Many mobile device users will soon receive an added bonus when attending a movie at select U.K. theatres, free content.

Wireless Servers at The West End, Star City (Birmingham), Edinburgh Omni, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Cribbs Causeway, York and Cambridge theatres will be capable of wirelessly beaming upcoming trailers and wallpapers about Twentieth Century Fox's Fantastic Four and The Perfect Catch (Fever Pitch in the U.S.) to patrons.

The technology trial is designed to promote and drum up enthusiasm for the soon to be released movies, which are already out in the United States.

Here’s how it works:

In-theatre displays located in the lobby areas of the multiplexes alert consumers with Bluetooth equipped devices—running on all major mobile operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian and many gaming platforms—that the free content is available.

Should patrons accept the offer, they can then download wallpaper and trailers wirelessly from Jack Service Point, a caching server for local-area wireless applications from WideRay. It typically takes less than 30 seconds to download a full-length movie trailer, according to the company.

A similar promotion is already under way at Loews Theatres in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States, with some success. Vue Cinemas, the U.K. theatre chain hosting the promotion, is hoping for the same positive reaction from customers.

Rachel Hook, a marketing executive for Vue Cinemas, says “Twentieth Century Fox is a leader in movie marketing and promotion, and we look forward to a similarly successful program in the U.K.”

Even as consumers gain access to free mobile content, it's the potential promotional and marketing benefits that get Twentieth Century Fox and its partners energized about Wideray's distribution technology: just one of many methods marketers are trying out to better reach wireless consumers via their increasingly sophisticated mobile devices.

“Mobile marketing is an exciting and effective channel to attract and build consumer loyalty. We love the idea that the cinemagoer can download trailers and related content for our upcoming films. Hopefully this new kind of in-cinema marketing will enable us to amplify our prerelease marketing reach, ” expounds Chris Green, trade marketing manager at Twentieth Century Fox UK.