AMC theaters have signed with China's Wanda Group and South Korea's CJ CGV to install the three-screen, 270-degree viewing technology in key U.S. locations.
Big-budget Chinese adventure film The Ghouls will get a wide, very wide release in the U.S..
The feature, based on a popular series of online fantasy novels, will only screen in a small number of American theaters but it will do so on new ScreenX theater technology developed by South Korea's CGV cinema chain.
CGV and China's Wanda Group on Thursday announced they were expanding their partnership agreement to further promote ScreenX theater technology in the U.S. and other parts of the world and that The Ghouls' U.S. release would be part of that.
ScreenX is a panoramic, three-screen system that offers a 270-degree view. CGV, Korea's largest cinema chain, developed ScreenX together with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Wanda plans to install more ScreenX theaters at key AMC locations in the U.S. The Chinese giant controls AMC as well as Australia's Hoyts theater chain.
CGV and Wanda will produce a ScreenX version of The Ghouls, which Wanda financed. The film, starring Asian A-listers Shu Qi and Angelababy will be released in China, Korea and the U.S.
There are currently 76 ScreenX locations in 45 cinemas across Korea and three overseas in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Bangkok, Thailand.
"CGV plans to expand the number to over 1,000 by the year 2020," said a CGV spokesperson.
Since launching in China 10 years ago, CGV currently operates 48 theaters in the neighboring Asian country and plans to boost the number to over 80 in the next two to three years.