Cineworld (Empire) Leicester Square – 4DX Auditorium - View Towards Screen
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Cineworld Cinema - Leicester Square 4DX
London, GB
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Uploaded on: September 1, 2024
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Comparing this to pre-4DX conversion photos, it is clear that the right fire exit door opening has been moved forward to the first column and reduced in width.
The back sides of the 4DX seats can be seen with water sprays either in the seat backs or separate modules mounted ahead of the seats, as well as the suspended 4DX equipment adjacent to the right sidewall, and the 4DX smoke machines either side of the screen.
Taken August 2024. Photo courtesy of LARGE_screen_format.
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Comments (5)
Thanks CF. I would be nice to see the new 4DX system put in very large auditoriums with huge curved screens. Most of these installs at least in the USA are in small spaces under 150 seats. The 4DX seats do take up more room then regular seating.
Terry: Absolutely agree! It would definitely be interesting to experience 4DX with a “larger format” presentation. The largest 4DX opened this year at Regal (aka Cineworld) Times Square with a ~60ft. wide screen.
Alas this 4DX conversion was never going to be that, a case of pushing the available space to the limit to fit everything in, including the biggest possible screen… 30ft. or so wide! (Albeit the screen feels a bit bigger than it might, especially in the front half of the auditorium, where the seats are relatively closely positioned.)
CF****Here is San Francisco our semi new Regal Stonestown Theatre is still showing ‘Twister’ as of 9/3/24 in their small screen 4DX auditorium. It is almost sold out for every showing in the 4DX system as It is the only type of equipped cinema with 4DX in San Francisco. The whole SF Bay Area is very stingy on putting in all the new movie gimmicks like Screen X ect. They charge a extra premium for 4DX at the Regal in SF and yet being Its shown in a small space with limited seating many movie customers are turned away. If they had put 4DX in a larger space they would make more money and the system would look and sound better with all the effects on a super large curved screen. Many theatre owners get money greedy when they put in a large 20 plex and make too many of the auditoriums way to small to make extra cash and only leave one or two for Imax or XD systems.
Hi Terry,
IIRC the cost of a 4DX installation for a “typically” sized auditorium runs into 7 figures.
Quickly searching on Google: The Hollywood Reporter - “CinemaCon: 4DX Targeting U.S. Market” - April 2013.
To quote: “A 4DX installation for a 200-seat auditorium runs a whopping $1 million.
“The business model is such that the company shares the costs — meaning the exhibitor’s portion is still $500,000. Then the theater charges a premium — an average of $8 — over the regular ticket price, and 4DX and the exhibitor splits that premium.”
(Obviously, these figures are out of date.)
It’s not clear whether this cost includes typical building work needed for a conversion, such as alterations to the stadia stepping, structural reinforcement required for the additional loads imposed, or forming a room to house the invisible parts of the 4DX system (e.g., liquid for fog FX, scents, etc.)
I completely agree with you that ideally a 4DX auditorium would feature a large format screen (with high-end RGB laser projection/Atmos sound system) but it should be clear why a less ambitious scheme is more likely…
Re.: Regal Stonestown Theatre, it might be better if I respond to your comments on its own Cinema Treasures page… (will do this later…)
Re: ScreenX: It’s a quite a neat system, but basically seems to be a way of giving a kind of “IMAX” experience in a secondary auditorium, in the sense of filling peripheral vision (which, for the right scenes, does give the perception of motion.) The small sidewall projectors limit the quality of the extended parts of the picture, albeit this is not so important as the main screen. Also, IME ScreenX scenes tend to be only a small part of a feature, and you obviously need to sit some distance from the main screen for the sidewalls to be substantially visible. However, a combined 4DX/ScreenX-equipped auditorium–which do exist, branded “Ultra 4DX”–might be interesting…
With regard to ScreenX projection quality:
CJ 4DPLEX names Cinionic as a new global laser projection partner for ScreenX.
To quote: “Barco laser projection selected to power side-walls illumination in cinematic immersive experience.”
N.B. Cinionic was acquired by Barco, and “Following the [2023] transaction and from 2024 onwards […] will be fully integrated into Barco’s Cinema business unit.”