AMC movie theater in Burbank spotlights Dolby Cinema

The AMC Burbank 16 rolled out the red carpet, set up the velvet ropes and served up the catering Monday for a “VIP” demonstration of Dolby Cinema at AMC Prime, a new premium movie-going experience available at eight locations in the U.S. and soon to be at four more.

It’s one of the theater chain’s most important innovations, said John McDonald, AMC’s executive vice president of U.S. operations. It brings together plush love-seat style seating with impressive Dolby Laboratories visual and audio technologies.

“We think the experience is breath-taking,” he said.

Inside, the auditorium had a “new theater” smell of fresh paint and untrampled carpeting. It’s matte-black interior, accented with glowing red lighting, gave the space the vibe of a tricked-out muscle car.

Like a high-performance automobile, it’s suped-up in a number of ways, featuring 48 back-lit surround-sound speakers, giant overhead subwoofers, cushy reclining seats with built-in transducers that rumble with the on-screen action and a pair of laser-powered projectors aimed at a 60-foot, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, wraparound screen.

Officials at the nation’s second-largest theater chain, which has 348 locations and 4,960 screens, chose to debut the concept to the media in Burbank, “one of the top theaters in the entire industry,” McDonald said.

McDonald said the theater chain had already been rolling out a premium theater concept, known as ETX and AMC Prime, when it saw a demonstration of the Dolby technology — Dolby Vision, a laser-powered technology that projects darker darks, brighter brights and a broader range of colors, plus Dolby Atmos, dynamic surround sound the company describes as “immersive.”

AMC officials were “blown away,” he said. He also announced that the two companies are accelerating their planned deployment of the concept by two years to have the experience available in 50 locations by the end of 2016.

At the media demonstration, Stuart Bowling, Dolby’s director of content and creative relations, touted the projection system’s high-dynamic range and wider spectrum of colors.

It can project highlights more than a million times brighter than its darkest black — “true inky black” — compared to a 2,000-to-1 ratio for the typical projector. That allows viewers to see clarity and detail even in low-light scene’s.

A trailer that explains the benefits of the system ends with a black screen, then a message in white letters: “Yes, the projector is still on.” Bowling also showed a series of recorded testimonials from Hollywood filmmakers touting the system’s features, while clips from their recent films demonstrated its capabilities.

For example, in scenes from Disney/Pixar’s animated “Inside Out,” the minutest details of spectral wisps and sparks of color emanated from the characters. Bowling called it “total eye candy.”

The system is capable of 3D, but McDonald said AMC had chosen to pursue only 2D for Dolby Cinema at AMC Prime, a decision he said was about giving customers options. They can still see films on one of AMC’s 2,300 RealD 3D or 150 IMAX screens, he said.

Doug Darrow, a Dolby senior vice president, listed several upcoming films slated for release at Dolby Cinema locations and said the film industry is supporting the concept because “they want a great big-screen experience.”

An “experience” is something there’s an “insatiable appetite for” these days, Bowling said. However, the “customer journey” begins before they set foot in the theater, with a trek down an “audio-visual pathway” into the auditorium, passing a nearly 40-foot long, curving screen playing customized movie-related content.

This week, customers will pass by images of a wind-swept alien desert on their way into the theater to see Matt Damon in “The Martian.” Tickets for the experience cost $18.99 for adults ($1.50 cheaper for seniors) and $15.99 for children. That’s $1 more than it costs to see the film in RealD 3D and $5 more than the standard admission.