by LEXRA
Bob Cooney talks with the people building location-based XR: the operators running venues, the developers making the content, and the investors funding both. What's making money, what isn't, and why. From LEXRA. Episodes drop when there's something to say.
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Publishing Since
2/27/2025
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July 28, 2026
<p><strong>Immersive Cinema Deep Dive: Cosm, The Sphere, and 5,000 Empty Movie Theaters — with Lance Loesberg and Jeremy Dalton</strong></p><p>Bob sits down with two people who have been building immersive entertainment since the earliest days: Lance Loesberg, who ran Virtuality's North American business in the 1990s and went on to pioneer 360° video production at BigLook360, and Jeremy Dalton, who built and led PwC's first dedicated immersive technology team before launching XRHQ.</p><p>The three dig into the new wave of immersive cinema — Cosm's half-dome reimagining of The Matrix, The Sphere's AI-expanded Wizard of Oz, and ABBA Voyage's $175 million virtual concert — and ask the hard business questions: what did the content cost, who is actually making money, and can any of it scale?</p><p>Then Bob connects the dots to a stat that should have every cinema owner's attention: roughly 40% of opening-weekend box office for tentpole films now comes from about 2% of screens — the IMAX ones — while thousands of underused auditoriums sit idle. With free-roam VR experiences like Horizons of Khufu generating nearly $30 million in ticket sales on less than $100K of deployable hardware, the empty movie theater might be immersive entertainment's biggest real-estate opportunity.</p><p>Chapters:</p><ul><li>00:00 Intro: two guests, 30 years of immersive history</li><li>00:32 Lance's journey: Virtuality pods, laser tag arcades, and the GM 360° VR test drive</li><li>04:49 Jeremy's journey: building PwC's immersive team, deploying headsets in 50+ countries, launching XRHQ</li><li>07:51 Why now: gaming's shakeout and the shift to premium immersive formats</li><li>08:47 Cosm explained: "a planetarium on steroids" — and how The Matrix was adapted</li><li>14:07 Ticket pricing, F&B, and whether an $80M venue pencils</li><li>17:30 ABBA Voyage: $175M in content costs and what it proved</li><li>20:31 The Sphere: "the most immersive experience outside a headset," Postcard from Earth, and the Wizard of Oz AI controversy</li><li>23:05 IMAX vs. the death spiral: 40% of opening box office on 2% of screens</li><li>26:06 Studios vs. cinema owners: the broken distribution window</li><li>31:57 Shooting for VR: Doug Liman's Asteroid and why headset filmmaking is its own craft</li><li>34:27 Horizons of Khufu economics: ~$30M in tickets on under $100K of CapEx — and why free-roam VR fits inside a theater</li><li>38:20 Are headsets scalable? Adoption, Gen Alpha, and the niche-vs-mainstream question</li><li>43:50 Closing question: the one classic movie each would turn into a free-roam VR experience</li><li>47:18 Bonus: is location-based VR actually making money? Sandbox economics, Zero Latency, Eclipso</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Guests:</p><ul><li>Lance Loesberg — BigLook360, VR content studio and 360° video pioneer: <a href="https://www.biglook360.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">https://www.biglook360.com/</a></li><li>Jeremy Dalton — founder, XRHQ; former head of PwC's immersive technologies team: <a href="https://xrhq.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">https://xrhq.com/</a></li></ul><p>Bob's Sandbox economics deep dive: <a href="https://bobcooney.com/sandbox-vr-franchise-economics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://bobcooney.com/sandbox-vr-franchise-economics/ </a></p>
July 1, 2026
<p>Every empty VR slot is a plane leaving the gate with a seat unsold. That mindset built Funlab into 50 venues across Australia and New Zealand. Blaise Witnish, the company's Chief Growth and Innovation Officer and acting US CEO, is now moving to Los Angeles to bring the playbook to America.</p><p>Bob Cooney sits down with Blaise for a straight operator masterclass. Funlab runs eight brands, over 3,000 staff, and three Zero Latency free-roam sites, all on one principle: VR is a utilization game. She lays out the airline model for pricing, the "peak the peaks and pack the gaps" mantra, and why a five-minute free taster converts at 95 percent.</p><p>Then the practical stuff. Her "service is selling" philosophy and how she runs it across 3,000 staff. Why she hires people who love to serve and bring real energy. How STEM school groups turn into weekly baseline revenue. And why a simple viewing window into the VR arena doubles your cross-sell.</p><p>If you run a venue, one location or fifty, this is for you.