Imax closes its New York City VR center, bringing VR center closures to three; company says it won't spend on VR projects in 2019
Imax continues to scale down its virtual reality (VR) ambitions: The company closed its New York-based VR Center in recent days, bringing the total number of such closures up to 3. Tweets: @rafat Tweets: @rafat : Oh, also, VR isn't the savior of anything, much less any part of media. http://theoutline.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Imax's New York closure is the third step in a retreat already underway: months earlier the company canceled the Google-partnered VR camera after Google pulled out to focus on AR, and the zeroed-out 2019 VR budget signaled the center business was next. The endgame arrived fast — a December SEC filing committed Imax to closing its remaining three centers and writing off certain VR investments.
The story matters because it splits the location-based VR market into two camps: media companies exiting entirely, and cinema chains treating VR as a theater amenity — Cinemark and AMC began testing high-end multiplayer VR in select theaters just months after Imax folded.
First-order effects
- Imax stops funding VR development for 2019 outright, leaving its three remaining VR centers operating without a committed roadmap ahead of the write-off filing.
- The New York closure removes one of the highest-profile location-based VR venues in the US market, directly shrinking the footprint Imax had built as its out-of-home experiment.
Second-order effects
- Cinema chains move into the vacuum: Cinemark and AMC's multiplayer VR tests position theaters, not dedicated VR centers, as the surviving venue model for premium out-of-home VR.
- Hardware and content partners lose a flagship buyer — following Google's exit from the camera project, Imax's full withdrawal leaves fewer deep-pocketed media companies underwriting location-based VR equipment.
Third-order effects
- The pattern extends beyond Imax: Intel shut down its volumetric-capture Intel Studios stage two years later, and Meta's Reality Labs cuts closed three VR gaming studios — pointing toward structural consolidation where only platform owners and theater operators sustain VR, not standalone center businesses.
- If the split holds, location-based VR becomes an add-on revenue line inside existing entertainment venues rather than a standalone category, resetting what investors will fund in immersive out-of-home formats.
The trend: Big-media companies are exiting standalone location-based VR while cinema chains absorb the format as a theater amenity — a consolidation now visible from Imax through Intel Studios to Meta's studio closures.