Latest news with #MovieMate
Straits Times
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Chatbot Movie Mate in the United States wants to engage moviegoers in cinemas
Moviegoers use their mobile phones during a re-release screening of M3GAN, in which Blumhouse and Meta were testing the Movie Mate app. PHOTO: PHILIP CHEUNG/NYTIMES Chatbot Movie Mate in the United States wants to engage moviegoers in cinemas LOS ANGELES – Should people be able to use their mobile phones after the lights go down in movie theatres? Hollywood has pondered that question for years as a way to make moviegoing more appealing to teenagers and young adults. Cinephiles have always responded with venom, so the answer has always been an emphatic 'no.' But desperate times call for desperate measures. Despite recent successes such as A Minecraft Movie and Sinners, the North American box office is down 33 per cent from 2019 – just before the Covid-19 pandemic sped up a consumer shift to streaming – according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data. So in late April , Blumhouse, a horror studio affiliated with Universal Pictures, teamed with Meta to experiment with a technology called Movie Mate. It is a chatbot that encourages people to tap, tap, tap on hand-held small screens as they watch films on a big one. Users gain access to exclusive trivia and witticisms in real time, synced with what is happening in the movie. Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, has positioned Movie Mate as a way 'to get audiences back in theatres'. Nearly 20 per cent of moviegoers aged six to 17 already send text messages during movies even though it is against the rules, according to data from the National Research Group, a film industry consultancy. Why not try to channel that instinct, Blumhouse argues, towards what is happening on the theatre screen? As far as product roll-outs go, this was a muted one. Blumhouse and Universal made Movie Mate available for only one night and only during screenings of M3GAN (2022), about artificial intelligence run amok. The re-release was part of a Blumhouse fan event called Halfway to Halloween. About 70 people attended a showing at the AMC theatre at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles. 'I know this sounds weird, but please take out your phones,' a bubbly Blumhouse representative told the crowd before the movie started . Instructions were given for how to activate Movie Mate, and the lights went down, revealing an auditorium filled with glowing devices. 'Oh, wow, this is really cool,' Ms Flannery Johnston, 28, said as the chatbot came to life, offering a personalised hello from M3GAN, the diabolical AI doll at the centre of the movie. Over the next 20 minutes, the chatbot served up about 10 messages. One was a question: 'Do you think they're inventing other dolls like me?' An affirmative reply prompted the response, 'Don't be delulu.' A moviegoer using the mobile phone during the re-release screening of M3GAN in which the Movie Mate app was being tested. PHOTO: PHILIP CHEUNG/NYTIMES Ms Johnston's interest quickly faded, however. 'I started to feel uncomfortable looking at my phone and basically just waited until after the movie was over to read through all the messages,' she said as the credits rolled. Blumhouse deemed the experiment worthwhile. 'The enthusiasm we saw from fans – especially younger ones – shows there's real interest in finding ways to enhance, not replace, the fun of going to the movies,' said Ms Karen Barragan, a spokesperson for the studio, in an e-mail. As for the criticisms? 'Not everything is going to be for everybody,' she said. Movie Mate is part of a grand plan by Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to spread chatbots across all of his apps and other parts of the internet. In his vision of the future, artificially intelligent chatbots will be open to having fun, personalised conversations anywhere at any time. Meta declined an interview request. Not everyone in the movie business is jumping at the opportunity. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a boutique theatre chain that caters to film buffs, declined to participate in the Movie Mate rollout , as did a smattering of other theatres across the country . But the two biggest multiplex operators, AMC Entertainment and Regal Cineworld, decided to give it a shot, with the stipulation that ticket buyers had to be clearly informed ahead of time about what to expect. 'How our guests interact with content outside our theatres is changing, and if we have a studio partner that wants to try new things, we are open to supporting those initiatives,' Mr Adam Rymer, Regal Cineworld's chief commercial officer for the United States, said in an e-mail. To some degree, young moviegoers are forcing their hands. A Minecraft Movie became a runaway hit in April after young attendees flouted theatre rules about noise and phone use. They threw popcorn, sat on one another's shoulders and shouted 'chicken jockey' – a phrase in the film – all while recording their antics and posting the videos on TikTok and other social media sites. Last year, Wicked became a box-office smash in part because of a similar dynamic, with fans bursting into song during showings and sharing videos online. Mr Abhijay Prakash, Blumhouse's president, said Movie Mate could help 'eventise' film releases, creating a fear-of-missing-out urgency among young ticket buyers. 'It's not us saying, 'Come to a movie theatre and randomly be on your phone,'' he said. 'It's about enriching the experience. Younger audiences love to interact with their entertainment.' NYTIMES Mike Isaac contributed reporting from San Francisco. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Chatting in Movie Theaters Is a No-No. But What About Chatbots?
