Movie theaters branch out to host video game contests and other events
The 11-year-old wasn't at Westwood's iPic theater to catch a matinee screening of the summer blockbuster "Jurassic World." He and about 100 others filled the seats to play a video game called "Minecraft," where they built dinosaurs in a virtual world controlled from their laptops and simulcast on the big screen.
"I liked meeting people and playing 'Minecraft' with them," Solis said.
Start-ups including Super League Gaming, the Santa Monica company behind the "Minecraft" event, see in-theater gaming as similar to sports leagues.
The company was co-founded by John Miller, David Steigelfest and Brett Morris, who saw their children come home from school to play video games by themselves. They wanted to give their kids the same social experience that children who played outdoor sports like soccer or baseball had.
"We thought, if baseball has a Little League, why shouldn't kids who play video games have their own league?" Morris said. "Plus there's the competitive aspect to it, the thrill of playing to win."
Morris and his partners approached AMC, Regal and Cinemark about using their theaters to host a video game league that will run during six-week tournaments.
Participants at the iPic theater paid $20 each to participate in Wednesday's nearly two-hour video game session, with the ticket revenue split between the theater and Super League Gaming.
Theaters fill only about 16% of their seats during an average day, mainly because of very low turnout during weekday mornings and afternoons, according to Wunderlich Securities. So theaters see financial sense in essentially renting themselves out, especially since they don't have to bear much of the cost to host the events.
See the full story here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-theaters-gaming-20150624-story.html