This is topic The real reason for internet ticket sales? in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Travis Cape (Member # 466) on 07-27-2000, 11:59 AM:
I wonder if any of you have ever stopped to think about why people are buying there tickets on-line. I have come up with two reasons. One, with auditoriums as small as what they are you're going to sell out. Two, and the most important, It takes a lifetime to get information on the phone. By the time you call your 16 plex to get the listing, the times, listen to the disclaimers about no passes, etc you should jump on the computer. In my opinion, there is no real reason why you should take credit for tickets or concessions or offer tickets on-line. It's another example of how lazy we can help make Americans!
Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 07-28-2000, 09:02 AM:
Regarding all forms of ticket sales other than showing up at the box office, Travis Cape writes: "It's another example of how lazy we can help make Americans!" Yah, and don't forget about those horseless carriages, making it too easy for Americans to get around and making them fat! Look, it's business, and business is the creating of opportunities for people to buy your product. The easier it is for people to buy your product and to guarantee a seat, the more likely some people will use the service. In a competitive situation, the more opportunity, the better chance of keeping your doors open.
It's the 21st century, not the 19th; shouldn't we use the tools we have rather than living in the past?
Posted by Travis Cape (Member # 466) on 07-29-2000, 12:19 AM:
Your point is well taken, but where does it all lead?
Posted by Kevin Crawford (Member # 469) on 07-29-2000, 12:34 AM:
Well, it will lead to yet another dot.com millionaire of course. Some geek that couldn't get laid in high school will now make more money. Damn! Ain't America wonderful. First the horseless carriage, then the VCR, then the computer, now I can buy anything sitting at home in my underwear.
Besides my new hacking software is just about ready. I need more peoples credit card numbers if I am going to buy that yacht from the dot.com guy. 
Posted by Martin Frandsen (Member # 74) on 07-29-2000, 07:06 AM:
Now where is the good old fashion ticket lines, where people were cueing up before the theater opened the doors? I remember that as a kid, that was FUN! Of cause now a days it's very different, the largest theater chain in Denmark has just started on-line ticket ordering system, more to follow, i don't like it, but we must accept that this is the future, even do it sucks. 
Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 07-29-2000, 08:32 AM:
Yes, and cruising down the main street of town, even when you weren't going to the show. Checking out the girls in their summer clothes waiting in the outside movie lines (if you weren't at the drive-in). You knew they'd be there at 7 and 9. Now it's a concrete box in a parking lot. No fun to cruise there. No balconies, no fun. We've lost a lot. Did the chains drive people to the video store (by taking the "experience" away), or did videos spawn the mega-plex? Chicken or the egg right?------------------
Dave Bird
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-29-2000, 09:04 AM:
Doesn't anyone see what a wonderful scam online ticketing is? Sell people exactly the same thing, but do it less expensively (by setting up a web server instead of hiring high-school kids) and tack on an extra $2 "service charge" (lack-of-service charge?) for the privilege. This is just taking the Ticketmaster concept (charging $10 for an $8 ticket) to the next level. Of course, anyone who actually buys movie tickets this way probalby isn't very smart, since it's extremely rare for any non-opening-weekend show to sell out, except for "special engagements" and whatnot, but those are rare, too. I would say that people who buy tickets this way are lazy, too, but, at least around here, people who buy tickets with Moviefone still have to wait in line at the theatre to pick them up, so they actually end up spending more time than if they had just gone to the theatre and bought tickets there.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-29-2000, 03:42 PM:
This magnificent scam goes further than just that. At the last theater I managed, we were required to hold X number of seats until just before showtime for people who didn't want to purchase tickets at the box office! When we explained the situation to them and "if you will please wait another 15 minutes sir, we will be able to sell those tickets, etc", most people left the box office only to show back up a bit later with "credit card reservations".Very ingenious.
Posted by Marc Jones (Member # 29) on 07-29-2000, 06:10 PM:
My opinion is :
Its a way that eventually the film company will cut the theatre operator out of the theatre business.