Who "produces“ 4DX movies?

Question

With films shown in 4DX format, who is responsible for chosing the environmental effects and their timing?

4DX allows a motion picture presentation to be augmented with environmental effects such as seat motion, wind, rain, fog, lights, and scents along with the standard video and audio. As such, theaters must be specially designed for and equipped with 4DX technology.

I found some info on Wikipedia about films being produced with 4DX motion-enhancement but was not sure if the "Production company" column is just the producer for the film itself.

Do they also choose what effects they want to have if their film is shown in 4DX or are the cinemas creating, adjusting and timing the effects all by themselves?

Is the program/sequence created by CJ 4DPLEX, the cinema or the film producer themselves?

Answer 1

In the case of D-Box, the company responsible for maintaining and managing the seats also seems to be responsible for working directly with the film producer to determine which effects go where in each film.

The seating is actually provided under franchise (to the cinema) in the same way that a coca-cola distributor might provide the cinema with a Soda Vending Machine in their lobby. A percentage of the extra cost of each 4DX seat sold goes directly to D-Box and the remainder of the profit goes to the cinema in the usual way.

How do you work with the filmmakers on determining the activity levels and timing of effects? On average, how many movements/effects are chosen? And does any particularly effective film come to mind?

We work with the post-production team of the studio. We only put motion where the movie calls for it. Usually a two-hour film will have about 30 to 40 minutes of motion. We don’t want to distract from the movie, we want to immerse. So when scenes call for action (fight, races, etc.) we put the motion from subtle to intense, depending on the scene.

Generally, our motion coders provide the information as number of MFX events, MFX total time and MFX percentage. But it is hard to say which title that we have completed had the most effects or most diverse mix. But it is safe to say that classic chase scenes, gunshots, fight scenes, explosions, natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornados, storms, etc. all lend themselves for fantastic possible MFXs.

Since only blockbuster films merit a 4DX production, I'd imagine that it's the marketing people at Marvel, Sony, Disney, etc. who liaise with the 4DX provider rather than anyone who was involved in the day-to-day making of the film (e.g. the Director / Screenwriter, etc).