What Is ScreenX? A Different and Exciting New Format

Premium large-format options have been around for many years. We've got Cinemark XD, and the IMAX brand is familiar worldwide. ScreenX is a new way for audiences to see movies in a way that is more immersive than ever.

ScreenX doesn't just use a larger screen than other systems. It's a wraparound panoramic experience that expands movies to a 270-degree field of view, basically ensuring that your entire visual range is filled with the movie.

The Idea Behind ScreenX

In short, ScreenX uses three walls rather than one. A multiple-projector system keeps the movie's primary action centered on the main screen, as you would expect. The left and right walls of the theater are also screens, however, and they are filled with images that expand the movie's visual scope.

In a movie like TOP GUN: MAVERICK, ScreenX puts you inside the cockpit as the left and right side screens offer peripheral views of the action. The effect is immersive and even epic in scope.

How ScreenX Footage Is Created

Footage for the left and right screens in a ScreenX theater is created in two ways: During a movie's primary production phase, and with post-production effects work.

The movies that have produced extra footage for ScreenX during the primary production phase are produced in China and South Korea so far. The zombie movie TRAIN TO BUSAN, for example, was released in the ScreenX format.

Movies produced in the United States have so far all created the extra footage for ScreenX during the post-production phase. The first American studio movies released in the format were KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES, both released in 2017.

ScreenX Versus IMAX

ScreenX and IMAX are both immersive movie theater formats, but there are some fundamental differences between them. IMAX primarily adds vertical space to images while ScreenX opens up images horizontally for a panoramic effect.

In more detail, the huge IMAX screen allows filmmakers to create images that are closer to a square aspect ratio than the typical modern movie format. In addition, because IMAX has been around for decades, filmmakers have the option to capture images with IMAX cameras.

Because ScreenX uses additional screens on the left and right it creates an immersive effect that is vastly different from the vertical image expansion of IMAX.

What Movies Have Been Released in the ScreenX Format?

We can't provide a comprehensive list here, but the main thing to know is that more American studios have been working with ScreenX over the last few years. Disney (including the Marvel and Pixar companies), Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. have all released ScreenX formatted movies.

These include SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, NO TIME TO DIE, VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE, BULLET TRAIN, ELVIS, TOP GUN: MAVERICK, and all of the recent movies from Marvel Studios.

How Long Has ScreenX Been Around?

ScreenX was first introduced a decade ago, in 2012.

ScreenX currently has 364 screens in 37 countries, with more being added in the United States on a regular basis. We have two new ScreenX theatres coming to San Jose, CA and El Paso TX in the months to come.

 

More ScreenX theatres are coming soon!

 

All images courtesy of ScreenX.