Cosplayers, this isn’t the news you were looking for.
Dressing up as your favorite Star Wars characters and wielding blasters and lightsabers was once a time-honored tradition, but three of the country’s biggest movie theater chains are putting the kibosh on some of fans’ favorite costumes.
THR reports that AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Cinemas are all issuing restrictions on cosplay for screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Cinemark seems to be taking things particularly seriously as the fine print on its promotional posters for the film, contains the following language: “Star Wars costumes are welcome. However, no face coverings, face paint or simulated weapons (including lightsabers/blasters) will be allowed in the building.”
Next up, AMC, whose website has this to say on the subject: “AMC does not permit weapons or items that would make other guests feel uncomfortable or detract from the movie-going experience. Guests are welcome to come dressed in costume, but we do not permit masks. In short, bring your lightsaber, turn it off during the movie, and leave the blaster and Darth Vader mask at home.”
Good thing they’re not being vague about this. Everyone knows exactly which fake weapons “detract from the movie-going experience.” Let’s see if we can get a bit more clarity from Regal Cinemas.
@YinYangPhoto Cosplay is welcome- just no mask wearing or weapon-like props in theatres though.
— Regal Cinemas (@RegalMovies) June 17, 2015
Well, that is more specific, but it’s also more strict.
Unfortunately, it looks as if we’re all going to have to face the fact that — in the wake of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado and other, similar instances — a trip to the theater is going to be a different sort of experience going forward.
Hopefully Star Wars’ opening weekend will go off without any disturbances in the force and fans around the world can enjoy this historic event in peace. And while we’re hoping for things, let’s all hope that this movie lives up its unprecedented hype.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters on Dec. 18, 2015.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?