Should people be able to use their phones after the lights go down in movie theaters? Hollywood has pondered that question for years as a way to make moviegoing more appealing to teenagers and young adults. Because cinephiles have always responded with venom, to put it mildly, the answer has always been an emphatic 'no.' But desperate times call for desperate measures. Despite recent successes like 'A Minecraft Movie' and 'Sinners,' the North American box office is down 33 percent from 2019 — just before the pandemic sped up a consumer shift to streaming — according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. So on Wednesday, Blumhouse, the horror studio affiliated with Universal Pictures, teamed with Meta to experiment with a technology called Movie Mate. It's a chatbot that encourages people to tap, tap, tap on hand-held small screens as they watch films on a big one. Users gain access to exclusive trivia and witticisms in real time (synced with what's happening in the movie). Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has positioned Movie Mate as a way 'to get audiences back in theaters.' Nearly 20 percent of moviegoers ages 6 to 17 already send text messages during movies even though it's against the rules, according to data from the National Research Group, a film industry consultancy. Why not try to channel that instinct, Blumhouse argues, toward what is happening on the theater screen? As far as product rollouts go, this was a muted one: Blumhouse and Universal made Movie Mate available for only one night and only during screenings of an old movie, 'M3GAN,' about artificial intelligence run amok. (Traditionalists, insert your own joke here.) The rerelease was part of a Blumhouse fan event called Halfway to Halloween. About 70 people attended a showing at the AMC theater at Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles, not counting a couple of dozen Meta and Blumhouse employees. 'I know this sounds weird, but please take out your phones,' a bubbly Blumhouse representative told the crowd before the movie started. 'I see that some of you are just staring at me,' she said. 'We actually want you to take out your phones.' Instructions were given for how to activate Movie Mate, and the lights went down, revealing an auditorium filled with glowing devices. 'Oh, wow, this is really cool,' Flannery Johnston, 28, said as the chatbot came to life, offering a personalized hello from M3GAN, the diabolical A.I. doll at the center of the movie. Over the next 20 minutes, the chatbot served up about 10 messages. One was a question: 'Do you think they're inventing other dolls like me?' An affirmative reply prompted the response, 'Don't be delulu.' Ms. Johnston's interest quickly faded, however. 'I started to feel uncomfortable looking at my phone — I didn't want to be obnoxious — and basically just waited until after the movie was over to read through all the messages,' she said as the credits rolled. (A critic for the Hollywood trade publication Variety had a similar reaction, calling Movie Mate little more than a marketing gimmick.) Blumhouse deemed the experiment worthwhile. 'The enthusiasm we saw from fans — especially younger ones — shows there's real interest in finding ways to enhance, not replace, the fun of going to the movies,' Karen Barragan, a spokeswoman for the studio, said in an email on Thursday. As for the criticisms? 'Not everything is going to be for everybody,' she said. Movie Mate is part of a grand plan by Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, to spread chatbots across all of his apps and other parts of the internet. In Mr. Zuckerberg's vision of the future, artificially intelligent chatbots will be open to having fun, personalized conversations anywhere at anytime, apparently even inside movie theaters. Meta declined an interview request. Not everyone in the movie business is jumping at the opportunity. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a boutique theater chain that caters to film buffs, refused to participate in the Movie Mate rollout, as did a smattering of other theaters across the country. (An Alamo spokesman declined to comment.) But the two biggest multiplex operators, AMC Entertainment and Regal Cineworld, decided to give it a shot, with the stipulation that ticket buyers had to be clearly informed ahead of time about what to expect. 'How our guests interact with content outside our theaters is changing, and if we have a studio partner that wants to try new things we are open to supporting those initiatives,' Adam Rymer, Regal Cineworld's chief commercial officer for the United States, said in an email. AMC declined to comment. To some degree, young moviegoers are forcing their hands. 'A Minecraft Movie' (Warner Bros.) became a runaway hit last month after young attendees flouted theater rules about noise and phone use. They threw popcorn, sat on one another's shoulders and shouted 'chicken jockey,' a line in the film, all while recording their antics and posting the videos on TikTok and other social media sites. Last year, 'Wicked' (Universal) became a box office smash ($754 million) in part because of a similar dynamic, with fans bursting into song during showings and sharing videos online. In 2023, the romantic comedy 'Anyone but You' (Sony) took in a surprisingly strong $220 million after people started to make TikTok videos of themselves interacting with the ending. Abhijay Prakash, Blumhouse's president, said Movie Mate could help 'eventize' film releases, creating a fear-of-missing-out urgency among young ticket buyers. 'It's not us saying, 'Come to a movie theater and randomly be on your phone,'' he said. 'It's about enriching the experience. Younger audiences love to interact with their entertainment.' Blumhouse and Universal, however, have no plans to offer Movie Mate at screenings of new movies, including 'M3GAN 2.0,' which arrives in theaters on June 27.
