South Korean cinema exhibition giant CJ CGV is to open its third U.S. multiplex cinema. It will be located in the Downtown area of San Francisco and open in early 2020.
The company is retrofitting and transforming an existing theater located at 1000 Van Ness Ave., near San Francisco’s Civic Center and Union Square. It will be equipped with Korean-developed cinema technologies, 4DX, which enhances on-screen visuals, with synchronized motion seats and environmental effects such as wind and rain, and ScreenX. A 270-degree, multi-projection system that allows audiences to go beyond the frame of the traditional movie screen.
With 14 screens and 2,217 seats, the complex will be the largest of the three operated by CJ-CGV in North America. The oldest in Los Angeles’ Koreatown has three screens. A second, in Buena Park, Orange County, has eight.
The company said that the facility will show primarily Hollywood blockbuster movies. It will also include showings of a foreign films and alternative content, “serving diversity and dynamic cultures within the region.”
From a base in South Korea, where it is now the market leader, CJ CGV is the world’s 5th largest cinema exhibition group, with 3,828 screens at 524 locations in seven countries. In addition to Korea and the U.S., it operates theaters in China, Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar.