Imax Won’t Get ‘Too Far Ahead of Ourselves’ on 'Pilot' VR Centers, Says CEO
The “core requirements” at Imax of launching a “location-based” virtual-reality experience for consumers “line up nicely” with its “core skill sets,” CEO Richard Gelfond said on a Thursday earnings call. The Imax brand is “synonymous with immersive experiences,” Gelfond said.…
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Since announcing its VR strategy (see 1608310001), Imax has met with “strong interest for partnership content deals and many other opportunities,” he said. “Unlike many other VR offerings out there, which are targeting the at-home experience, we’re focused on the location-based offering, which has the ability to provide a broader array of high quality, more immersive content experiences with a social element out of the home.” The company’s plan remains firm to open its first “pilot” Imax VR Centers in Los Angeles and the U.K. this year, he said. Imax then will “test the concept and, assuming this concept works, embark on a more aggressive rollout schedule,” he said. Each center will use several VR “pods” that will allow “multiple people to engage in the experience,” and enjoy it with friends, he said. Though “I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, we continue to be very excited about this initiative,” he said. “I look forward to sharing more about our business after we get our pilot sites up and running. I want to underline the word pilot. This is a test. We are not investing a lot of money at this time in the initiative. We are doing a test. If the test works, we will go forward.”