sarah. “These charts show how the 2022 box office sizzled, then fizzled.” CNBC, 3 September 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/03/how-the-summer-box-officesizzled-then-fizzled-in-charts.html