by Sahil Patel
Does virtual reality have the potential to be a viable commercial platform for the entertainment industry Maybe!
But first, there needs to be good content.
That’s the message passed on by those who are already active in the field — from the Hollywood studios and producers making VR content to the tech companies building and selling affordable VR devices. It’s the obvious answer, for sure, but also a necessary one: To achieve scale and monetization, first there needs to be videos that people want to watch.
“From a movie studio standpoint, we see VR as one iteration and one toolset for advancing the visual experience,” says Ted Schilowitz, who, as a “futurist” at Fox, is tasked with identifying emerging media platforms for the studio to be active on. Fox has already made some investments in VR, having produced content tied to movies as diverse as the sci-fi blockbuster The Maze Runner, the fantasy family comedy Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, and the Reese Witherspoon-starring independent film Wild.
