Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Goodbye Moviefone -- we're dancin' a fat Fandango!

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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-02-2001, 04:54 PM:

From today's Hollywood Reporter online edition:

"Theater owners are replacing advertisements for AOL Moviefone with ones for Fandango's ticketing service as existing contracts expire. To mark the beginning of this development, Fandango will debut over the Fourth of July boxoffice weekend a humorous spot directed by Adam Blooming and shot at the art deco Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles. It will show on 3,500 screens nationwide, reaching an estimated 66 million consumers, according to Fandango. Fandango has exclusive agreements with Regal Cinemas, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark Theatres, Edwards Theatres and Century Theatres that require the removal of all Moviefone presence and branding. It also has nonexclusive agreements with General Cinema Theatres and Loews Cineplex Entertainment that are scheduled to become exclusive by January at the latest. All seven of those exhibitors, with screens representing 40% of the continental U.S. market, hold equity stakes in Fandango. AOL Moviefone was unfazed by the changes. 'It doesn't really matter to us,' AOL Moviefone general manager Tommy McGloin said. 'AOL just merged with Time Warner, which affords Moviefone with considerable cross-promotional opportunities.' "

Anyone have any Moviefone horror stories to tell? Showtimes not posted? Wrong theaters for a certain movie? Wrong movie for a particular theater?

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-02-2001, 06:58 PM:

I assume that they are referring to the Fandango "Nice Try" trailer. We've been running it for a couple of weeks. "Humorous" isn't exactly the word that I would choose to use to describe it, however; I would probably choose a word more along the lines of "insipid." Details, details.

Note that this trailer has printing errors--the flat ones have a clear scratch in the black leader at the start (which you can't cut off without cutting into the soundtrack) and the scope ones have a soundtrack that ends (with a big "pop") before the picture does.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 07-03-2001, 12:29 AM:

quote:
To mark the beginning of this development, Fandango will debut over the Fourth of July boxoffice weekend a humorous spot directed by Adam Blooming and shot at the art deco Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles.

When's the last time they showed a movie at the Wilshire?

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-07-2001, 11:58 AM:

Scott and William missed the point of this thread.

Does anyone who posts to Film-Tech have a MovieFone horror story to tell?

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 04-27-2002, 12:09 PM:

Bumping it back up top for an update:

Fandango is suing AOL Time Warner, owners of Moviefone, charging that Moviefone cut a secret deal with Loews at the expense of Fandango.

This comes even though Loews replaced Moviefone with Fandango in mid-February.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-20-2003, 04:47 PM:

United Artists Theatres has replaced MovieFone with Fandango. The UA web address now redirects to the Regal Entertainment Group website and you can buy tickets for UA locations there.

This brings the 3 circuits in the Regal Entertainment Group under Fandango.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 05-20-2003, 04:49 PM:

The last chain to run the Fox Wilshire Theatre was Mann Theatres.
The last film to play was "The Goodbye Girl". The projectors were moved to the old UA Four Star Theatre and later moved to
the old Warner San Pedro. Which is now owned by the city of Los Angeles.

If you ever see Mel Brook's "Silent Movie". The Wilshire is the
theatre they used for the big preview.

Sorry Charles
I just read this news yesterday and I did not see your bump.
No stories about Moviefone.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-20-2003, 07:09 PM:

What? Fandango is supposed to be good? Besides having a retarded name, it sounds just as bad as moviephone since it will require ads to be run before a movie. I don't see why people can't just look up times in the paper or the internet. And I've never felt the need to purchase tickets online. With as many theaters that exist today, sellouts are rare and I always arrive early anyway. (but usually I get in for free).

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-20-2003, 07:36 PM:

Matrix Reloaded, Friday evening, group of us from work want to go. Expecting large crowds, we buy the tickets on Fandango several days in advance. The day of the show we arrive at the theatre 45 minutes early, and the box office lines are a mile long and our show along with the next few Reloaded shows are already sold out. We bypass the long lines and head for Cinemark's automated kiosk in the lobby (which nobody seems to ever use -- Attention people standing in line: You can buy the same tickets from the kiosk, no waiting and no service charge!). Punch in the Fandango confirmation number, and the kiosk spits out our tickets. Takes about 30 seconds. We get in line to be let in the auditorium.

