The M3GAN ‘Movie Mate’ Chatbot goes off like a lead balloon as another interactive experiment fails to find an audience

As studios and theater owners continue experimenting to engage audiences more with their entertainment, a recent attempt to incorporate smartphones into the experience crashed and burned. During Easter, Blumhouse held its “Halfway to Halloween” event, featuring one-day-apiece screenings of three of the studio’s most popular films – M3GAN, Annabelle, and Ma. Typically, screenings are a straightforward affair, but in the case of Halfway to Halloween, Blumhouse had something more sinister and interactive up its sleeve.

At the start of M3GAN, Blumhouse informed audiences that their screening would be different. Meta launched the company’s new Movie Mate technology, encouraging audiences to use their smartphone to interact with a M3GAN-themed chatbot throughout the film’s duration.

Yeah.

Variety‘s Peter Debruge was brave (and tolerant) enough to test the waters of this invasive screening method. He sat in the back row to avoid disturbing too many people with the light on his phone. Peter had a clear view of the entire theater during the presentation. Do you know what he saw? Nothing. No single person engaged with Meta’s Movie Mate app, save for two people who activated the app and then put their phones in their pockets for the remainder of the experience.

Peter managed to access Movie Mate by typing DM #H2H to @M3GAN on Instagram to get started.” The app responded, saying, “hey, Peter! miss me? ofc you did. because ur my bestie.” Next, the app said, “I’ll spill the tea about making my movi3 and tell u what rly happened while you watch.”

Unfortunately, Peter misinterpreted the timing of the film’s start, but Movie Mate couldn’t tell the difference. The app began sending Peter texts about the movie, using a roving commentary style, telling him behind-the-scenes bits about Purrpetual Pets, the product that led to M3GAN’s creation in the film. “lol. i wonder how they named m3?” the app asked.

Peter says you can text Movie Mate anything, but it doesn’t respond. Instead, it spams you with information about the film and even quizzes you about what you’ve seen/learned. As someone with hardcore ADHD, which causes me to fixate on objects that appear out of place in my direct or peripheral vision (in this case, random smartphone screens), I think this sounds like a nightmare.

You can read Peter’s complete M3GAN Meta Movie experience analysis HERE. If you ask me, Movie Mate must crawl before it can walk in theaters. Using Movie Mate feels invasive, with the experience requiring forewarning about the app’s use during the movie you’re about to see. Even then, you’d need to host specific Movie Mate screenings so casual moviegoers don’t have to contend with smartphone screens throughout the film. For heaven’s sake, there’s a PSA about not using your smartphone before every screening. BLARG!

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