Galaxy Corporation opens robot arena inside Dubai Mall cinema
Galaxy Corporation, a South Korean Physical AI entertainment company, has officially opened Galaxy Robot Arena Dubai at Reel Cinemas in Dubai Mall, in a partnership with venue operator Emaar Entertainment. The company describes it as the world's first robot arena to operate within a cinema, positioning the venue as an interactive entertainment experience combining live robot performances with audience participation.
The Dubai launch follows earlier activations in Seoul, where the company operates its flagship arena, and a humanoid robot campaign in New York's Times Square. Galaxy Corporation says it has established a Middle East subsidiary and intends to use Dubai as its regional base for Physical AI commercial activity.
The venue and programming
The opening event showcased a group dance performance in which robots blended K-pop choreography with local Dubai music, presented as a statement on cultural diversity. Additional interactive formats included robot boxing and a drawing-robot experience, allowing visitors to engage directly with the machines rather than observe them passively. Tickets for public shows will go on sale through the Reel Cinemas website and app, though Galaxy Corporation did not disclose pricing, capacity, or an opening date for general admission at the time of the announcement.
Founder and chief executive Yong-ho Choi said at the press conference: "The future of robots is about working alongside humans as interactive partners. We want to open an era in which they perform, engage and share interactive experiences with humans."
The company is using the term "Physical AI" to distinguish embodied robotic systems from software-only AI, framing the Dubai venue as proof of concept for a broader cultural shift in how the public relates to autonomous machines.
Market context
The robot entertainment category sits at an unusual intersection of theme-park economics, live events and advanced robotics. It is a nascent sector with few direct comparators at commercial scale, though several well-funded robotics companies, including Figure AI, Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics, are developing humanoid platforms that could eventually support similar consumer-facing applications.
The choice of Dubai is commercially deliberate. The UAE has positioned itself as a regional technology hub, and Dubai's tourism-driven economy offers a large, internationally mixed footfall that suits a concept built around novelty and cultural spectacle. Emaar Entertainment, the venue operator behind Reel Cinemas, is part of one of the Gulf's largest real estate and hospitality conglomerates, giving Galaxy Corporation an established distribution partner with a regional retail footprint across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Galaxy Corporation said it plans to expand the Robot Arena concept to San Francisco, Hong Kong and Osaka, framing the rollout as the foundation of a "global Physical AI entertainment network." No timelines, capital commitments, or partner names were disclosed for those cities.
Regulatory and standards read-across
Deploying interactive robots in public entertainment venues raises questions that regulators in several of the company's target markets are beginning to address. In the EU, the AI Act's requirements for high-risk AI systems in public spaces will apply to any European expansion. In the UAE, the Dubai Future Foundation has been active in developing frameworks for AI and robotics deployment, though no specific venue-safety standard for public robot interaction was cited by Galaxy Corporation in its materials.
The company's longer-term ambitions will likely require it to engage with emerging safety certification frameworks for humanoid robots operating in close proximity to members of the public, a domain where standards bodies including ISO are still developing guidance. How rigorously those frameworks mature will materially affect the pace at which concepts like Galaxy Robot Arena can scale globally.