Sony’s Digital Cinema Solutions Group has started trials of its developing web-based, content exchange platform, called “xMassif,” which it demonstrated this past week at CinemaCon. A half dozen exhibitors are involved in the testing.

4DX is aiming to push its immersive cinema system into the U.S., starting with a focus on Los Angeles and Miami, company representatives said at CinemaCon.

The system is designed to put audiences into a film's environment with motion, wind, fog, lighting and scent-based effects.

But a big issue for exhibitors will be cost. A 4DX installation for a 200-seat auditorium runs a whopping $1 million.

Fox unveiled a clip from How To Train Your Dragon 2 — the sequel to DreamWorks Animation’s Oscar-nominated animated feature that centers on the friendship between a boy, Hiccup, and a dragon, Toothless--during its presentation Thursday at CinemaCon

In the 3D clip, a now-teenage Hiccup soars through the clouds on Toothless’ back. They dive toward earth, and Hiccup tries out his own invented "wings."

LAS VEGAS -- Director Oliver Stone generated enthusiastic applause when he urged theater owners to maintain quality, including light and sound levels.

“It's not good,” he said, speaking on a filmmakers panel, Wednesday at CinemaCon. “I went to see a digital screening of The Avengers last year. … It was awful. I could barely see it.”

He believes that if they maintain high quality “the audience will be loyal to you forever, because it will be different from the home.”

Director Baz Luhrmann -- who is still “tweaking” his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby -- introduced a dazzling 3D montage from his May 10 release via a videotaped message Tuesday at CinemaCon.

LAS VEGAS -- By the end of this year, distributors might no longer deliver film prints to theaters in North America. Cans full of reels of celluloid will be a thing of the analog past. When it comes to movies, and how they are distributed, the digital revolution will be complete.  

The transition from film to digital is sure to be a big topic as exhibitors gather in Las Vegas for their annual CinemaCon convention.

Dolby has installed Atmos in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in order to showcase its immersive sound system at CinemaCon, which opens Monday in Las Vegas.

Select footage during studio presentations from Disney, Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros. will play in Atmos this week in the venue, along with screenings of Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University and Fox’s The Heat.

If you saw the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington, or attended a screening of The Croods earlier this year at DreamWorks Animation’s Campanile Theater, you have already previewed new RealD screen technology—effectively combining traits of a white screen and silver screen—that is being introduced this week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.