Star Wars Turns 50 at Cosm: Disney Signs Multiyear Immersive Deal

By Elena Vasquez

The original 1977 "Star Wars" will screen on Cosm's 87-foot-diameter wraparound dome in Inglewood beginning March 2027, under a multiyear, multifilm agreement between the Walt Disney Co. and Cosm. The deal marks the 50th anniversary of George Lucas' film and extends Cosm's push from live sports into Hollywood entertainment.

"Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" is the first title in the agreement. Cosm, based in El Segundo, has previously screened "The Matrix," "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," all Warner Bros. films. The "Harry Potter" production is the most recent release to receive what Cosm calls its treatment: supplemental CGI animation that builds out the film's environments around the untouched original frame.

What does the deal include?

Cosm will screen the 2019 edition of "A New Hope," a remaster produced to coincide with the launch of the Disney+ streaming service. The film will display in its original 16:9 format. Cosm partners with Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and visual effects house MakeMake on the release. Artist Shepard Fairey created a poster for the event, and Cosm will build a themed food and drink menu inspired by the film.

Sony Pictures recently announced a $100 million investment and a minority stake in Cosm, according to the announcement. The company operates venues in Dallas, Detroit and Atlanta, with a Cleveland location in development, and shares content across all sites.

"We are thrilled obviously to be a part of the 50th anniversary," said Alexis Scalice, vice president and head of Cosm Studios. "There are definitely going to be moments and effects that you haven't ever seen before at Cosm."

How does the technology work?

Cosm's dome surrounds audiences with a high-definition screen, and the company brands its productions as "shared reality," a term nodding to their communal nature. The screen can shift the film's frame while CGI content extends the world around it, at times creating a theme-park-ride sense of movement. Cosm positions this against earlier experiments in expanded moviegoing, from the brief 1990s interactive-cinema trend, revived by Netflix's "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch," to 4-DX theaters with movement-enabled seats and effects like those in "Twisters." Like the larger Sphere in Las Vegas, which focuses on live music, Cosm offers previously unexplored vantage points.

The company's "Matrix" production, a collaboration with experiential agency Little Cinema, shows the mechanism. A nighttime city skyline places viewers on a rooftop. An office becomes a maze of cubicles. The red pill versus blue pill scene centers the frame between oversized, glowing capsules, and Neo's awakening drops viewers amid industrial pods.

"I always say it's like a best-hits album, where you have got to deliver," Scalice said of the approach. "You've got to deliver on light speed. You've got to deliver on moments."

Will the format scale?

Scalice measures success by fidelity to the original. "My favorite compliment from fans is, 'I've seen this movie 100 times, but I feel like I've seen it for the first time today,'" she said. "That's our biggest compliment because we don't want to take away the authenticity of it."

The "Star Wars" release tests whether that formula carries a franchise already steeped in theme-park spectacle. The multiyear agreement leaves room for additional Disney titles if the 50th-anniversary run delivers.