Article: Is Virtual Reality the Future of Movies?



It's no secret virtual reality is slowly infiltrating our everyday way of life. We saw it come into fruition and shortly after it hit the gaming industry. Given, the gaming realm is a diverse one and players are able to choose from VR games, multiplayer games, first shooter campaigns and more, its still a surprise how quickly VR has infiltrated the world of gaming and is slowly moving onto bigger platforms and targeting a bigger audience. Even the latest casino games are being developed for VR gamers, allowing them access to a three dimensional realm of casino games. So, what is the next step? Where will virtual reality go next and will it have anything to do with the movie biz? We explore the fundamentals of VR and seek answers using the best research platform, the internet.

TV Shows

We believe that the TV show business may benefit from adopting this immersive and powerful platform. It will open a new channel of the audience, most likely a younger demographic or those who can afford VR equipment, but already we can confirm there has been talk amongst producers acting on creating VR based television shows.

Already you can see how VR has potential by viewing online examples and clips of VR games and television. But still, does this impact the movie industry and if so, how does it impact the audience?

Movies

While there may be a targeted audience based on the whole ‘VR concept’ it may take a while before the form of filming is adopted and accepted widely. It would be a success if it remains optional, but there is no specialty or preference of VR movies within the cinematic heartbeat of its audience.
Movies could very well be put into production while being created using virtual reality tech. These have the potential to become worldwide hits and even open the minds of viewers who could be skeptics. We do foresee this happening in the not so distant future.

IMAX VR Theatres

Through our research, we found some interesting facts. In 2017, IMAX created several theatres dedicated to VR movies. With this IMAX began developing VR cameras in collaboration with Google. This seemed appealing at the time and given that it was 2017, there must have been many lurking around the corner in hopes of catching a glimpse in the futuristic concept of VR in movies. However, it was not meant to be. Only one short year later and IMAX had to shut down two of its theatres and Google halted the project with IMAX focusing their attention on AR, augmented reality, instead.

So as one can see, while there is room for VR gaming and even a future for it in the movie business, there may not be room for it to grow as the future of cinematic productions. It is predictable enough to assume that while some movies may be released using VR technologies, there are those who enjoy the good old 3D movie as well as the average popcorn and slushy movies minus the goggles.