A Fresno movie theater is offering more than the sights and sounds of a feature film. Now you can feel and smell it — if you’re willing to pay the price.
One of the theaters at Edwards Fresno 22 has been rigged up with what’s called 4DX. The seats shift and vibrate in sync with the movie, and a module on the back of each seat (or, for those in the front row, on a long panel) emits odors, liquids, and lights that, um, enhance the viewing experience. The 4DX theater at Edwards debuted with screenings of Disney’s live-action “Aladdin.”
The technology was developed by a South Korean theater chain and opened in Seoul in 2009. The tech reached the United States in 2014, debuting in Los Angeles with an all-senses screening of “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”
4DX pulls together elements of enhanced filmgoing that have been around for decades. In the 1960s, theaters spritzed theatergoers with Smell-O-Vision. The teeth-rattling technology of Sensurround was briefly popular in the 1970s with movies like “Earthquake” and “Rollercoaster.” And anyone who has taken a ride on “Star Tours” at Disneyland knows the experience of synchronized motion.
If you want to take a spin with 4DX, be prepared to pay for it. The price for an “Aladdin” show at Edwards is $24.45. By comparison, a 3D screening costs $16.45 and a normal 2D show is $12.45.
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