Without Fandango, this would have been a LOT more hassle. Fandango rocks when you don't want to fight the opening weekend crowds for a big release. Yes Fandango has a service charge but it's worth it to not have to get there 2 hours early and wait in lines. [Cool]

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 05-20-2003, 08:52 PM:

Cinemark doesn't promote Fandango anymore as it has its own service to handle tickets. Fandango may not be getting the movietime feed or attendance levels directly from the theatre like they used to.

It still has a service charge but at least the information is accurate to the theatres web servers.

www.cinemark.com

[/hype]

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 05-20-2003, 09:11 PM:

Agreed, If you want tickets to have a correct showtime listing go to the link that Paul provides.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-20-2003, 09:40 PM:

The guy who bought the advance tickets told me he used Fandango, but maybe he got them from cinemark.com. I'll see if I can find out for sure. Thanks for the info about Fandango.

[checks web pages]

Fandango still handles tickets for Cinemark. Service charges apply whether the tickets are purchased thru Fandango or directly from cinemark.com.

Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 05-21-2003, 03:02 AM:

My only internet "horror" story was the one occasion I used Yahoo movies. I ended up arriving 45 minutes early to show. Fandango just takes too darn long to load (4+ minutes per page for me) so now I just do it the "old fashioned" way and call the theater and listen to the recording.

quote:
I don't see why people can't just look up times in the paper or the internet.

In my case, the internet isn't an option becuase I'll either spend 30 minutes waiting for a graphics-laden page to load, or I go with another site that loads faster, but might not have correct information. Sometimes the paper isn't an option, either:

As you can see, on a weekday, unless you want to go to the Signature, the paper here is useless.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-21-2003, 03:14 AM:

You need a better paper in your town.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-21-2003, 11:26 AM:

About a year ago, both Regal and Cinemark changed their newspaper ads here during weekdays (M-Th), completely dropping the names of movies & showtimes. They ran a tiny box with text saying "Check our web site or call 1-800-555-TELL" or whatever the hell that number is. They did that for a couple weeks. They only ran full listings Fri-Sun. Then they went back to the old way with complete listings every day. Though Regal's box keeps getting smaller and smaller...

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 05-21-2003, 11:59 AM:

That's similar to what's happened in Seattle, Tacoma, and our nearby market. In our case, Regal is still using those "call for showtimes" ads in the Seattle papers during some weekdays.

In 1986, the theatres I have were running 2-column display ads every day... something like 2X5 or 6. Per-inch cost was $4.23 (we still have the old contracts). Today, we're running directory ads, like everyone else, and our per-inch cost is close to $24. Subscription levels in our market have dropped, though the paper increases their rates every year... charging us more to reach a shrinking reader base. The Seattle papers charge a LOT more!

The theaters don't run their own display ads anymore. Those displays that do show up in the papers are all co-op ads, placed by the studios and their ad agencies during the first couple of weeks.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-21-2003, 06:29 PM:

CNet has confirmed the UA move to Fandango (scroll down).

The points raised when this thread began are still in play:

Anyone have any MovieFone horror stories to tell? Showtimes not posted? Wrong theaters for a certain movie? Wrong movie for a particular theater?

Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 05-21-2003, 07:57 PM:

I tried Moviefone last Friday, and they did not have listings for all the theatres in town. They didn't even have a mention of the UA 8 or the UA 6, no "Showtimes not available", no phone number, not one bit of information for these two theatres. They lost their credibility with me after I saw that...

As far as the ad thing, I have heard that the Fresno Bee is rather high when it comes to ads. However, with the teeny print Regal uses on their weekend ads that do list all the showtimes, they can't be saving THAT much money not running showtimes during the week...