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“We’re Not Going to be Subtle When You’re in the Tornado”: 4DX SVP Paul Kim on Twisters
Twisters A 4DX screening offers a host of bells and whistles engineered to make the moviegoing experience less passive. Three motors in every seat work in tandem to shake a participant around violently during big action setpieces or vibrate lightly during quieter moments. There’s a back kicker for imitating punches or kicks thrown during fights. Lightning effects and fog fill the theater at large, while sprays of water interact with each audience member.
The premium format received a massive visibility bump this summer when viral clips of audience members watching Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters lit up TikTok and X. On this success, Paul Kim, SVP of content and production at 4DX parent company CJ 4DPlex, tells me they “knew Twisters was going to do well. […] But this type of phenomenon I don’t think anybody could have predicted. We’re ecstatic.”
On the final day Twisters was scheduled to play in 4DX, I scoured sold out screenings to secure the last ticket in a 10 a.m. matinee, in a less than ideal front row, far right seat. After receiving everything 4DX could throw at me for 122 minutes, I exited the theater like so many of those on social media: exhausted and exhilarated from the ride that I had just gone on. The collective laughing-during and then exhaling-after any of Twisters’ innumerable blockbuster sequences added to the communal aspect so unique to public moviegoing.
In the film’s final act, residents of a small town huddle in a movie theater for safety from a looming tornado. As the roof of the on-screen theater was ripped off by the storm, the chair bucking, lightning, wind and other 4DX effects made it feel as if our Regal theater in North Hollywood was that same one being ravaged in rural Oklahoma. The “elevated experience” Kim tells me is the company’s number one goal came through in this climactic moment. So consider me a 4DX believer, at least in the medium’s perfect match for popcorn disaster movies with massive setpieces like Twisters.
After a brief stint in which Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine took over these theaters, Twisters was quickly re-programmed to return to 4DX on August 30, alongside its 1996 counterpart Twister—to which Chung’s film can be considered a standalone sequel.
To learn more about the technology, I spoke with Kim about the history of the format, how their teams calibrate each 4DX experience, and why fine-tuning effects for a film is not all about those big moments but also about amplifying smaller emotional moments as well.
Filmmaker: How does the present experience watching Twisters in 4DX differ from the first iteration of the technology back in 2009? How has it evolved?
Kim: It hasn’t changed too much. The basis of what 4DX is remains the same. It’s about putting people in seats that will amplify the moviegoing experience. There have been slight upgrades into what types of servos, or motors, we use to give the movement and vibrations more refinement. Our effects that we’ve always had, that we consider our base level effects, the wind and the water, remains the same. Additional effects have been added here and there, which varies throughout theaters. Seats may have a little bit of heat coming out near the neck. You may have experienced bubbles. But for the most part, the basics of the movement, vibration, wind and water remain the same.
Filmmaker: You are a South Korea-based company. Is that where your core market is?
Kim: In its initial phases, the technology was developed there, and that’s where our first rollouts were. As we continued to grow and expand outside of Korea, geographically, it made sense to expand in Asia first. So we started in nearby Japan, Taiwan, China, and it took off from there. To our surprise, we found that a lot of other countries that we initially didn’t think were the right market, or the market that you would think of right away, such as France, took to it really well. Latin America loves it. Mexico is one of our biggest markets outside of Korea and the U.S. The U.S. right now is probably our fastest growing market. It’s taken a foothold here since the pandemic. It organically went viral. Japan is one of our biggest markets and of course, the U.K.
Filmmaker: There’s been some talk about how the premium theatrical experience can be a bit ahead in other countries compared to the U.S. market.
Kim: I wouldn’t say that the U.S. is necessarily behind in the formats. I do feel that there are certain countries that lean more towards things that are newer, things that are untested, and the general audience is more willing to test it out. The U.S. is a large country. To expand into such a large territory with something new takes time. This compared to Korea, which is geographically much smaller, so it’s a lot easier to expand our 4DX theaters, where more people can test them at a faster rate.
Filmmaker: Take me into developing the 4DX experience for Twisters. How did you fine tune the experience for this film specifically?
Kim: Our head producer on the film, Cindy Lee, she’s based out in Korea and has been with the company for close to 15 years. She has coded (or edited) well over 340 4DX films in her career. I had a specific conversation with her about Twisters. She said it’s very straightforward: you have a tornado, you’ve got trucks and you’ve got the 4DX effects and movement. It makes perfect sense. But how do you balance that? How do you juxtapose the human characters in the trucks—when they’re going full speed down a rough terrain road, and the truck is shaking violently—against a tornado in the background as it’s coming closer and closer? Lee and her team played around a lot with figuring out who the main character is at each specific moment in the film.
In the opening sequence, it’s the calm before the storm. There’s the introduction to the characters. There’s a truck going down the unpaved road, and you feel all of the bumps. As the tornado begins to form and becomes more of an issue, you may have noticed that subtly, the effects for the truck are slowly subdued out of frame. Now the main character becomes the tornado. This is where the production team went back and forth, trying to figure out “OK, who do we put front and center as the character for the 4DX motion and effects in relation to what’s happening on screen?”
A typical two-hour film will take anywhere between two to three weeks to edit in full. This includes the quality checks with the studios and the filmmakers. It’s a mad rush at the end for us, but it does not usually go parallel or overflow into the actual production of the film.
Filmmaker: Can you take me into the chair itself with its movement capabilities? It blew my mind how much movement it was capable of.
Kim: You have three degrees of freedom as we call it: the pitch (forward and back rolling), the yaw (left and right turning) and the heave (up and down). These combined with the types of motors that we use, allow us to be very nuanced in how much or how little force we deliver into the chairs. When you’re in a tornado, we cranked that way up, because the whole point is that you’re in a tornado. Sometimes you’re really bouncing in the chairs, and you have to readjust to make sure you don’t fall off. That’s part of the fun. We’re not going to be subtle when you’re in the tornado.
