AMC Theatres hopes to take on digital ticket sites Fandango and Atom Tickets after becoming the first cinema chain in North America to offer tickets directly through Facebook.
The social media giant and AMC are currently piloting the service at a handful of locations across the US. The option should be available at all locations in the coming days.
Under Facebook’s ‘Explore’ tab, users can select a movie and showtime and the option to choose the AMC ticketing platform. The user will then be directed to the AMC Theatres page to pay.
Fandango, the NBC Universal-owned movie ticket distributor, began selling tickets directly through Facebook in 2016, while Atom Tickets also a partner.
“From the very beginning of online ticketing availability, it’s been our goal to make the process as simple and accessible as possible for all of our guests,” said Stephen Colanero, chief marketing officer at AMC Theatres.
After acquiring Odeon Cinemas, UCI Cinemas, and Carmike Cinemas in 2016, AMC became the largest movie theatre chain in the world and the US. It has 2,200 screens in 244 theatres in Europe and over 8,200 screens in 661 theatres in the US.
Last month AMC Theatres launched its own $19.99-a-month subscription ticket to compete directly with MoviePass and its unlimited $9.95 model.
“We know people already use Facebook to find movies to see in theatres, and purchase tickets to them,” said Swapna Joshi, Facebook’s product manager for movie ticketing in a statement. “This is another way we’re working to make going to the movies fun and easy.”
Image: Andreas Praefcke
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