Why did Wade and his team enter into the Shining movie?

Question

Wade and his team were supposed to go near the theater where Halliday watched the Shining movie, but they entered the movie instead.

Why did they enter into the Shining movie?

Answer 1

It was not so much that Wade and company were supposed to go to the theatre where Halliday watched the Shining (as the Shining was a movie Halliday rented), but that the Shining in the Oasis represented a location where they needed to go to look for an easter egg that Halliday had hidden...

The second task, for the Jade Key, comes from a clue at the end of the race, alluding to a "creator that hates his creation" and "leap not taken". Parzival and Art3mis try various permutations of this building from what they perceive to be Halliday's biggest regret - his failed date with Kira Underwood, later Ogden's wife, and - after their real-world flirtations hit a pause - realize it's in the movie Halliday and Kira watched when she wanted to go dancing: The Shining, a film author Stephen King famously despised. The following sequence is, by the film's own admission, a distraction, with the real solution being asking a program of Kira to dance. Aside from the level of knowledge required to solve the clue - any gunter must have an intimate understanding of Halliday's life (Kira was only mentioned once in the archives) and Stanley Kubrick's filmography - this shows to the players how to learn from prior mistakes.

This whole answer along with more information about the other easter eggs can be found on ScreenRant, described by Alex Leadbetter.

There is also more detail about the whole Shining scene on the same website, by Padraig Cotter.

Answer 2

TLDR

• Because that was the location of the challenge.
• They did technically "go to" the theater in question.
• This scene of the film is also a nod to the book...

Here is the script for the movie where I found the second challenge clue:

"A creator who hates his own creation. A hidden key, a leap not taken. Retrace your steps, escape your past. And the key of jade will be yours at last."

So there are three parts to this clue. First, "a creator who hates his own creation" refers to The Shining movie. Second, "a leap not taken" refers to Halliday not taking his chance with the woman he loved. Third, "Retrace your steps, escape your past" refers to making the choice Halliday wishes he would have originally made to "fix" the mistake he has never forgiven himself for making all those years ago.

Obviously this all leads to the location of Halliday's date with Kira at the movie theater and taking the chance to "shoot his shot." While Halliday may have been able to remake the actual scene of himself and Kira at the actual theater from memory it is also possible he couldn't bring himself to make it or he simply didn't want to share that much of his own painful memory.

Either way, the clue of Halliday's date with Kira at the Shining movie was just to get the 'player' to the correct location. We also know from the script that:

"Halliday kept track of every movie he ever watched, the week and the year he watched it, and how many times."

Of the entire OASIS, unless you put together the date with Kira and the Shining, you would undoubtedly never find the second challenge location. With that information the player would go to where all the information about the movies Halliday watched was, in the Halliday Journals. From there, as they did in the film, you find the movie and select to go there. This opens the theater front where the film is to be playing. However, once you enter the double doors you actually enter into the movie itself. This can be seen here at about 20 seconds. So, to your question, they did technically go there... the Overlook theater:

In addition, this scene was an homage to the book. In the book (which is drastically different from the film) there are challenges that involve some of Halliday's other favorite films. Halliday took the time to recreate the movies into interactive 3D simulations where the 'player' takes the place of a character from the film in every way. From dialogue to actions the 'player' basically becomes the character and gets points for acting through the movie exactly in the same way the actual character did. There were even bonus points to be earned for using the same tone and mannerisms the character used in the film.

While the "Shining" scene was not exactly the same as the "Flicksync" movies from the book it is on the right track and from a movie-gower perspective an exciting cinematic scene to watch!