MoviesPass Buys Moviefone, Expanding Its Ticketing Empire

The movie-ticketing subscription service MoviePass has acquired Moviefone from Verizon for an undisclosed amount of cash and equity, according to Deadline.

In the 1990s, Moviefone began selling advance tickets with its 777-film phone line. The company has evolved into an entertainment news portal that provides movie showtime info and connects users to ticket sales pages. AOL purchased Moviefone in 1999 for $388M from its founders Russ Leatherman, Andrew Jarecki, Pat Cardamone, and Adam Slutsky. At the start of the new millennium, the company would link to movietickets.com and later Fandango for advance ticket sales.

Through this acquisition, MoviePass is gaining access to six million unique visitors, which will help the company expand its revenue platform through advertising and an increase in subscriptions. “This natural alignment between MoviePass and Moviefone will help us grow our subscriber base significantly and expand our marketing and advertising platform for our studio and brand partners,” MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told Deadline. “Moviefone has been a go-to resource for entertainment enthusiasts for years, and we’re excited to bolster its presence and bring this iconic platform into the entertainment ecosystem of the future.”

“This investment in digital content expands MoviePass’s reach further into multiple Hollywood touchpoints,” said Khalid Itum, Vice President of Business Development at MoviePass. “We believe the acquisition will allow us to connect studios and brands with potential new subscribers, capture their attention, and convert them into paying subscribers. We believe Moviefone will also allow us to provide relevant and appealing content to moviegoers while simultaneously increasing the value of the Moviefone brand.”

MoviePass’ subscription base has been expanding rapidly, but the company faced a disagreement about its services with AMC theaters toward the end of last year. Despite the conflict, MoviePass is now covering its services at all AMC locations, Deadline reports.