Coming to a Computer Near You: Movie Tickets

Jul 17 2001

Moviegoers are one step closer to never having to wait in line again.

In a deal with Fandango, an online ticket seller backed by several theater exhibitors, two chains are unveiling plans this week to allow audiences to print tickets from their home computers.

On Wednesday, New York-based Loews Cineplex will enable cinemagoers to print tickets at home for shows at all of its 13 Manhattan theaters. And Century Theaters, based in San Jose, Calif., will begin offering print-at-home tickets to consumers in San Jose and Mountain View, Calif. The new system comes just in time for the potential blockbuster Jurassic Park III, which opens Wednesday.

"It's a convenience for our customers," says Mindy Tucker, corporate VP in charge of digital efforts at Loews Cineplex. "We think it will revolutionize the way people buy tickets."

Home ticketing is simple. Consumers go to Fandango.com and order tickets. All customers will have the normal option of purchasing tickets with a credit card and picking them up at the theater. Home-ticketing customers, however, will also be able to print a ticket with a bar code. The ticket represents the purchase order so one home-ticket may be redeemed for several tickets if that's what is ordered. These home-printed tickets would be handed over to the ticket-taker, who would scan them and print out a receipt. Home-ticketing customers do not have to wait in cashier lines.

Fandango and exhibitor executives say their system sidesteps piracy concerns, because bar codes are specific to each order, and once scanned, they may not be reused, eliminating the potential for photocopying tickets.

The way tickets are bought and sold has been changing for years. In the last decade, most theater chains adopted over-the-phone, pre-ordered and pre-sold tickets. Increasingly, audiences are coming to rely on such services. Loews' Tucker says that the company's cineplex near Lincoln Center in Manhattan pre-sells as much as 60 percent of its seats on a regular basis.