Paramount to launch VR movie theater experience
Studio to host 3D showing of "Top Gun" next month at a virtual reality cinema.
Ready to go to a virtual cinema without leaving your house?
Want to get out to the movies more often but don't want to deal with crowded parking, overpriced popcorn or yappy patrons Paramount Pictures might be able to help.
The movie studio is creating a virtual reality movie theater, according to Deadline.com, that will bring the experience of the theater to you. Movie fans will only have to strap on a VR headset to find themselves sitting in a movie theater with a huge projection screen in front of them.
The effort, a collaboration of Facebook's Oculus, Samsung, HTC, Microsoft and others, is yet another facet of VR's evolution and, perhaps, a new distribution channel for movie studios. Once confined to the realm of science-fiction movies like Walt Disney's "Tron," virtual reality has attracted the attention of companies large and small with promises of transporting goggle-wearing users to other environments, such as outer space or the stone age.
To kick off the VR movie theater, Paramount plans to host a showing of "Top Gun" in 3D on Dec. 3. Movie fans with VR headsets can catch the movie in 30-minute increments at Bigscreenvr.com. The experience is meant to replicate what it felt like to watch the 1986 blockbuster in the theater with other patrons.
Paramount also has plans for other movie showings in the new year, Deadline reported.
Paramount representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
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