How do you play virtual cinema?

[Tim O’Connor]

I’ve seen some theaters offer this option. What is needed to do this?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Hi Tim! Hows things going? I had to google that myself as most of my customers out west are operating with in the current limits. But this link may have some clue for you about how it works.

[Martin McCaffery]

Short answer, ask the distributor of the movie.

Most of the distributors have their own platforms, but there are now some universal platforms (which I haven't tried). If you have a POS, see if they have created a universal platform.The multiple platforms was the biggest complaint when we were doing virtual. Our audience, mostly old arthouse crowd, did not like signing up for a new service with every movie.

To their credit, the distributors threw virtual cinema together in a couple of weeks and it, more or less, ran pretty smoothly. We tried virtual for a few months, but it never really did anything. I suspect people didn't want to pay the same amount or more for a movie that they would pay for a month of a streaming service.

Your results may vary.