There’s a scene in the film, where the camera tracks some dandelion seeds as they go up into the sky. That was very subtle, so we are able to move the motors in such a way that it’s very fine-tuned. You almost don’t feel it, but your body knows something’s happening. That’s to give a sense of expansion. It’s more of a calm, emotional state that we want to deliver to the audiences, as opposed to in your face, where you know exactly what’s happening. We try to stay true to what we believe the filmmakers are trying to deliver in each scene. And, of course, we have the vibrations, the back kickers, the leg ticklers—all of these things add another layer of immersion or sensation to the chairs.
Filmmaker: Some maintain this viewpoint that with cinema there is a distance, an intentional voyeuristic relationship between the audience and what’s unfolding on screen, and something like 4DX disrupts this. Have you had any conversations where you want to do a film, but the filmmaker is adamant that it isn’t quite right?
Kim: Any medium is going to have its critics, and 4DX is no exception. We’ve always said it’s not for everyone. There will be people that absolutely love 4DX, as we’ve seen with Twisters, and there will be people where it’s just not for them, and that’s OK. We understand and don’t fight that. But for those who like the experience, and those who want to experience it, we want to ensure that it’s pretty unforgettable, and I think we do a pretty decent job of that.
I think people, generally speaking, have a contained idea of what a 4DX film is. And sometimes we push back and say, “That’s not necessarily the case.” It’s not always the action-packed race car or fighter jet-based films that are perfect fits for 4DX. There are films that worked really well for us that may not necessarily be just action driven. We have to explain that to filmmakers, and sometimes they understand it, and say “OK, let’s give it a try” and they like it. Or other times, they will still say, “You know what, it’s not for us.” We respect that. It’s their film. The storytelling is theirs.
Filmmaker: What does 4DX do better than some of these other 4D experiences that are installed in other theaters? What differentiates 4DX technology?
Kim: The number one differentiator is the films that we do. We’re pumping out anywhere from 35 to 45 Hollywood films a year. And we do films for local territories: Korean films, Chinese films, Dutch films, French films. If we factor everything in, it’s probably close to 70-80 films a year. So, in terms of sheer amount of what’s available in 4DX, that’s pretty different. Outside of that, the basics of what is considered a moving chair, with the effects and wind, can be replicated elsewhere. There are companies that offer similar experiences. That being said, with the amount of time that we have been doing this, we’ve had upgrades, and we’ve had time to refine and tune and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
From a technical standpoint, there are subtle differences. Maybe we offer more effects than some of our other competitors. But I think where the difference really lies is the content and how it’s made. It’s not simply: “The car is veering left, so let’s make the chair move left.” It’s: “At what speed is it happening? How hard is the turn?” Then you apply all of those dynamics into the chair and, because we can fine tune it to such a minute degree, we can import all of those emotions and smaller effects into the chairs, thereby delivering what we consider a far superior, more dynamic experience than anything else out there. It comes down to the expertise and how long people have been working on producing this content.
Filmmaker: And for one film you do this all in a two-week period?
Kim: Two to three weeks. It’s not the same people working on the same film every time. We have three different teams of artists working on any given film at one time.
Filmmaker: Break that down: how big is the team, and what are the roles for each person?
Kim: We have a cell of artists and with each cell, we have a lead producer who oversees the overall film, inclusive of the effects and the motion. Then we have two artists for motion and two artists for effects. That number can vary: sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less. But generally speaking, we have a team that focuses just on the motion, and a team that focuses just on the effects.
Filmmaker: Watching this, I realized disaster movies are a perfect vessel for this format. Personally, I would go to see old disaster movies re-released in this format. Does 4DX do repertory cinema? Is that part of your business model?
Kim: It wasn’t part of our business model initially. We were having enough trouble trying to get as much content for upcoming films for 4DX. But now, there is a demand: “Hey, I’d love to watch Indiana Jones in 4DX.” Think about that boulder scene. So, we did that. We recently coded the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We’re bringing the original Twister back. These things are slowly becoming part of what we do every year. We foresee that it will be happening more. Disaster films are prime for this.
Filmmaker: What’s next for 4DX? Do you plan to open more theaters, or to tweak the effects?
Kim: We’re definitely opening more theaters. The demand has gone up significantly, especially in certain territories. We’re at roughly 780 theaters now globally, and we foresee that going up beyond 800 fairly soon. We will continue to expand as long as there is a demand for it.
Filmmaker: Your company also does the large-scale, multi-projector format ScreenX.
Kim: ScreenX is growing at an exponential rate. Our first Hollywood film was back in 2017. Back then we were doing maybe two, three titles a year. We’re now working with every major studio. This year, we’re on track to release anywhere from 24 to 26 titles. It’s become a full slate. In terms of growth speed, ScreenX is growing at a much faster speed. We work with filmmakers and the studios in a similar fashion to 4DX, but given the fact that it’s much more of a visually immersive technology, we have more filmmaker input. So, it is a longer and more involved process. But ultimately, it is something that we will continue to push. In certain territories—not yet here in the U.S., but hopefully soon—we have theaters with both 4DX and Screen X technologies combined. So it’s visually immersive and a sensory experience for the film.
Filmmaker: What’s the ideal theater seat location for 4DX?
Kim: Everybody has their own thoughts on this. My personal opinion is two-thirds back from the front. So, not smack in the middle but a little bit behind the middle, wherever your eye level is centered with the screen.
Twisters and Twister return to 4DX theaters on August 30.
