A new dome-screen cinema experience in Los Angeles reintroduces The Matrix with a 360-degree twist. As streaming dominates at-home viewing, theaters like Cosm hope “shared reality” will revive the magic of going to the movies.
Quasi-hypnotic lighting, surround sound, a dome-shaped screen: a new immersive experience in the United States is trying to lure audiences out of their living rooms and back into movie theaters, which have been struggling against the rise of streaming platforms.
Cosm Theater in Los Angeles is one of the driving forces behind this trend and is screening a new version of the cult film The Matrix (1999) this month, aiming to offer the public a unique experience—worlds apart from watching on a small home screen.
Cosm “aims to create an addictive and new experience,” one that still feels human-scaled, says Jeb Terry, president of the American company. “Scale and service still matter, and I think this is the path to take,” he said after the press screening of The Matrix.
Cosm currently operates two theaters in the U.S.—in Los Angeles and Dallas—and plans to open two more, in Detroit and Atlanta. The company, which specializes in immersive experiences, already works with Cirque du Soleil for its O show and on sports events, placing cameras around the field to make viewers feel like they’re right on the court.
The science fiction film The Matrix, shown in “shared reality,” is Cosm’s first theatrical project, born from a partnership with Warner Bros. “Matrix: shared reality is designed to reconnect cinema and audiences,” says Alice Scalice, Cosm’s vice president of development, who calls the cult classic an “ideal choice” for the company's first in-theater release.
Keanu Reeves plays Neo, dressed in black from head to toe—leather coat, boots, and sunglasses. A gifted hacker, Neo receives encrypted messages from a man named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), inviting him to see beyond the illusion of a fake world built by the evil Matrix, whose agents secretly control everything.
This dystopian cyber-thriller, in which Neo projects himself into a ruined future where humans are enslaved by machines, became iconic in part for its fight scenes—balletic combat sequences where Neo seemed to move faster than bullets.
In this revamped version at Cosm, the audience is fully enveloped by the story, even to the point of feeling like they’re inside Neo’s capsule. The concept was partly inspired by the Paris Opera, says Jay Rinsky, founder of Little Cinema, a studio that specializes in immersive film experiences.
“You have to let the film be the singer, follow its tone, highlight its emotion and story through lighting, set design, and 3D,” he explains. “That allowed us to take +Matrix+, a cinematic masterpiece (…) and adapt it to feel like you're inside the movie.”
The result left an impression on early viewers like influencer Vince Rossi, who described the experience as “unforgettable.” “It’s kind of like being in a theme park built for the film,” he said.
By Paula RAMON / AFP
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