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Spider-Man Escapes the Screen: How ScreenX Panoramic Cinema Works

By. Radek Velicka 

Republushed with Permission. Original Article is posted HERE

 

 

Images onto the side walls, a 270-degree field of view, and footage captured specifically for a special version of the film. The new Spider-Man shows how far a technology can compete with IMAX.

 

ScreenX expands selected scenes from the main screen onto the side walls, creating a panoramic image with a field of view of up to 270 degrees. Photo: CJ 4DPLEX

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is breaking box-office records, but beyond the numbers themselves, the way the film was released is also attracting attention. It is the first blockbuster produced under the Shot for ScreenX initiative, which expands selected scenes onto the side walls of a movie theater. How does this South Korean format work, how does it differ from IMAX, and could Spider-Man finally give it a real breakthrough?

During its opening weekend, Spider-Man: Brand New Day earned $360 million in the United States and Canada, narrowly surpassing the previous record held by Avengers: Endgame. It opened with $932 million worldwide, making it the second-biggest global debut in film history. Only Endgame remains ahead of it. These figures are so absurd that it is almost difficult to believe we are still talking about the revenue from a single weekend.

Something else about its record-breaking success caught my attention. The new Spider-Man achieved these historic numbers despite not playing in IMAX during its opening weekend in North America. Those auditoriums remained reserved for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey as part of its exclusive run. Only from August 6 did the two films begin sharing some digital IMAX screenings, while selected 70mm theaters continued showing Nolan’s film.

Viewers looking for something more distinctive than a standard screening therefore had to choose between Dolby Cinema, 4DX, the proprietary premium large-format auditoriums operated by individual theater chains, and a technology that remains considerably less familiar than IMAX.

It is called ScreenX.

When Spider-Man Escapes the Screen

Spider-Man runs across a rooftop, leaps into the void, and instead of remaining obediently confined to the center of the movie screen, New York suddenly spreads across the entire auditorium. Skyscrapers continue along the left wall, another section of the street opens up on the right, and for a moment, the viewer feels as though they are not sitting in front of the film but directly inside it.

That is how ScreenX is supposed to work.

Viewers do not need a headset or special glasses. Their seats do not have to move, and nobody blows air into their faces during a chase scene. ScreenX uses a traditional front screen but adds images projected onto the left and right walls of the auditorium. The result is a panoramic field of view extending up to 270 degrees.

The main action remains in front of the audience, while the side projections fill their peripheral vision and create the impression that the world of the film continues beyond the boundaries of the usual rectangle.

The simplest description is therefore: a cinema with three viewing surfaces.

ScreenX is not designed to make viewers constantly turn their heads and search the walls for hidden details. Ideally, they continue looking straight ahead and experience the action on the sides mainly through their peripheral vision. That is why flights through a city, car chases, or aerial battles can feel more intense than they would on a conventional screen.

 

The Film Is Not Simply Stretched Wider

In principle, ScreenX is an advanced form of projection mapping. Several digital projectors display images on the main screen and the specially prepared side walls. The system must geometrically align, precisely synchronize, and color-match the individual projections so that the viewer does not feel as though they are watching three unrelated videos.

Importantly, the standard film image is not simply stretched across the auditorium. If a theater forcibly expanded an ordinary shot over three walls, the actors at its edges would look as though they had just visited a particularly unsuccessful plastic surgeon.

The side walls therefore receive their own visual information. It may come from additional cameras used during filming, a wider portion of the original footage, or digitally created environments. The standard version of the shot remains in the center, while the left and right “wings” complete the space surrounding it.

This gives ScreenX a major advantage with animated films, comic-book blockbusters, and productions heavily dependent on digital effects. A virtual city, outer space, or a fantasy landscape can be extended beyond the main screen more easily than a real room filmed with a single camera.

 

The Side Walls Do Not Stay Lit for the Entire Film

A first visit to ScreenX may surprise some viewers. The panoramic image usually does not run for the film’s entire duration.

A movie may begin only on the traditional central screen. Characters talk in a small room, Peter Parker sits in a café, or a more intimate dramatic scene unfolds. Only when a chase, fight, flight through the landscape, or major action sequence begins do the side walls light up and the auditorium suddenly opens around the audience.

ScreenX is designed to expand selected scenes rather than automatically covering the entire film. Alternating between conventional and panoramic imagery also serves a dramatic purpose. Constant movement on the walls could become exhausting, distract viewers from the actors, and gradually lose its impact.

In this respect, ScreenX is somewhat similar to IMAX presentations in which the aspect ratio changes during selected scenes and the image opens vertically. ScreenX, however, does not primarily expand the picture upward and downward. It sends it to the left and right.

 

Where Should You Sit in a ScreenX Theater?

