Brief:

• Cinema ad network National CineMedia last weekend debuted an augmented reality (AR) horror experience in theaters for moviegoers who have downloaded its Noovie ARcade app. Audiences who see "Venom," "Halloween" and any PG-13 or R-rated movies can participate in the AR experience that starts in a pre-show before the feature film begin, per a statement shared with Mobile Marketer. The experience runs through Oct. 31. 
• AMC, Cinemark, Regal Entertainment and 55 regional and local exhibitors are showing CineMedia's Halloween experience at 1,650 theaters nationwide. Audiences also can use the Noovie ARcade app to see the AR imagery on Noovie.com or its YouTube channel.
• More than 1 million moviegoers have downloaded the Noovie ARcade app to play interactive AR games on the big screen, including Cinevaders, Emoji Escape and Kernel Cannon.

Insight:

National CineMedia's Noovie ARcade app is taking those couple of minutes waiting in the theater for a show to begin to offer an experience to a mobile audience, likely capturing the coveted teen audience. Now that 89% of U.S. teens own a smartphone, according to a survey by Common Sense Media, they increasingly rely on their mobile devices for entertainment, socializing with friends and communicating with parents. 

National CineMedia is among the companies developing AR experiences to complement movie entertainment and to interact with fans in a more immersive way. Moviebill last summer distributed millions of copies of its free print publication that moviegoers could scan with Regal Entertainment's mobile app to activate AR experiences. That campaign during "The Avengers: Infinity War" boosted downloads of Regal's app and saw 2 million scans of Moviebill's AR content.

Universal Picture's parent company NBCUniversal also has embraced the latest interactive technologies, including AR, virtual reality (VR) and voice-activated smart assistants, to promote the theatrical release of "Jurassic World" and urge audiences to spend more time with its branded content. The studio in May debuted a mobile game called "Jurassic World Alive" that used AR imagery and location-based technology to let fans chase after virtual dinosaurs in their real surroundings, like the hit game Pokémon Go.