The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2009–2025
CJ turns cinema seats into a theme-park ride — 4DX launches 2009, now 775 screens
CJ 4DPLEX bolts motion seats, wind, fog and scent onto movies — the world's first multisensory cinema format, now 775 screens in 70 countries.
CJ 4DPLEX · CJ CGV
What it had to solve
In the late 2000s, home entertainment was pulling audiences away from theaters. CJ Group chairman Lee Jay-hyun proposed combining theme-park ride concepts with cinema, so CJ CGV spun off a unit — CJ 4DPLEX — to build a multisensory format from scratch.
How it works
By the late 2000s, home entertainment was squeezing cinemas. CJ Group chairman Lee Jay-hyun proposed integrating the concept and technology of theme-park rides with movie theaters, and CJ CGV carried it out by spinning off CJ 4DPLEX to perfect a multisensory format.
The engineering task was enormous: motion chairs and environmental effects — wind, bubbles, fog, scent and bursts of cool air — had to be synchronized with individual scenes, requiring more than 300 components per auditorium. The world's first 4DX theater opened at CGV Sangam in Seoul in 2009, and the company began licensing the platform abroad, making its first overseas deal with Mexico's Cinepolis in 2011.
4DX grew into a global category: by 2025 CJ Newsroom reported 775 4DX screens in 70 countries, plus 463 ScreenX screens in 51 countries. The Korea Herald reported the CEO's ambition that 4DX become 'a global brand that consumers can immediately associate with the movie industry, like IMAX.'
Why it lands
- The idea flipped the competitive problem: instead of matching home entertainment, it made the theater the only place the full experience exists.
- Licensing the platform to rival chains turned a single Korean invention into an industry-wide format rather than a CGV exclusive.
- Scene-synchronized editing made the format reproducible — a content pipeline, not just hardware — so any movie could be re-mastered for 4DX.
- Proving the concept at home in Seoul before going global gave the company working evidence to sell to Cinepolis, Pathé and other partners.
What it did
The format spread from one Seoul screen to 775 screens across 70 countries (CJ Newsroom, 2025); the Korea Herald quoted the CEO aiming to make 4DX a category brand 'like IMAX,' and Hollywood studios now release major films in the format.
What you can take
Compete on what home can't replicate: when convenience moved movies into living rooms, CJ changed what a ticket buys — a physical, ride-like experience — instead of fighting on price.
Since then
CJ 4DPLEX kept expanding the format into Hollywood releases, K-pop concert films and sister formats such as ScreenX; by 2025 the company counted 775 4DX screens in 70 countries and reported over $55 million in domestic box office for the first half of the year, up 47%.
Sources
- From Watching to Experiencing: CJ 4DPLEX's Soaring Global Rise
- Feel and ride the movies — CJ 4DPlex aims to deliver 4DX tech to 300 theaters
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