</p><p>Watch the recording → <a href="https://thevrcollective.com/peak-the-peaks-pack-the-gaps-funlabs-vr-utilization-playbook/">https://thevrcollective.com/peak-the-peaks-pack-the-gaps-funlabs-vr-utilization-playbook/</a></p><p>The VR Collective → <a href="https://thevrcollective.com/">https://thevrcollective.com/</a><br>LEXRA → <a href="https://www.lexra.org/home">https://www.lexra.org/home</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Chapters</strong></p><p>0:00 — Intro: where in the world is Bob, and Blaise's move to LA<br>2:13 — How Funlab found Zero Latency<br>4:15 — Reading trade areas with Placer.ai<br>7:19 — Why Funlab chose Zero Latency<br>9:06 — Eight brands and the precinct model<br>10:42 — Three Zero Latency sites, distinct catchments<br>11:32 — Cross-sell and the viewing window<br>13:05 — Tasters: five minutes free, 95% conversion<br>15:32 — Training 3,000 staff on the utilization game<br>17:40 — Bring VR to the front: warpaint and curiosity<br>20:28 — Service is selling<br>22:13 — Hiring people who love to serve<br>26:01 — Zero Latency vs laser tag<br>29:45 — How mainstream VR really is<br>31:10 — Pricing: premium peak, accessible off-peak<br>33:45 — Filling gaps with geo-targeted ads<br>34:50 — STEM school groups as weekly baseline revenue<br>37:16 — How VR changed the attraction mix<br>38:52 — Coming to America: Hijinx Hotel and brand strategy<br>41:20 — Inside Hijinx Hotel<br>42:44 — The VR content the industry needs next<br>44:45 — Who drives LBE spending now<br>46:01 — Peak the peaks, pack the gaps</p>
October 16, 2025
<p><strong>Podcast Intro</strong></p><p>In 2017, IMAX tried to bring virtual reality to theaters, and failed. But the story didn’t end there.</p><p>In this episode, Bob Cooney explores what went wrong with IMAX VR, why its brand extension never made sense, and how a new generation of large-scale, story-driven VR experiences is succeeding where IMAX stumbled. From Horizon of Khufu and Titanic to the upcoming Black Mirror immersive experience, Bob connects the dots between IMAX’s documentary roots and today’s free-roam VR storytelling boom.</p><p>He also breaks down the numbers, the business models, and the opportunity for movie theaters sitting on underperforming auditoriums to transform them into profitable immersive venues.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Show Notes (for podcast platforms)</strong></p><p><strong>Topics Covered:</strong></p><ul><li><p>How IMAX VR began and why it failed to align with IMAX’s core storytelling brand.</p></li><li><p>The historical evolution of IMAX: from museum documentaries to blockbuster format.</p></li><li><p>Why early VR gaming arcades couldn’t make money (low throughput, high labor, poor fit).</p></li><li><p>The rise of “large-scale free-roam storytelling VR” , and why it works.</p></li><li><p>Case studies:</p><ul><li><p>Horizon of Khufu (Excurio) - the $25M immersive expedition that proved the model.</p></li><li><p>Univrse + Banijay’s upcoming Black Mirror VR - mainstream storytelling in LBE.</p></li><li><p>Wevr, Small Creative, and others bridging art, education, and entertainment.</p></li></ul></li><li><p>How 2,500 sq ft theaters can host 50+ guests profitably.</p></li><li><p>The movie theater opportunity: converting 5,000 underperforming auditoriums into VR experiences.</p></li><li><p>Real-world examples:</p><ul><li><p>Sphere’s $15M pre-sales for Wizard of Oz.</p></li><li><p>Cosm’s immersive screenings of The Matrix and Willy Wonka.</p></li><li><p>IMAX generating 20% of opening-weekend box office on just 1% of global screens.</p></li></ul></li><li><p>Why collaboration among VR studios is essential, and how LEXRA aims to unite them.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Key Takeaway:</strong><br>The future of immersive entertainment lies between cinema and gaming. Story-driven, free-roam VR - what Bob calls “walk-through theaters” - can do for this decade what IMAX did for the 2000s: redefine how audiences experience stories.</p><p><strong>Connect & Continue the Conversation:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Join the discussion at <a href="https://www.lexra.org/">LEXRA</a></p></li></ul><li><ul><li>Check out the latest in LBE VR/XR at <a href="https://thevrcollective.com/">the VR Collective</a></li></ul><ul><li>Get news about the newest innovations and products straight to your inbox via the <a href="https://thevrcollective.com/inside/">INSIDE VR newsletter</a></li></ul><ul><br></ul></li><p><br></p>
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Bob Cooney talks with the people building location-based XR: the operators running venues, the developers making the content, and the investors funding both. What's making money, what isn't, and why.
From LEXRA.
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