Regal Cinemas, formerly known as Regal Entertainment Group, is a movie theater chain all across the United States. They have the second most theaters across the nation, as they are past the 600 theater mark in just 50 states. Regal has now gotten themselves involved with the newest tech, as they have incorporated augmented reality heavily into their new app and all over each of their locations. Last week, the company released a massive update to the app that is going to (hopefully) change the way people use their app and experience their theaters.
As of right now, the entire app home screen on the App Store is completely changed. It used to be a place to scan your rewards, look at movie times, and buy tickets. Now it can open a whole new world of augmented reality experiences and discounts. Their exact wording on the app home page is:
“When you’re at a Regal Cinemas location, open the app’s Movies tab, tap the camera icon, then scan any movie poster in the theater with your iPhone. This will unlock an exclusive augmented reality (AR) experience—like Marvel’s Black Panther leaping into the hallway (yet another reason to get your popcorn early) or Toy Story’s Woody tipping his hat to you.
Scan other posters to play a movie’s trailer. And if you see a poster with food or drink, scan it to get discounts at the concessions counter via a coupon delivered with an AR flourish (naturally).
Regal has been experimenting with AR in its app for years now, creating content for four movies: Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Mission: Impossible—Fallout, and Bumblebee. Look for more interactive posters—and not just for blockbusters—at a theater near you.”
The app has recently had a new update too, adding more support for ALL movies that are being shown in Regal theaters across the country. The update notes state that “Regal is taking Augmented Reality to a whole new level with updated AR experiences powered by Moviebill. Tap the Moviebill icon in the top right corner of the app to interact with 3D characters, unlock digital objects and, through state of the art technology, literally step inside the biggest upcoming movies.
Point the scanner at ANY movie poster for instant access to trailers, cast information, special promotions and specially tailored AR features designed to bring movies to life like never before.
Update your app today to summon a full-scale Rev-9 from Terminator: Dark Fate and make sure to scan Regal’s exclusive Terminator poster for a surprise experience that you’ll find nowhere else!”
This is already giving Regal a huge advantage when it comes to other theaters. From our knowledge, there is no other company inside of the movie theater business that is getting this involved with the futuristic tech we have at our fingertips. This is going to propel this app to not only be on the top charts of entertainment, but on top of the charts for top augmented reality apps inside of Apple’s App Store.
As more companies unlock the potential that AR has for enhancing location-based experiences, we are going to see this technology be progressed even further. This doesn’t mean that people aren’t working on it now, but bringing it in front of new audiences with unlock more capabilities that we never saw before. As this Regal will shed more light on the power of AR, expect more companies to do the same. For more VR and AR news and community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
