The 4DX Edition

On mist, ButtKicker seats, and what's ailing the movie theater business.

Keith O’Brien is a content strategist, who writes about live music at The Diffraction.

via CJ4DPlex.com

Keith here. A few weeks ago, I accepted a friend’s invitation to go see Mickey 17 in 4DX, an immersive theater experience. Recently, he had mistakenly gone to the wrong theater to see a particular movie—having committed to the outing, he instead bought a ticket for Wolfman in 4DX. He told me it was “Dumb, but fun.”

Created by South Korean megaplex operator CJ 4DPlex, the experience is best described as watching a movie while taking an intermittent roller coaster ride. Movie studios can program into several sensory experiences, such as making the chair move or produce mist, scents, water and strobe effects. (My friend wisely encouraged me to take a relatively big drink of my beverage before the trailers started. He’d learned that lesson the hard way.)

As we waited for the movie to start, we began imagining studio heads asking actors and directors to plot out the 4DX experience. I imagined Tom Cruise spending 72 hours straight in the chair to get every little detail right. And Christopher Nolan sitting glumly throughout the entire experience, mentally outlining his future op-ed decrying the experience.

Soon, the movie started. As Robert Pattinson tried to avoid various grizzly deaths, our seats rattled and plumes of smoke occasionally drifted in front of our eyes. (My friend had wisely encouraged us both to turn off the “mist” setting, not wanting to think about where that water was stored and how.)

Why is this interesting?

4DX has been around for more than a decade, but I’ve only really noticed major theaters devoting real estate to them recently, let alone the studios producing scripts with the 4DX experience in mind. Regal Entertainment has made it a big priority, opening 49 4DX enabled theaters as recently as 2024.

This is a big commitment: You can’t just make old seats shake. Theaters had to basically rip out their existing infrastructure to put in this new system. But it makes some sense: “Barbenheimer” aside, the movie business is somewhat in the doldrums. In 2024, ticket sales fell year-over-year, reversing a slow creep back up from pre-pandemic levels. And the 2023 actor’s strike has impacted the overall quality of the new films available.

Everyone seemingly has an idea for how to bring people back to the theaters, from selling pot, to nonprofit theaters, to pickleball courts? I suppose a chair that jostles and sprays water on you is as good an idea as any other.

It’s just like the movie business to resort to gimmicks instead of, you know, making better movies. Much ink has been spilled about the franchise and sequel domination of movies, but I still fundamentally believe that people enjoy going to the theater and will do so for a smart or interesting movie. With a likely lengthening of the pandemic-induced theatrical window, there will be even more incentive to go to the theater for something you really want to see. But at the same time, the reality is that cheaper high-definition TV screens and the big-budget, never-ending glut of TV shows and movies produced by tech companies and standalone streamers alike will continue to take a bite out of box office grosses. So, some feel that new IRL experiences are needed.

About those experiences: CJ 4DPlex also owns the ScreenX format, which blankets the entire theater in screens, and Ultra 4DX, which I could not decipher exactly from the landing page, but reminds me of this timeless Onion article.

A recent visit to Regal’s page allows you to filter between standard, 3D, 4DX, and RPX, which is apparently 4DX but different. Why? Because they have ButtKicker seats. This proliferation of screen formats could have the opposite of its intended effect, by making searching for a movie so maddening people decide not to go.

4DX for a Sunday Minecraft viewing was $27.99 per adult, RPX was $22.99 per adult, and standard was $17.99. Is getting shaken like someone comatose out of his or her stupor worth $10? I can’t answer that for you, but if you’re already paying good money and devoting your afternoon to the outing, it probably makes sense for the right type of movie. And to be honest, I don’t think I would have liked Mickey 17 that much if I wasn’t laughing to myself while bracing for the next gyration.