The StoryFutures Xperience Research Report 2024 offers vital insights for curators and programmers exploring immersive storytelling in cinema and arts venues. Based on a national pilot programme across eight UK venues, the report demonstrates a growing, diverse audience appetite for VR experiences and outlines how cinemas can become scalable hubs for immersive content.
Whether you are seeking to pilot immersive events or expand an existing programme, this report offers data-driven guidance to help you attract new audiences, maximise your venue’s potential, and support the future of immersive storytelling.
For curators and programmers, the report highlights:
- Guidelines for exhibition setup and programming models
- Opportunities for integrating VR into existing festivals and partnerships.
- Collaboration between creators and venues to support marketing, interactivity, and exhibition logistics.
Highlights
- Audience demand is growing: 83% of attendees said they were likely to attend a similar VR event again, and 87% enjoyed their experience “very much” or “quite a lot.”
- New audiences reached: 45% of VR attendees were visiting the venue for the first time. Younger demographics (ages 16–25) made up a significant portion of these new viewers.
- Social experience appeal: 87% attended with friends or family. Attendees likened the VR cinema experience to traditional cinema-going—valuing immersion, escapism, and post-event discussions.
- Feasibility of cinemas: Audiences found cinema environments more immersive and comfortable than multipurpose spaces. Cinema + headphone setups scored highest for enjoyment and absorption.
- Scalability and creativity: Synchronised cinema screenings of VR content were successful, showing that group VR can be both logistically feasible and artistically impactful.
StoryFutures Xperience
StoryFutures Xperience was a national showcasing programme of virtual reality experiences run by StoryFutures, the UK’s National Centre for Immersive Storytelling, with the support of the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding.
StoryFutures led the programme with a network of venues across the UK, aiming to understand how cinema and arts hub venues might be part of a network that can improve audience access to wider forms of screen culture.
StoryFutures was run by the National Film and Television School (NFTS) and Royal Holloway, University of London and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. StoryFutures Xperience VR experiences were showcased at Chapter, Cardiff; Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, Dundee; Depot, Lewes; Queens Film Theatre, Belfast and Showroom Workstation, Sheffield.