This is another one of my prognostications of the future of film, but I’ll keep it brief and focused on one particular aspect of the moviegoing experience.
Hyperactive Movie Posters
The audience experience with films will change too and become more immersive and engaging than it is now. One of the things that will get a facelift will by the movie poster in the theater lobby.
All of those future coming attractions will no longer simply be glossy printed paper locked inside a fluorescent lightbox. These will be Cadillacs to the MG Midgets of the future. They will become a full-fledged marketing platform of their own.
Imagine walking into a theater lobby and seeing posters up for the movie you’re about to see plus many others. You walk up to it and touch one of the actor’s names through the touch-sensitive glass. Suddenly, the poster changes to a bio page for the actor showing some behind-the-scenes shots of said actor in the movie you’re about to see (or have just seen). If there is a period of inactivity such as the viewer walking away, then it reverts back to the front page or the original poster image, which may even have some short video shot just for the poster.
You see an icon at the top in the shape of a cell phone. This poster’s got even more info that you’re interested in. So you take out your smartphone and hold it up near the poster. A special app on the phone downloads special feature information not available anywhere else on this movie.
Those special features available only through the interactive poster kiosk can give you sound and music clips, trailers, ringtones, and even access to some behind-the-scenes video or commentary that you could only get by going to the theater. Just saw the movie and want to pre-order a copy of the DVD or Blu-Ray right there? Go up to the poster kiosk and do it. This adds a whole other dimension to the moviegoing experience.
While this might be a stretch, I can see a high-speed printer built into some kiosks to allow moviegoers to purchase a copy of the print poster right there and have it printed on-demand while they watch the movie or wait a minute or two. A dedicated on-demand printing station might be a better bet to go with that as lessens the tech burdens on the individual kiosks.
Your phone doesn’t have the ability to run the app or view the special content? No problem. You can sign up by texting to the poster’s number (displayed at the bottom) in order to get those features delivered to your PC, Mac, or Linux computer waiting at home.
While this may look good, it also means a leap forward for content delivery to these “interactive movie poster kiosks”. That includes the manpower of not just graphic artists but extra steps for composer, director, actors, and even poster designers to create and assemble the data for these posters.
Can it be done now? Yes. The technology to do so has existed for a few years. However, it would require theaters to overhaul their existing poster displays, not an easy sell considering how inexpensive (by comparison) and paid for they already are. If the cost were partially subsidized by studios it might be done, provided it were seen as an investment in a new marketing platform for all of their films.
Theater owners, at least the ones with some vision and foresight, would see it as an investment also into getting more people to come to their theaters and reach a target demographic that may or may not be going to their theaters now.
The need to change out movie posters would be as simple as the theater manager clicking their mouse on an interface in their office and the new material downloaded to the poster kiosk.
