The future, Kodak suggests, will see bums on seats no longer being bums on the street as soon as the film ends. Punters will instead be encouraged to stay around the theatre and, Kodak argues, make more revenue for the exhibitors who even today still make most of their money through the sale of popcorn, soft drinks and candies not ticket revenues.

Since January, Kodak's Themed Entertainment business unit of Entertainment Imaging, has been showing international exhibitors a range of digital imaging products and services aimed at cinema lobbies. These include sticker kiosks, the rage in Japan, to digital photo studios and experimental concepts including electronic "sketch artists".

"The common denominators are that we are adding to the moviegoer's enjoyment, and providing exhibitors with a new source of revenue that can also help to promote the films they are showing," Douglas Pileri, general manager, Themed Entertainment, told Moving Pictures. "We are helping to expand the motion picture theatre into an entertainment venue where families can have fun while creating unique moments by combining their images with content from movies."

Pileri has already seen very positive results from placing the products in theme parks, resort hotels, retail stores and so on, and recently piloted the picture-taking systems at the General Cinema Framingham in Boston.

"These aren't ordinary photos," says Pileri. "People love putting themselves into pictures that also contain entertainment industry content. It could be a movie poster, a character or a studio logo. It becomes a cherished souvenir that they show to their friends and family, which is also great word-of-mouth advertising."

After the success of ancillary products tied or linked to Titanic, everything from the soundtrack to posters of Leonardo DiCaprio, the industry hardly needs any reminding of the potential revenue that is out there. 

The first calling cards of Kodak's Themed Entertainment division are the sticker print kiosks and the larger, more labour intensive fantasy theatres. 

The sticker print kiosks, which are in many ways like the old passport photo booths, allow customers to place their face on stickers about the size of a postage stamp. Normally there are sixteen stickers per sheet which are available with branded content such as film themes, sports logos as well as general scenes such as holiday themes or amusing borders. The booths can be fully networked through a standard phone line which allows the delivery of content as well as sales data. That means as fast as the films change at the local multiplex so can the themed backgrounds, and that is not only in the US but anywhere on the planet than can hook the booth to a phone line. The backgrounds can also be downloaded off a CD-Rom.

Unlike the old photo booths there is no need for the customer to hang around for five minutes to get their photos. The machine Moving Pictures tested delivered the completed stickers in under 20 seconds. The concept of photo stickers was first introduced in Japan where it has grown to a $2.5 billion business with an estimated one 
million teenagers using the kiosks daily.

The other option is a fantasy theatre which is basically a compact digital studio. Pictures are taken using a Kodak digital camera with the moviegoer, either alone or in groups, standing in front of a green background screen, like those digital effects films. The customer can drop their image into a series of backgrounds stored in the computer's memory which will include the key art from films in distribution. Marv Rubinek, director of business development for Global Cinema Network, a subsidiary of General Cinema, says the most popular choice for customers at the Framingham 14 was animated characters such as Batman & Robin and Tom & Jerry.

"Our experience," says Rubinek, "indicates people are enthusiastic about posing for pictures particularly when they tie into a popular movie or character. It's one more reason to choose our theatres and produces incremental revenue for us. It can also be an effective advertising tool when we tie into current movies."

As the image is stored digitally the customer doesn't even have to carry the print or poster home with them but can have it sent on later from a distribution centre closer to their house. For instance Kodak could take a photo here in Cannes dropping the customer into the key art from one of the films here, but have the print made up and delivered in Los Angeles even before the client gets home.