Dolby Laboratories and Barco announced today that the Empire Leicester Square will show the world premiere of the James Cameron movie Avatar on Thursday, December 10, using the Dolby® 3D solution for large screens. An invited audience of more than 1,300 guests will fill the Empire Leicester Square, which will act as the lead theatre for this much-anticipated premiere.

“Empire Leicester Square boasts one of the largest screens in the UK, which is why it regularly plays host to world premieres,” said Julian Pinn, Business Development Manager, Production Services Group, Dolby Laboratories. “Avatar promises to deliver state-of-the-art 3D special effects to audiences around the world. To ensure every seat in Empire Leicester Square enjoys the fully immersing 3D experience, Dolby Production Services worked with Barco, Empire, and Twentieth Century Fox® to ensure the best combination of brightness, image sharpness, and color accuracy to display this spectacular new movie as director James Cameron intended.”

To meet Cameron's exacting standards for Avatar's premiere, Dolby and Barco worked to provide a customized solution, comprising two Dolby 3D large-screen systems, featuring four Barco DP-3000 ultra bright digital cinema projectors. Using dual stacked Barco projectors for the left eye and an additional dual stack for the right eye, each set features Dolby's 3D color filter technology. Combined with Dolby's lightweight passive 3D glasses - designed for repeated use to reduce the cost per view for exhibitors - Dolby and Barco's technologies deliver a memorable and mesmerizing 3D experience, even on the biggest screens.

Avatar aims to take cinemagoers to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home. James Cameron, who won an Oscar® for his movie Titanic, first conceived the idea for Avatar 15 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of production, Avatar combines live action with state-of-the-art special effects that deliver a fully immersing 3D cinematic experience of a new kind.

“Avatar is one of the most keenly anticipated movies of the year,” says Tim Sinnaeve, Sales Director EMEA, Digital Cinema Business, Barco. “So we are delighted to be working with Dolby to meet James Cameron's meticulous requirements, which will ensure an outstanding 3D screening for everyone attending this important world premiere at the Empire.”