The safest choice is usually a seat near the center of the row, somewhere in the middle or slightly toward the rear of the auditorium. Viewers should be far enough away to perceive the main screen and both side walls as one wide image, but not so far back that the panoramic effect loses its impact.

Sitting too close may require more head movement, while the transitions between the main image and the walls can feel more aggressive. From a seat at the far edge of a row, one wall may dominate while the other recedes into the distance.

The best seat allows the viewer to continue looking straight ahead while experiencing the side projections mainly through peripheral vision.

 

South Korea’s Answer to Home Television

ScreenX was created by CJ 4DPLEX, a Seoul-based company that forms part of the South Korean CJ Group. The group also operates the CJ CGV cinema chain and is responsible for several other theatrical technologies.

The company’s first major experiment was 4DX. Introduced in 2009, the technology uses synchronized moving seats and more than twenty kinds of physical effects, including wind, water, fog, vibrations, lighting, snow, and scents.

ScreenX followed in 2012. Instead of targeting the viewer’s body, it focused on the space of the auditorium itself and attempted to remove the boundaries of the traditional cinema screen.

A home television can be large, extremely bright, and capable of delivering excellent picture quality. It is unlikely, however, to cover three walls of a living room with a special version of a film created specifically for that space.

This isn't a new impulse in horror exhibition, either…William Castle was rigging theater seats with buzzers and flying skeletons over audiences decades before anyone dreamed up a 270-degree wall. See Dark Castle: The Art of Remaking Versus the Lack of Creativity for more on that gimmick lineage.

From an Experiment to Hundreds of Theaters

The early development of ScreenX was primarily limited by the need to produce a separate panoramic version of every film. Over time, however, major Hollywood studios began joining the format, and ScreenX releases included titles such as Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, Aquaman, Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, F1, and various concert films.

By the end of 2025, ScreenX had reached 471 locations worldwide. Compared with the tens of thousands of conventional auditoriums or the global IMAX network, it remains a minority format. It can no longer, however, be described as a technology restricted to a handful of experimental theaters in South Korea.

CJ 4DPLEX also combines ScreenX with its own 4DX technology. The resulting format is now called Ultra 4DX, combining panoramic projection with moving seats and physical effects.

For some viewers, this represents the highest possible level of immersion. For others, it is the moment when the movie theater decides to attack their eyes, ears, and spine simultaneously.

The development of CJ 4DPLEX technologies, from moving 4DX auditoriums and ScreenX to footage captured specifically for panoramic presentation. Source: CJ 4DPLEX

 

How Is a Film Made for ScreenX?

The most common process resembles converting a film into 3D. A standard version of the movie exists first, after which the ScreenX team selects the scenes worth expanding. It creates additional visual elements for the left and right walls, extends digital environments, or uses footage captured by other cameras.

The filmmakers must preserve the correct perspective, continuity of movement, lighting, and color while ensuring that the side imagery does not distract from the main action.

The second approach begins during production. A film crew can use multiple cameras, compose selected shots with the side walls in mind, or capture separate footage intended exclusively for the panoramic version.

This brings us to the film that significantly advanced ScreenX even before Spider-Man.

 

Top Gun Showed What Six Cameras Could Do

An important milestone was Top Gun: Maverick. Director Joseph Kosinski and his team installed a six-camera setup inside the fighter-jet cockpits, allowing them to film the actors during real flights from several angles.

CJ 4DPLEX subsequently used footage from the side cameras to fill the left and right sections of the ScreenX presentation. The resulting panoramic version contained 58 minutes of exclusive imagery, which at the time represented the largest amount of ScreenX material created for a single feature film.

CJ 4DPLEX worked with Kosinski and Paramount to select the scenes and determine the final presentation. Real footage from the side cameras allowed both “wings” of the format to be filled with authentic imagery rather than only effects created later.

Top Gun: Maverick was therefore an important predecessor and proof that production footage could be used extremely effectively in panoramic cinema.

 

What Exactly Makes Spider-Man the First?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the first title released under the newly established and officially named Shot for ScreenX initiative. The main difference lies in the systematic nature of the process.

The CJ 4DPLEX team came directly to the set and used its own production tools to capture material intended specifically for ScreenX auditoriums. Director Destin Daniel Cretton could therefore work with the specialists to decide what would remain on the main screen and what would appear on the side walls during selected scenes. The collaboration continued throughout post-production and into the film’s final theatrical release.

With Top Gun, ScreenX made exceptionally clever use of footage from a multi-camera setup originally created mainly to authentically capture the flights and the actors inside the cockpits. With Spider-Man, additional material was captured specifically to fill the panoramic “wings” of ScreenX.

Spider-Man is therefore the first as the official launch of a new brand and production process, not the first film in history whose creators thought of using footage from additional cameras. ScreenX is attempting to create its own equivalent of the Filmed for IMAX label, signaling to audiences that the result is more than a post-production conversion of a completed film.

