The battle to get people to come back to the cinema has been a tough one. Hoyts’ latest not-so-secret weapon in this war is to offer a wider variety of screen and chair technologies. At the centre of this strategy is Hoyts Apex, a massive screen that uses LED technology instead of traditional cinema projectors.
Apex joins several other technologies Hoyts is pinning its hopes on, including D-Box, IMAX, and ScreenX. Hoyts Melbourne Central is one of the latest locations to get the big LED screen, with tickets costing $34 for adults and $28.50 for children.
At an early first look at the new cinema screen, Hoyts executives explained how it fits with the chain’s overall plans. With the cinema industry still rebuilding after COVID disruptions, in addition to the availability of streaming services, Hoyts still boasts a 30 per cent market share in the cinema space, and three million registered rewards members across Australia and New Zealand.
According to the Hoyts executives, 2026 has been a good year so far, claiming an increase of 31 per cent in the year to date. They didn’t specify whether that figure was revenue, ticket sales, or attendance, but were confident that people are getting back to cinemas. It’s hoped that major new technologies, like Hoyts Apex, will keep that trend going.
Hoyts Apex brings big and bright to the cinema
Apex is the most interesting new technology to come to Hoyts. It’s an absolutely massive LED screen. In Melbourne, it’s 21 metres wide, 10 metres tall, with the one in Perth maxing out to a massive 25m wide, both featuring a 2.31 aspect ratio.
The screen itself is made up of modular cabinets. Each cabinet holds 10 smaller modules, with each module made up of 5,148 LEDs, for an impressive total of 17 million LEDs across the whole screen. Each module can be taken out and repaired or replaced individually in Australia, reducing any possible downtime should a few pixels die. Melbourne Central also has 100 spare modules on hand, just in case.
The panels themselves are flat, but the screen itself has a gentle curve, less than a gaming monitor, but enough to further immerse the viewer in the film.
The benefits of Apex are quite significant: there’s basically no maintenance required (beyond occasionally tweezing out a broken LED to replace it), they last longer than a traditional cinema projector, it marks an end to people blocking the projector’s beam if they have to get up midway through the movie, and the screen is brighter, allowing for whiter whites.
With a 6,000-nit peak brightness, the screen supports HDR, while the audio setup supports Dolby Atmos. There’s no light bleed from the screen technology itself, though there can be some baked into the content (as I discovered in The Devil Wears Prada 2). However, reds do seem to be a bit washed out on it, from what I’ve seen.
Overall, it’s a pretty incredible screen technology, and the experience of watching a film on it is excellent.
Everything’s bigger on IMAX
Everyone by now is very familiar with the bigger, taller screens of IMAX, with more films having sequences natively filmed on IMAX cameras. One of the most notable is The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film shot entirely for IMAX.
This is paired with IMAX laser projectors and IMAX sound to make the experience more immersive. The demo at Melbourne Central certainly showed off how impressive the setup is, and I’m really looking forward to seeing The Odyssey on those screens.
D-Box gets your chair moving
The technology with the funniest name is D-Box. These motion recliners have been rolled out at more than 30 cinemas across the country so far, and they move and vibrate to match the action on the screen.
It’s not as intense as one of those 4D Cinema rides you get at theme parks, but if that’s what you were imagining, you’re on the right track. The chairs pitch, roll and vibrate in sync, which makes them a perfect match for action films.
Surprisingly, a friend of mine saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 in the D-Box and reported that it actually heightened the emotional intensity of the film. It also made her more aware of vehicles that passed by on screen (stay tuned for more thoughts on The Sapphic AV Club podcast).
For those who aren’t up for the full intensity of the D-Box, there are individual controls for each seat that can be adjusted throughout the film. It’s also a fully cushioned comfort recliner, so you can be comfortable while experiencing the action.
ScreenX stretches the limits
I must admit, I do not see the point of ScreenX in its current form. It’s a square room with a regular (albeit) cinema screen in front, and then screens on the walls to the left and right. The effect is very impressive and immersive. I can see it being a place where things filmed for Apple Vision Pro might be screened to the masses.
But the way it was shown to us was with a clip from Project Hail Mary, with the left and rightmost 10 per cent of the screen stretched into oblivion on the side walls. It had the potential to be cool, but instead it was just distracting.
If the footy finals can be filmed in a way that takes advantage of the side walls, or a concert perhaps, I can see it being amazing. But for the use case we were shown, it was pretty unpleasant. The seats were comfy, and the popcorn was delicious. But those stretched sides… hoo boy.
While all of these new cinema technologies are installed at Hoyts Melbourne Central, they can be found spread around the Hoyts network of cinemas, with more expected to be renovated soon.
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