The next time you go to an IMAX Experience Centre, you may come into virtual contact with a few superheroes. IMAX and Warner Bros Pictures announced Tuesday that the two companies are partnering on a three-year plan to release one virtual reality experience each year based on Warner Bros films, starting with this year’s Justice League.
The Justice League VR experience will be released later this year, presumably around the time of its November release. A VR experience is also planned for Aquaman, which is scheduled to be released in late 2018. There will also be a third virtual reality experience for an unknown project. Rumors have been circulating about Warner Bros releasing the stand-alone Batman film we keep hearing about in 2019, the final year of the IMAX-WB partnership.
The Justice League VR experience will initially be exclusive to the new IMAX VR Experience Centre locations. IMAX debuted the first location in Los Angeles in January, and has plans to open at least five additional locations in New York City, California, the United Kingdom, and Shanghai in the next few months. When Digital Trends visited, the L.A. location was equipped with 14 VR pods, and HTC Vive and StarVR headsets, as well as accessories for you to move freely around in the real world while interacting with the virtual one. Subwoofer vests and a motion chair are a few of the amenities.
This is the first deal IMAX has made with a major movie studio to bring VR content to its multiplexes. The VR experiences will be available on mobile and at-home VR headsets following a short period of exclusivity at IMAX VR Experience Centre locations.
