Movie Theater Offer Interactive Video Games To Fight Declining Ticket Sales?

Edited by Danielle Shriver

Let’s face it. Movie theaters aren’t as appealing now that prices are so unreasonably high. Combined with low quality films the reasons to attend a movie theater have hit an all-time low. Movie theaters have made subtle changes to theaters in an effort to entice audiences. Such as larger screens, comfortable chairs, and surround sound. There is also dining available in the lobby of some theaters. But the cons outweigh the pros and patrons walk away feeling like the experience was unsatisfactory. What else could they offer people to increase attendance?

Video games! CineGames in Spain has created a new concept of pre-movie entertainment by bringing gaming into theaters with black lights, flashing green lasers, vibrating seats, and 17- inch screens attached to individual chairs. There is a hybrid theater in Madrid, Spain has all the excitement of an arcade and the classic feel of the true cinema experience. Enrique Martinez of CineGames developed the idea as part of an executive MBA program at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. "We see the future with multiplexes with five screens, one for the traditional Hollywood spectaculars and the others for screens for video halls and 3-D. That’s the next step." The Yelmo Cineplex aims to expand the concept throughout Europe and into North America by allowing other theater companies to use the system. CinemaxX, one of the top movie exhibition chains in Germany, carried out a four-month trial with this innovative idea on one of its screens in Essen last year with success.

Time Play Entertainment in Toronto, Canada is also developing theater technology that would allow moviegoers to play up to twenty minutes of interactive, ad-sponsored games before the start of movies. They will offer packages that allow movie theaters to retrofit their screens so patrons can bide their time before a movie starts. With the new video game system, moviegoers can play on small individual touch-screen devices that will allow audience members to interact with one another, or individually. Ultimately, Time Play Entertainment wants to develop a system that opens up screens for a wide variety of uses, from popular games as basic as bingo to online computer role-playing games in a virtual world. We can only wait in anticipation for the day when it is available at our local Cineplex’s in the States.

Yelmo Cineplex is now trying to develop an educational arm that would rent out the hall to schools that could use the system for learning and testing. In addition to pre movie entertainment the theater is busily organizing game tournaments for Manga video games and Pro Evolution Soccer, a popular soccer game produced by Electronic Arts. This should not only help boost ticket sales, but also make us, the moviegoers, and a happy bunch.

If movie executives and shareholders want to return customers they need to pick up a similar technique, and fast. Especially since ticket prices have continued rising while movie quality has been going down. Remember Snakes On a Plane? Video games could be incorporated into the movie experience to entice audiences to come back for the whopping fourteen-dollar entrance price. American movie theaters should upgrade the movie experience with more than leather seats and cup holders. It’s only a matter of time until we see theaters remodeling their spots with snazzy pre-movie entertainment like Spain and Canada.

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