Cosm Domes seek to make 'Harry Potter' universe immersive - butterbeer and all

LOS ANGELES, May 4 (Reuters) - Transforming ​family movie nights into enveloping spectacles and offering viewers a ringside seat for sports, U.S.-based Cosm Domes ​wants ‌to give their customers a new kind of immersive entertainment: a towering LED dome.

"It feels like ⁠being inside the film. It feels real," ⁠Jay Rinsky, founder and CEO of Little ​Cinema, the creative studio that collaborated with Cosm and MakeMake Entertainment to create the "shared reality experiences," told Reuters.

Cosm has so far opened Domes in Los Angeles and Dallas, ​with further venues ‌planned for Atlanta, Detroit and Cleveland.

Screenings are paired with themed food and drinks and photo opportunities, and fans are encouraged to dress as their favorite characters.

For instance, when watching the shared reality version of the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's ​Stone," created in partnership with Warner Bros, the audience can also drink a butterbeer, a ‌non-alcoholic fizzy beverage with a butterscotch flavor that's a favorite of Hogwarts students.

"Shared reality combines the physical - with all ‌of us together - and digital technology," said Alexis Scalice, Cosm's vice president of business development and entertainment.

Cosm, Little Cinema and Warner Bros Pictures launched their multi-film collaboration in 2025 ​with immersive screenings of "The Matrix," followed by "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

The screening of the first "Harry Potter" marks ‌the 25th anniversary of the film that first brought the J.K. Rowling books about the boy wizard to the silver screen.

Cosm's technology seeks to create the next generation ⁠of experience, with ⁠visuals that make audiences feel as though they're flying ‌through Hogwarts or playing Quidditch on broomsticks.

Rinsky said the process was complex and years in the making. The ​biggest challenge, he ​said, was adapting a traditional rectangular film frame to fit ‌a dome, a creative leap that helped define what cinema could be.

"The film is always the hero and we're adding emotional enhancement through visual storytelling," Rinsky said. (Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Jack Ferry, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

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