Movie theater franchises have been adding more and more immersive theater experiences to their screenings: There’s the ever-popular IMAX (in its various forms), AMC has the Dolby Cinema, and Regal Cinemas has launched a few new options with ScreenX and 4DX. I spent the summer checking out cinema chain’s answers to slumping attendance, focusing mainly on what 4DX has to offer.

The Dark Tower
The 4DX Experience
Directed by Nikolaj Arcel
Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman & Jeff Pinkner, Anders Thomas Jensen & Nikolaj Arcel
Based on the novels by Stephen King
Starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee, Jackie Earle Haley
Sony/Columbia Pictures
Release date: August 4, 2017

My wife and I got a chance to take in Regal’s newest way to watch”¦ check that, experience a film, 4DX. 4DX takes the normal theater experience and combines it with a day at the amusement park, making movie-watching a full-body occasion. The film we watched, The Dark Tower, is based on the Stephen King book series and lent itself quite nicely to the tricks 4DX had up its sleeves.

The 4DX Experience

The first thing I noticed was how big the seats are, which are individually numbered and complete with their own footrests and massive armrests. I would not want to use the cupholders, however. 4DX is not for the weak, and they actually have warning signs outside the theater akin to what you’d see in front a rollercoaster. My wife laughed when she saw each armrest had a “water on/water off” option. We figured what the hell, and left it on. Before the trailers started, the audience gets a preview of the effects 4DX offers, including seats that rock side by side, lean forward and back, jolt you from behind, and yes, splash you with spritzes of water as well as gusts of air. Imagine sitting for 90+ minutes watching a movie on a theme park ride on a day with mixed weather. We even had a fog cloud in our theater! During that preview as our chairs started hurling us around, their was audible laughter and excitement from the crowd.