Wreck-It Ralph Smashes into the VOID

Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph is a colorful blast of adventure, full of nostalgia. The film premiered in 2012 and was a huge success, grossing $471 million worldwide against a $165 million budget. It won the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. 

Six years later, fans can finally get a second dose of the video game ‘bad guy’ in Ralph Breaks the Internet. Released on November 21, the sequel will also get a VR sidekick courtesy of Disney, ILMxLAB and the VOID. 

The VOID is a whole-body, fully immersive VR experience. It already has two big installations under its belt. Ghostbusters: Dimension, created in partnership with Sony, premiered at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in New York City in 2016. Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, which opened at Disney theme parks and other locations last year, was a collaboration with Disney and ILMxLAB. 

In Ralph Breaks VR you can walk and talk, you can also interact with the environments, shooting milkshakes at creatures and outrunning security drones. It will support four people in a shared environment. The experience will be available from November 21 at four US locations. 

Working with iconic IP and creating detailed physical environments to create VR worlds you can see as well as feel - “hyper-reality” - has proved to be a winning formula. Recently, The VOID announced it was opening nine new ‘experience centers’ in American cities, bringing the total number of centers up to 17 spread across the United States, London, Dubai, and Toronto. 

It’s not just Disney that has embraced VR to further fan engagement. Fox has entered the location-based VR entertainment business with its Alien: Descent, a free-roaming VR experience created by Pure Imagination Studios that opened at The Outlets at Orange in Orange County, California. 

Another Hollywood property getting the location-based VR treatment is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The VR game launched in over 100 Dave & Buster locations ahead of the film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which arrived in U.S. cinemas on June 22, 2018. The partnership between the chain, VRC, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, and Universal Studios is the biggest location-based VR deal involving a major movie studio property to date.

While the industry waits for in-home premium VR to pick up the pace, location-based virtual reality (LBVR) has emerged as an important bridge to bring premium VR to the masses. Like cinemas, LBVR gives participants an experience not easily replicated in the home, allowing them to scratch their VR itch without much investment. 

According to a recent VR Tracker Report from Futuresource Consulting, consumer spend on LBVR is expected to reach $809 million by 2022. The ability to access cinematic quality production values, a physical space purpose-built for immersive gameplay, and the high entertainment factor make for a compelling pitch to consumers.

With the Hollywood giants embracing LBVR and interesting partnerships forming, the future of this category is truly exciting. Not only is LBVR providing fantastic introductions to VR for novices, but it’s driving interest in the industry as a whole. It’s no surprise that Greenlight Insights projects that location-based VR experiences will be a billion-dollar business by the end of the year and grow to $12 billion annually in five years.

Sol Rogers is CEO and Founder of REWIND