IMAX and 4DX Marketing Might Be Turning Regular Movie Theaters Into the Fallback Option

The more studios push IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, and ScreenX as the definitive ways to see a movie, the more a regular movie screen starts to feel like the version you settle for once everything else is sold out.

Trailers, Directors, and Ticketing Pages All Push You Toward the Premium Screen

If a trailer tells you a movie was filmed in IMAX, if the director spends months explaining why you need to see it on the biggest screen possible, and if the ticketing page literally separates the premium screenings from the standard ones, that tells you something specific about the normal theater down the hall.

Basically, it tells you that you're getting a compromised version. And that is a strange position for movie theaters to put themselves in, because the entire pitch used to be simpler than that.

Theaters Used to Be the Premium Option Compared to Home. Now They Have Their Own Tiers

For decades, simply seeing a movie in theaters was the premium experience compared to watching it at home. That was the whole appeal. But now even the movie theater itself has tiers built into it. You have got the regular version, the better version, the even better version, and apparently the version Disney has personally certified as worthy of watching the Avengers in.

Selling Premium Formats Too Hard Could Push People to Just Wait for Home

The danger is that once you convince people the normal theatrical experience is second rate, you have created another problem for yourself. If the IMAX showing is sold out, instead of buying a regular ticket, some people might simply decide to wait and watch the movie at home, which is kind of ironic.

Premium formats were created to make movie theaters more competitive with your living room. But if Hollywood pushes them too hard, they could end up making the ordinary movie theater feel less special in the process.