AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater chain, just invested $20 million in Dreamscape Immersive, a company that has been developing a virtual-reality multiplex for the last year-and-a-half for rollout in the U.S. and U.K. Other investors include Steven Spielberg, 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. Dreamscape’s team includes former chief of Disney’s theme park design, a “Men in Black” series producer, and a live event bigwig. With AMC’s investment, Dreamscape has amassed $40 million. Continue reading AMC Invests $20M in Dreamscape, Plans to Open VR Centers

The Hollywood IT Society (HITS) — a community of IT professionals representing the studios of the MPAA and supporting information tech partners — hosted its annual day-long Hollywood IT Summit at the Hyatt Regency in Century City this week. Adapting to rapidly changing expectations for IT-related content production and distribution was the running theme at the April 22 event, where execs and creatives gathered to discuss network connectivity, cloud resources, big data, analytics, content management and more. Continue reading Media Execs Gather at HITS 2014: Hollywood’s Digital Makeover

As movies are released in higher-definition formats that require more data to play on various devices, the film and CE industries must build a “digital bridge.” So said Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment President Mike Dunn at a keynote Monday at the CEA Industry Forum in Century City. The new 4K Ultra HD format has sharper imagery and sound, but is not yet cost-effective. New Blu-ray players are being developed to address that, while cloud storage will also play a role. Continue reading Hollywood and Electronics Industry Must Build Digital Bridge