In the world of virtual reality, there are more and more players showing up to the party, and while there’s not much in the way of content to be had right now, there are a lot of studios looking into the technology and working towards offering more virtual reality content. When the Gear VR launched for Samsung devices, there were a number of different Hollywood studios that tried their hand at offering complementary content to go with their upcoming movies and such, and while a lot of this content wasn’t well-received, it was a good start for VR nonetheless. Now, IMAX is looking to get into virtual reality in a big way, but rather than keep viewers at home, they hope to be able to use VR to bring even more viewers to the theaters.
Acer is one of the firms, along with Starbreeze VR, that’s helping IMAX reach this goal, and earlier this year during IFA 2016 they shared a stage together briefly. Now, Acer is investing $10 Million into IMAX’s VR Content Fund, a starting point for IMAX to create some leading content for their theaters dotted all over the country. The aim for IMAX is to be able to leverage virtual reality content to provide a wealth of content for people to consume when they’re in one of the many theaters that will soon host virtual reality headsets from Acer and Starbreeze VR. Right now, there’s just the planned VR Center to open soon in Los Angeles but with this investment from Acer, IMAX will no doubt be able to add more locations to this over time.
Jason Chen, CEO of Acer, said that “with this strategic investment and our deep collaboration with partners including Starbreeze in the hardware and entertainment sector, we hope to enable engaging and immersive VR experiences in IMAX VR centers and beyond.” With StarVR headsets and gaming hardware from Acer, IMAX is well-positioned to add a little something extra to the world of Hollywood, all the while without keeping people at home. Which is exactly what much of Hollywood is afraid of, that viortual reality content will lead to less and less footfall into traditional theaters.