CBC
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Text with M3GAN and clock in at the Severance office — immersive experiences are changing how we watch
M3GAN returns to theatres! This time, U.S. audiences can text with chatbot version of killer doll during movie The internet's favourite killer AI doll is back in theatres and this time, viewers can slide into M3GAN's DMs during screenings to text with a chatbot version of the character. Will it set a new low for theatre etiquette, or is it just another innovative way audiences are being invited to actively participate? The sci-fi horror movie went viral in 2022 thanks to the doll's killer dance moves, and now it's being re-released in the U.S. for one night only as part of Blumhouse Productions' Halfway to Halloween festival on April 30, and to hype the sequel, M3GAN 2.0, coming out June 27. Viewers of the re-release will be able to use their phones to interact with a chatbot version of the title character powered by Meta's new Movie Mate technology. And the M3GAN chatbot isn't the only innovation on offer as we move from an era where we passively sit and watch and into one where we're encouraged to interact with our entertainment. Immersive experiences for shows like the Apple TV+ hit Severance are transporting fans into fictional worlds. Experts say these marketing strategies can help build engagement, but also note authenticity is key. Why a movie chatbot might work … The first M3GAN film garnered a lot of attention online, going viral on social media and contributing to its box-office success. Three years later, the sequel seems to be striving to recreate that same momentum. By sending a direct message to the internet's favourite killer doll on Instagram, viewers attending the M3GAN re-releases will be able to access exclusive content, trivia and behind-the-scenes info. Kristen Duke, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Toronto, says the fact that the screenings are a one-night-only event introduces an element of scarcity, and enhances the value and excitement people could feel. "Part of the goal will be to kind of stimulate conversation afterward, like, 'I had this crazy interaction with the M3GAN bot,' " she said. Duke also noted that this may be specifically intended to attract Gen Z consumers, because they're already in the habit of using their phones as a second screen. "That might be a new way of the future," she said. … and how it could backfire Duke also points out that M3GAN 's chatbot gambit could mean that if people are busy on their phones, they might miss details in the film. "If you were kind of in the flow of the story, you were narratively transported, we would say," she said. "Then switching to your phone and doing a slightly different task will kind of break you out of that." New York-based film and pop culture critic Kristen Maldonado says that while viewers might find it interesting to be able to access exclusive content or additional information, encouraging them to do that while texting a chatbot as a movie plays is "a little dangerous," because it makes it more socially acceptable to use phones in a dark theatre. "Maybe there's a different way that could be done, where you're still getting that experience but not taking away from what's on the actual silver screen," Maldonado said. But just as recent rowdy screenings of A Minecraft Movie have disrupted traditional theatre etiquette, more young people may be bringing their second-screen habits to the silver screen. Duke says that will probably upset people who just want to watch the movie. "I think all of this is meant to be additional experiences that enhance your immersion in the story, but don't actually interrupt your actual consumption," she said. Sure enough, when the M3GAN chatbot was announced, not everyone was thrilled. "I don't really want people to be looking at their brighter-than-the-sun screens in a dark room," wrote @JiltedValkyrie on X. That's a sentiment shared by American theatre chain Alamo Drafthouse, which told Variety it will continue to enforce its strict no-phones policy during the screenings — sorry M3GAN, they're putting you on do not disturb. Severance connects with fans through pop-ups To Maldonado, a second-screen experience "doesn't sound as exciting" as being physically present somewhere. She suggests that instead of incorporating phones in theatres, a better way to keep fans engaged is to connect them to each other by offering immersive events that can truly bring fictional worlds to life. It's a trend that's caught on in recent years, with shows as diverse as Friends and Stranger Things recreating sets that allow fans to grab a coffee at Central Perk, or venture into the infamous Hawkins lab for an interactive adventure. But the most recent show earning praise for its immersive fan experience is Severance. Just before its second season premiered in January, Apple pulled off a genuinely impressive marketing stunt by recreating the show's Macrodata Refinement department at Lumon Industries in the middle of New York City's Grand Central Station — complete with actors Adam Scott, Britt Lower and Zach Cherry in character as severed workers Mark S., Helly R. and Dylan G. That attention to detail caught the eye of Severance superfan Cris Bartoletti, who posted on social media that she was surprised when the actual cast showed up. So when the Boston resident got an opportunity to take part in an immersive event for the show — or an Outdoor Retreat Team-Building Occurrence, as Lumon would call it — she jumped at the chance. Clocking in for work at Lumon Industries Earlier this month, as she drove up the familiar semi-circular driveway toward the Bell Works building in New Jersey that stands in for Lumon Industries, Bartoletti felt her excitement growing. When she got inside, she was even more impressed by the attention to detail as she and other fans got to live in the Severance world for a day. "Everywhere you looked, there was something Lumon-themed and it very much felt made for fans," she said, before relating a perfect example of how the event catered to the people who really love the show. "Have you finished your file?" That was the question posed to Bartoletti by a worker in the Mammalians Nurturable department of Lumon, populated on the show by goats and their caretakers, including department chief Lorne, played by Gwendoline Christie. The actor made a surprise appearance to help kick off a Q&A panel featuring the rest of the cast and hosted by Stephen Colbert. Fans crave authenticity Bartoletti says this particular sense of "excitement and spontaneity" that the surprise pop-ups provided can only really happen organically. "Trying to engage fans and sort of getting that organic conversation going are what gets most people to start new shows at this point." WATCH | Apple TV+ organizes an ORBTO: To Duke, it's no surprise that fans are delighted by the elaborate Severance events. "The top trend that I've seen with younger consumers is this desire for authenticity," she said. "We've developed this skepticism of outright explicit advertising."
