Industry News

Fandango and Atom Tickets upgrade offerings

Movie ticketing firms Fandango and Atom Tickets have added some special features in an effort to compete with monthly subscription firm MoviePass.

MoviePass is the most popular monthly movie ticket subscription in the US, currently costing fans $9.95 a month to watch a 2D film every day of the month if they choose to.

As cinema-ticketing firms look to stay relevant and keep customers using their services, they have had to up the ante and offer fans more.

Atom Tickets has upgraded its app to allow people to pre-purchase concessions online before arriving.

Atom Tickets also provides moviegoers with the option to watch trailers, read reviews and coordinate movie outings with friends while allowing each person to pay separately.

Through Atom’s social invite feature, users can purchase their ticket and also invite friends to go to the movie without paying for them. This process allows groups to easily reserve seats together – a crucial benefit for highly anticipated box office releases.

According to the Slash Film website, Matthew Bakal, the company’s co-founder and chairman, said: “We want movie theatres to be the same as every other aspect of consumers’ lives. Domino’s, Starbucks, Subway and everyone under the sun allows digital ordering…The idea is to get to a point where there’s no more pulling out your wallet. It’s more like an Uber- or Lyft-like experience.”

Meanwhile, Fandango has launched a new rewards programme to incentivise advance ticketing and increased attendance.

Ticket-buyers can go on Fandango and earn VIP+ Points redeemable for discounts and free stuff across the firm’s family of businesses, including ticketing, streaming digital films and TV and fan merchandise.

“In a summer packed with blockbusters, we wanted to reward Fandango customers for what’s sure to be many trips to their local cinemas over the next several months,” said Fandango chief marketing officer Adam Rockmore.

“We’ve built an expansive movie ecosystem at scale that we will mobilise for our Fandango VIP+ rewards program, helping drive advance ticket purchases and incremental sales for our exhibition and studio partners.”

Image: Dmytro Larin