The Cinema Strikes Back

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But the cinema is fighting back. It's doing so by providing experiences you can't get at home. On top of IMAX, which boasts being the world's 'most immersive movie experience', innovative 4D and 5D cinemas incorporate real-life special effects into screens, transforming a trip to the cinema into something closer to an interactive ride at an amusement park such as Disneyworld. Chairs move and vibrate during explosions and car chases, while special sensors releasing the scent of gunpowder make you feel like you're part of the action. Other stimulating effects include splashing water, wind, and strobe lighting. Cineworld, for instance, now offers a 4DX showing of all major releases. Cineworld also shows special 4DX screenings of classics such as The Matrix and the Harry Potter series.

 

The new James Bond movie, No Time To Die, has proved the perfect example of this quintessential cinema experience and, as such, many believe it has 'saved cinema'. The New York Times reports that, after a thrice-delayed release, it successfully ushered people back into theaters. Over the opening weekend it made £26 million ($35 million) at the box office, not just breaking pandemic records, but also exceeding the opening weekends of the two previous Bond films and putting it in the top five opening weekends for movies in Britain ever, according to data from the British Film Institute.

 

Jack Piggott, 31, was among the first to watch the film at the 0:07 a.m. screening of the film at Curzon Mayfair, London, part of a small chain of movie theaters, which was for the first time putting on midnight premieres. Not only is Bond a huge moment in British film, it’s also Craig’s last outing as the spy and “you might as well go all in,” Jack said waiting to enter the cinema. Despite the late hour, the appeal of Bond attracted passers-by such as Canset Klasmeyer, who made a spontaneous decision to see the film even though she had tickets booked for Monday. “It’s a big event,” she said.