You Won’t Find the M3GAN Chatbot at the Alamo Drafthouse

Sometimes disruptions in movie theaters are spontaneous, like the current frenzy among audiences watching A Minecraft Movie. Other times, they’re planned, as with the upcoming “second screen” experience that Blumhouse crafted with Meta’s help for a special “Halfway to Halloween” screening of M3GAN. In the second example, at least, fans of the communal movie-going ritual that traditionally emphasizes leaving the world behind to focus on the big screen have a major movie chain in their corner. The M3GAN gimmick, which encourages audience members to use their phones to interact with the movie as it’s playing, goes in direct opposition to the Alamo Drafthouse’s long-standing “no phones” rule. In a news report from Variety, the company will not be allowing access to the “Movie Mate” M3GAN chatbot during screenings. If you try to light up your phone for pop-up trivia mid-screening, you’re risking being booted from the theater. So if you’re excited to revisit M3GAN on the big screen—Blumhou ... Read full article.