Best Buy Bows First Movie Mode App With Limited Functionality

Best Buy Mobile launched its Movie Mode interactive cell phone application last week with the opening of Universal Pictures’ Despicable Me. At a special pre-release screening at the Times Square AMC Theaters in Manhattan, reporters were given demo iPhones to audition the feature, which syncs to select smartphones and delivers special content linked to specific cues in the movie. According to a spokesman at the event, the feature will extend to other media, including DVDs, in the future, although follow-up questions regarding future plans for disc-based Movie Mode versions weren’t addressed.

During Despicable Me, the content comprised verbal translations of the yellow Minion characters whose chatter was indecipherable in the movie. Just after the movie ended, the phone lit up and the application kicked in. The text translations popped up in sync with on-screen visuals that were interspersed between closing credits.

Owners of iPhones, Android-based phones and BlackBerrys who aren’t on a CDMA network can download the free app from the iTunes store. When users activate the app at a theater where a Movie Mode film is playing -- currently select AMC, Regal and Cinemark theaters -- cues from the movie trigger the app to mute the phone and dim the phone’s screen. According to a fact sheet distributed at the event, Movie Mode “is designed to listen even when the phone is in sleep mode,” which enables it to receive audio cues from the soundtrack and remain in sync. During our demo, the screen retained a noticeable glow, prompting us to wonder how the energy draw of a partially lit screen for the duration of a full-length movie might affect battery life.

The file size of Movie Mode is 4.7 MB, Best Buy said through a spokeswoman, and the app stores in the phone’s memory so users don’t have to be actively receiving a wireless signal to interact with the movie. According to the spokeswoman, Best Buy Movie Mode chose to limit the initial special content to about 10 minutes of Minion translations, a $10 Cinema Now credit and a 30-second Despicable Me video “to avoid clogging up the phone’s memory.” She said the company plans to upgrade the content, but she didn’t give additional details. Universal is Best Buy’s first partner for Movie Mode, but the exclusive feature is studio- agnostic, the spokeswoman said. The company declined to name future studio partners or additional upcoming films that will be compatible with Movie Mode content.