Cinematic virtual reality (VR) affords 360-degree viewing experiences during which a viewer’s body position defines the momentary viewing perspective: a moving-image content is presented in 360 degrees, while one only accesses the segment of the narrative space toward which they are facing at any given time (Mateer, 2017). The 360-degree space prompts highly immersive experiences and embodied engagement (Van den Broeck, Kawsar, & Schöning, 2017). However, the arbitrariness and constant changes of viewing perspectives may affect a viewer’s comprehension and recollection of narrative elements. The study proposes that such immersive experiences and sensorimotor involvement induce a first-person perspective to observe narrative events (St. Jacques, 2019). As opposed to a camera perspective, first-person perspective is associated with an increased sensation of narrative presence and emotional engagement, as well as more accurate and vivid recollection of information (Serino & Repetto, 2018). To determine these effects, we designed an experiment to compare viewers’ reactions to an animated movie, Pearl (Osborne, 2016), either watched using a head-mounted display or on a regular screen. Due to the restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, laboratory testing of the hypothesis was no longer feasible, therefore an online experiment was designed. In this experiment, participants were recruited from internet-based communities and were requested to use their own equipment at a location of their choice. In the following, we present the methods and findings of the online experiment (Szita, Gander, & Wallstén, 2021) and the methodological challenges and limitations remote data collection holds. Based on these limitations, we outline a follow-up experiment to be conducted in laboratory settings.