Forty years later, I still remember the theatre where I first saw the original Star Wars. I remember standing in the line around the block, I remember who I went with, and I remember the collective cheer from the audience when the Death Star blew apart. Sharing an experience collectively like that is an important part of being human and it’s been with us for a very long time. It’s baked into our evolution, like telling stories around a campfire.
Smartphones and other technology have given us more and more opportunities to disconnect from the people right next to us. Having the option to watch a movie on a tablet or smartphone is great, but it typically makes it into a solo experience.
It’s important to me that the theatre business remains strong because that’s a key way to ensure that we all continue to experience stories together. One trend that’s keeping the theatre business vibrant is giving movie lovers more choice.
The Power of Choice
It used to be when you went to a movie, the biggest choice was what showtime to attend. That’s because there was only one way to experience the picture. Now we get to choose how we experience it – we can opt for a standard theatre or a one with a better image, more immersive sound, and more comfortable seats.
Typically, those upgraded cinema experiences are part of Premium Large Format theatres, or PLFs, and they’re the major force invigorating the movie exhibition industry these days. What exactly is a PLF? The definition varies, though most include some combination of a bigger screen, improved sound, and better seats. Many major exhibitor chains have created their own branded PLFs – XD, RPX, ETX, Xtreme, DMax, Polymax, Screen X. (Notice anything similar in those names? Exhibitors seem to love the letter X.)
Over the last five years, the North American theatre business overall has grown by an average of only a little over two percent a year. But PLFs in North America have grown by an average of 20 percent a year over the same period. The trend is even more pronounced in other parts of the world. Between 2014 and 2016, the number of PLF screens worldwide has grown 80 percent.
The growth of PLFs is important to the continued vitality of movie theatres. It’s a way for exhibitors to offer a premium experience and charge accordingly. It’s a way to deliver that special big screen experience that cinemas have always delivered, and it provides a clear alternative to that giant flat screen in the living room.
Dolby Cinema
At Dolby, we launched Dolby Cinema because we saw a way to use new technology to create an experience you couldn’t get anywhere else. Dolby developed a custom laser-based high dynamic range projector that delivers twice the brightness and 500 times the dynamic range of a typical cinema projector. It can show 40 percent more colors and provide a truly breathtaking image. Dolby Cinema also employs a studio grade version of our immersive Dolby Atmos sound.
What do all those numbers mean? In short, they mean that a Dolby Cinema is capable of producing an experience that’s very much like a real-life experience because Dolby Cinema’s capabilities come close to matching the capabilities of human perception.
From the brightest summer day to the darkest forest night, our eyes can respond to a trillion-to-one dynamic range, or difference in brightness. At any one time, though, we adapt to our current environment and our range is limited to a million-to-one dynamic range. When things get very dark, our eyes adapt and we can detect even small changes in very dark scenes, down to one-tenth the light of a starlit night.
Typical movie theatre projection systems simply can’t match what our eyes can do. They typically deliver a narrow dynamic range of about 2000 to one. And they’re incapable of getting very dark. Dark scenes at a traditional theatre aren’t really black, they’re more like a dark grey.
Authentic Images
The Dolby Vision projection system is capable of over a million-to-one dynamic range. The system can accurately reproduce scenes that are darker than a starry night and scenes filled with the intense glare of an explosion. By matching the range of the human visual system, Dolby Cinema delivers a picture that seems like real life. The result is that Dolby Cinema helps filmmakers completely draw you into the world of their stories because the experience feels so authentic.
We just opened the 100th Dolby Cinema and with our partners, including AMC, Wanda, Pathé, and Reel Cinemas, we are building new locations as fast as we can.
I believe that experiences like Dolby Cinema are one factor that will keep people coming to movie theatres. Four decades after my first Star Wars experience, I saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at my local Dolby Cinema.The communal experience, along with the incredible presentation, made it an event. This is the way movies are meant to be seen.