Side Imagery Is Almost Ideal for Spider-Man

Spider-Man is almost a textbook character for this kind of technology.

He moves both vertically and horizontally, swings between buildings, changes direction abruptly, and frequently appears in environments that naturally continue far beyond the boundaries of the central image.

An intimate conversation between Peter Parker and his friends does not need panoramic projection. A flight between New York skyscrapers, on the other hand, can use it almost like a cinematic flight simulator.

That does not automatically mean every scene captured for ScreenX will be successful. It does, however, make more sense to prepare the panoramic image on set than to finish filming and spend the following months wondering what could be added to the empty walls.

 

ScreenX Is Not a Wider IMAX

ScreenX and IMAX are often grouped together as premium theatrical formats, but technologically they provide very different experiences.

IMAX primarily uses one large front screen, its own projection technology, and a specific sound system. Selected films offer expanded aspect ratios of 1.90:1 or 1.43:1, allowing viewers to see more image above and below the conventional widescreen frame. ScreenX retains a traditional main screen and expands the environment to the sides.

There is also a difference in consistency. An IMAX presentation can run for the entire film, even if the expanded aspect ratio appears only in selected scenes. During non-panoramic sequences, ScreenX usually turns its side projections off completely.

 

How Much Did ScreenX Contribute to Spider-Man’s Record?

Shortly after the premiere, we already had a specific answer. ScreenX earned $7 million during Spider-Man’s opening weekend in the United States and Canada. This was 2.6 times higher than its previous opening-weekend record. Compared with the film’s total North American opening of $360 million, ScreenX accounted for approximately 1.9 percent of the result.

That is not an insignificant amount for a relatively small network of auditoriums, but it is also clear that ScreenX did not create Spider-Man’s record. More than 98 percent of its North American revenue came from other formats.

CJ 4DPLEX achieved an even larger result when 4DX was included. In North America, the format earned $5.2 million from 77 locations, averaging $68,000 per auditorium. Together, ScreenX and 4DX generated more than $31 million worldwide, representing approximately 3.3 percent of Spider-Man’s global opening.

ScreenX therefore contributed to the record through higher ticket prices, exclusive imagery, and its ability to attract part of the audience seeking a premium experience outside IMAX.

ScreenX Is Growing Faster Than the Overall Cinema Market

ScreenX entered Spider-Man’s premiere in very good condition. During the first half of 2026, it generated $31.84 million in North America, representing year-over-year growth of 55.1 percent. This was before Spider-Man’s $7 million opening was added to the figures.

Part of that growth naturally comes from opening additional auditoriums. More locations inevitably mean more screenings and higher total revenue. Spider-Man’s results nevertheless show that the growth is not purely mechanical. Seven million dollars represents more than double the format’s previous record.

It is also important for ScreenX that its name is beginning to appear directly in film marketing. Instead of a small logo placed among ten other formats, Spider-Man received its own Shot for ScreenX campaign, while the filmmakers openly explained that some material had been created exclusively for the panoramic presentation.

Could Spider-Man Be for ScreenX What Avatar Was for 3D?

Every new film format needs a title that can explain its purpose within a few seconds. For modern 3D, that film was Avatar. Christopher Nolan has repeatedly played a similar role for IMAX. ScreenX has not yet had such an unmistakable ambassador. The closest was Top Gun: Maverick, whose aerial sequences and real cockpit footage were perfectly suited to the panoramic format.

Spider-Man, however, has an even greater global reach, and the value of the side imagery is easy to understand when watching him move between skyscrapers. If viewers leave the theater believing that swinging over New York must be experienced in ScreenX, the technology may gain an identity of its own.

At the same time, ScreenX remains extremely dependent on the individual film. If the side walls display only blurred scenery, part of the sky, or digitally added crowds, the technology begins to resemble a very expensive animated wallpaper. ScreenX will therefore never be an ideal format for every movie. An intimate drama usually does not need a panoramic kitchen or a living room stretched across three walls. Action films, science fiction, fantasy, animation, racing films, and concerts can make much better use of its possibilities.

The key question is whether the Shot for ScreenX label will begin appearing on more titles. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the first major test of this strategy. Seven million dollars from its North American opening weekend shows that ScreenX still represents only a small part of the film market. At the same time, it is a new record that more than doubled the format’s previous best and confirmed that audiences are interested in these screenings.

ScreenX did not help create a record-breaking Spider-Man. A record-breaking Spider-Man, however, may help create a ScreenX that is no longer merely a curiosity projected onto the side walls of a few theaters.

ScreenX blows the walls open. YOU ARE THE FILM shrinks them down to one room and one conversation…and somehow it took three days to shoot. Go behind the scenes: The Making of YOU ARE THE FILM: Three Days for a Single Conversation.