Skip to main content

The Maze Runner will be first movie presented in new panoramic Escape theater format

maze runner will first movie presented new panoramic escape theater format the
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Panoramic films and theaters equipped to show them have come and gone over the years, but new panoramic screening technology unveiled earlier in 2014 will debut with the upcoming film The Maze Runner in September.

Digital cinema projector company Barco is hoping its three-screen “Escape” theater configuration will be the next big trend for movie houses, and the technology will gets its first test September 19 when 20th Century Fox premieres The Maze Runner — about a group of teenagers who find themselves trapped in a massive maze — in Escape-enabled theaters. The technology uses three digital cinema projectors and a trio of screens arranged with the primary screen front and center with two angled screens on either side of it in order to create a panoramic presentation.

Recommended Videos

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the decision to present The Maze Runner in the Escape format was made after the film had finished shooting, so the center screen will show the film as it was shot and the side screens will be extensions of the primary scene — extending the walls of the maze around the audience, for example — created using digitally rendered effects. The Maze Runner will be the first film screened for the general public after being specially prepped for this theater configuration.

On the tech side, it’s worth noting that the method for bringing all of the primary and panoramic imagery together into a cohesive film was built using a Crytek gaming engine to render the final product. The studio is currently experimenting with using multi-camera setups to film movies with the three-screen Escape configuration in mind, as well as testing previously released films in the panoramic format.

“We did a test with The Devil’s Double (released in 2011), and now we are discussing the possibility of a re-release of that movie in the Escape format,” said Ted Schilowitz, Barco’s “CinemaVangelist” who also happens to work at Fox. Schilowitz indicated that, since the format is still so new, the production costs associated with filming a movie for this configuration have yet to be determined.

Currently, there are five theater locations equipped with the Escape configuration: Cinemark 18 and XD at the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles; Cinemark Paradise 24 and XD in Davie, Florida.; Cinemark West Plano and XD in Plano, Texas; Cinemark at Seven Bridges and Imax in Woodridge, Illinois; and Cinemark Redwood Downtown and XD in Redwood City, California. Ticket prices for the Escape screenings of The Maze Runner will reportedly be set by each theater.

The Maze Runner hits theaters September 19.

Here’s a video of Barco’s presentation at CinemaCon 2014, which features the Escape theater configuration:

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
3 underrated (HBO) Max movies you should watch this weekend (November 1-3)
A man holds up a diorama in Dinner for Schmucks.

Halloween is over, and you don't want to watch another scary movie ever again. I can't blame you; after watching new horror movies like Smile 2 and classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I need a bit of a breather.

Thankfully, this list will help you start your November off strong and relatively blood-free. Whether you're craving laughs, romance, or action-packed thrills, there's bound to be something on this list to entertain you this weekend.

Read more
Fantastic Four: First Steps: Everything you need to know about the MCU movie
The cast of "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

It's not a coincidence that one of the first Marvel movies announced after Disney purchased 20th Century Fox's entertainment assets in 2019 was a new reboot of The Fantastic Four. In 1961, Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby launched the Marvel Universe as we know it with Fantastic Four #1, and it was the comic that set the tone for everything that came after.

Because the rights to the Fantastic Four were tied up at Fox for the better part of two decades, FF supporting players like Silver Surfer were withheld from the MCU. Now that the characters are firmly under Marvel Studios' control, the sky's the limit for the upcoming reboot. And we're here to share everything we know about The Fantastic Four so far.
Who has been cast in The Fantastic Four?

Read more
Everything you need to know about From season 3
A man screams in agony in From season 3.

MGM+ subscribers are ahead of the curve on From, a sci-fi/horror series that follows people who have been trapped in a small town in Middle America that will literally not let them leave. There are even monsters that come out at night to hunt people for sport, and the human survivors have largely split into two factions: the Township and Colony House. But there's one thing that almost everyone in the town wants, and that's a way to escape once and for all.

From is headlined by Harold Perrineau, an actor who knows a thing or two about playing a single father who is cut off from the rest of the world after his stint on Lost. On this series, Perrineau plays Boyd Stevens, the father of Ellis Stevens (Corteon Moore), and the closest thing that the town has to both a sheriff and a mayor. Boyd also has plenty of inner demons to contend with in addition to the creatures lurking inside and outside of the town.

Read more