Disney’s Infinity Vision: innovative IMAX-killer or cynical marketing ploy?

As a big film fan, I’m always excited for new ways to experience the magic of cinema. IMAX, 4DX, Dolby, VR… I’ve tried my fair share.

So when motion-picture powerhouse Disney announced a new premium big-screen viewing format to take on IMAX, with the name of Infinity Vision no less, my hopes were inevitably raised.

It certainly helped that it was given a lavish announcement at CinemaCon in Las Vegas last month. And, better yet, Infinity Vision was confirmed to arrive this year, with long-awaited mega-blockbuster Avengers: Doomsday touted as one of the first big releases to benefit from this new format.

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However, the closer I looked at the details, the more doubts started to emerge.

Despite what the name might suggest, Infinity Vision does not actually boast new technology like the specialised cameras and tall aspect ratio screens of IMAX.

Instead, it is a certification, designed to ensure that screens with the Infinity Vision branding give audiences the “biggest, brightest, and most immersive cinematic experiences”. Essentially, it's a label that Disney can add to cinema screens to say that they approve of them.

If that sounds vague, then so do the credentials that make a cinema qualify for Infinity Vision. So far, Disney has provided only the following technical standards: “The largest screens for maximum scale”; “laser projection for superior brightness and clarity”, and “premium audio formats for fully immersive sound”.

These all do, of course, sound great in theory; but the lack of specifics is worrying. There is no mention at all of specific screen sizes, HDR formats or even Dolby Atmos audio, which surely should be a given. How can you get excited for a new format that you know barely anything about?

Also concerning is the claim that 375 screens around the world, probably including several in the UK, already support Infinity Vision. This may well give these cinemas the chance to slap the Infinity Vision logo on tickets and raise the prices, without actually making any further upgrades to the screen.

And here’s the real kicker – the Infinity Vision announcement came shortly after it was revealed that the Warner Bros. film Dune: Part Three had secured an exclusive IMAX release in December, shutting out Disney's Avengers: Doomsday.

Considering the inflated ticket prices of IMAX undoubtedly helped push Avengers: Endgame to $2.8billion worldwide, it has been speculated that Infinity Vision was a last-minute creation to help regain some premium screen options in the wake of the IMAX loss.

And IMAX seems to agree, at least according to chief financial officer Natasha Fernandes.

“From our view, we feel it’s a marketing play to try and offset the fact that they don’t have an IMAX platform or brand for Avengers: Doomsday,” Fernandes told investors, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She added Marvel fans are “among the savvy and most discerning moviegoers out there. And there’s a reason why we’re the undisputed leader in premium cinema worldwide.”

It's hard to disagree. And easy to see how the average moviegoer caught up in the Avengers hype may well pay extra for the (admittedly cool-sounding) Infinity Vision, expecting a revolutionary experience more akin to IMAX or 4DX, rather than some picture and sound upgrades that might have already been installed anyway.

A new cinema certification from one of the major movie studios is by no means a bad thing – and in many cases would be welcomed. But announcing it less than two weeks after losing the IMAX slot seems to show where the true intentions lie. We would be far more excited if Disney were to invest in creating something new, whether it be fresh projector technology or some other immersive cinema experience.

In the interest of fairness, there are some upsides to Infinity Vision. This could well incentivise several cinemas to upgrade their screens, and it should be easy to tell at a glance when booking which screens are of better quality.

The jury's still out, of course, until we get some specifics on technical details – and indeed any impact on ticket prices.

We’ll get to see the technology ourselves on 25th September, though, when Avengers: Endgame comes back into cinemas once again as the first Infinity Vision release.

And then on 18th December, or ‘Dunesday’ as it has been dubbed, we’ll get the real battle – not Avengers: Doomsday vs Dune: Part Three, but IMAX vs Infinity Vision…

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