Why Twisters Became a 4DX Hit and Dune: Part Two Didn’t

If you didn’t see Twisters with water spraying at you and your seat feeling like it might toss you a few rows to the front, did you really see it? Viewing the Glen Powell tornadofest in 4DX is the only way to do it, with the enhanced movie-theater technology giving you a more intense sensory experience than 3D or Imax could ever achieve thanks to effects like mist hitting your face and blasts of air synced up to the onscreen gales. For those couple hours, you’re getting an adrenaline fix alongside the ragtag group of YouTubers onscreen without the filthy mess to show for it.

A small but significant portion of the audience agreed — despite showing on just 62 screens out of the 4,150-plus nationwide, 2.9 percent of the film’s $80.5 million opening weekend box office, or $2.3 million, came from the pricier immersive format. That’s the best opening weekend for any movie in 4DX since the tech was introduced to U.S. audiences with 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction.

That success could in part be credited to TikTok, where videos of theatergoers holding onto quaking seats for dear life got millions of views, while Twitter played host to hyperbolic raves like “if Twisters in 4DX had played at Cannes it would’ve won the Palme d’Or.” Clearly, the public wanted more, as the theater chain Regal — which owns 50 of the 62 American 4DX screens — announced plans this week to bring the disaster flick back in the format sometime “soon.”

“We expected it to be somewhat of a hit because it was the perfect film for the format,” says Paul Kim, senior vice-president of content and production for CJ 4DPlex, the company behind 4DX. “But to this degree? No, the amount of positive reception, the viral sensation that it’s become has been beyond anybody’s wildest dreams here.”

Still, why did Twisters and not, say, the more acclaimed (and higher grossing) Dune: Part Two become the movie that made people look at 4DX as less of a gimmicky novelty and more of a fun challenge they wanted to try for themselves? As we learned, Twisters in 4DX succeeded for many reasons beyond the wise call to cut that discomfiting kiss.

Why Twisters of all movies?

The Seoul-based CJ 4DPlex first utilized the 4DX format in 2009, when one theater showed the Brendan Fraser–starring Journey to the Center of the Earth with spewing fog and lightning-mimicking strobe lights. Since then, the company has expanded to 790 screens around the world and has its team of editors and producers augment around 80 movies a year, half of them coming from Hollywood. This year, over a dozen movies have been released in 4DX already, including Alex Garland’s Civil War. But Twisters is the format’s biggest coup yet.

“So much of the movie is the storms and the edge-of-your-seat experience,” says Twisters special-effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher, who won Oscars for his work on Interstellar and Tenet. “Even seeing it without 4DX, it still gives you that with the sound and the way it’s edited. Then to take it to the next level, I think people are living out their adventurous side, to feel like they’re a storm chaser.”

Fisher speculates that one reason Twisters became more popular in the format than Dune: Part Two is that people are more likely to imagine themselves in storm-ravaged Oklahoma than they are on sandworm-infested Arrakis. “When you think about an Avatar or something like that that’s visually stimulating, there’s a limit to where you say, ‘Oh, I felt like I was there’ because your imagination only goes so far,” Fisher says. “You’ve never had that kind of tangible experience that you can relate to like you would with being caught in a storm or crazy weather.”

While he wasn’t involved in the CJ 4DPlex team’s translation of his effects to the seats, Fisher was a fan from the moment he tried it. He, director Lee Isaac Chung, and others from the production team saw a preview of the overpass scene with all the bells and wet whistles and were invited to give their feedback.

“We had shaking seats and some mist, and there were some little bumps under the seat that they hadn’t quite worked out yet. They already had a blueprint and explained how that was going to work throughout the film as well,” Fisher says. “Then when we did it, it felt right. We all looked at each other on the way out like, ‘That works.’ [Laughs.] That’s a good litmus test because you’re walking out and you wanted more — like, I can’t wait to see it all done.”

But why is 4DX only taking off now?

Following the logic that a movie about extreme weather in 4DX is a perfect match, then why didn’t audiences flock to see the enhanced edition of Geostorm? Well, that was back in 2017, when there were fewer than half the current number of 4DX theaters in the U.S. Plus, it was Geostorm, not a sequel to a now-beloved ’90s blockbuster. But if there was more apprehension over ponying up for 4DX’s pricier tickets back then, it probably had to do with the public thinking of it as more akin to Disney’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids ride than a prestigious format like Imax.

“It’s easy to dismiss it as a gimmick or an amusement-park ride forced into a theater venue,” says Kim. “The general public is now starting to realize this is a match made in heaven, especially for a movie like Twisters. It’s not something we forced into a storytelling element but something that enhances the storytelling. You not only watch the film, you’re feeling it.”

Another big difference between Geostorm and Twisters? The Gerard Butler flick arrived before the pandemic, which permanently altered the movie-theater business. “4DX had this sort of brand base, but it was fascinating to see the growth after COVID,” says Duncan MacDonald, CJ 4DPlex Americas’ head of worldwide marketing and theater development. “We saw the moviegoer was looking for something different. Everyone had been stuck at home for so long, and we’ve just seen our business grow from there. It was this natural progression of people saying, ‘4Dx is so different. I can’t get this in my living room.’”

So how big will 4DX get?

Well, more 4DX theaters are coming, as Regal previously announced plans to build more than its current 50, but it’s hard to predict when. “The U.S. is a huge market, but it’s a mature market, not a growth market where a bunch of new theaters are opening up,” says Daniel Loria, Boxoffice Pro’s editorial director and senior vice-president of content strategy.

He adds that the relative lack of new or renovated theaters over the past few decades is why Americans are usually years behind overseas markets when it comes to more premium theatergoing experiences. “You look at recliner seating or reserved seating, which had been a staple in Europe for years, and even alcohol service,” he says. But in the U.S., “in 1994, having a beer at a movie theater was so wild that there’s a whole scene in Pulp Fiction about it. So it doesn’t surprise me that U.S. audiences are taking a little longer to get accustomed to 4DX.”

It might be a while before your local Regal or AMC gets a 4DX screen, but, as MacDonald says, “We’re building them as fast as we can because we know the demand is there.” Hollywood studios are also embracing the format. “Before, we were knocking on their door saying, ‘Hey, we’d love to do this title with you,’’’ Kim says. “These days, they’re coming to us. And a lot more filmmakers want to be part of the process, even if it’s from a quality-control perspective.”

Fisher, meanwhile, can see a near future where directors incorporate the use of 4DX in a film’s conceptual stages. “I think filmmakers will lean into it,” he says. “I do a lot of Christopher Nolan movies, and everybody talks about what makes the theatrical experience better. He’s so into the sound, the Imax, and all those elements from the very beginning of the whole production — that’s why it’s so good. The filmmakers who have a plan to work in whatever element to make that experience better from the beginning, that’s when you get these great results.”