Social Media Goes to the Movies

Via MediaPost, MSNBC has set up a game in a few movie theaters sort of like Arkanoid or Breakout in movie theaters where the audience moves en masse to act as the joystick:

Attendees were shown a live msnbc.com RSS newsfeed on the big screen,
and as each person moved either to the right or left, their collective
actions controlled paddles that "smashed up" the real-time headlines
with a bouncing ball, causing them to fall. Simultaneously, the
audience moved to "capture" the headlines before they dropped off the
screen entirely.

It debuted in LA and will also be in Philly and White Plains (if you know which theater in White Plains, drop a line). More info is in the press release. The technology is called "CrowdGaming," and it has the makings for an incredibly powerful experience, one that embodies social media in a new sense of the word.

With everyone doing this together, what I really wonder is will this forge any level of connection at the movies? The study I’d love to do: compare the degree of movie talkers and cell phone answerers in movies where you have this experience and movies where you don’t.