Movie studios count on Canadian technologies to deliver distraction from lame ideas

Hollywood has hinged hopes on the idea that unleashing at least one big popcorn picture almost every weekend in the summer of 2011 will turn movie-going into more of a habit.

When it comes to the special effects that connect audiences to the action, though, producers have increasingly relied on innovations from Canada.

IMAX Corporation, founded in 1968 in Montreal, found its bigger screens were increasingly counted on to help sell premium-priced tickets. But when the studios weren't delivering enough financially successful films, like in the first quarter of 2011, its revenue declined.

The motion-controlled theatre seats designed by D-Box Technologies, also based in Montreal, have also emerged as a prospective boost for the summer flick experience.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" was announced as the latest film that commissioned encoding synchronized with the on-screen action. "Super 8," thriller produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by J.J. Abrams, will also be given the D-Box treatment. "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: On Stranger Tides" has also been slated for the technology for the sake of viewers who aren't easily seasick.

Cineplex has also expanded its UltraAVX auditoriums across the country, which incorporate a wall-to-wall screen and large rocker seats, accompanied by the inevitable higher ticket price for its reserved tickets.

And to continue satisfying customers who aren't also stimulated enough by the growing number of 3D movies, Cineplex recently acquired Toronto-based New Ways Sales, the distributor of the arcade games found in theatre lobbies across the country.

None of this is expected to work in the long-haul if the feature presentations turn out to be turkeys, though.

Of course, there's always the possibility that enough people will be too overstimulated by the technology to notice.

(Reuters Photo)