Moviefone is an American-based movie listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theater information, film reviews, or advance tickets. The service is available nationwide in many but not all area codes, and is owned by AOL.
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History
In 1989, Russ Leatherman, Rob Gukeisen, Andrew Jarecki, and Adam Slutsky launched the interactive telephone service, with initial service in New York City and Los Angeles. After gaining popularity, it later expanded across the United States and eventually adopted an online presence as Moviefone.com. In 1999, Moviefone was purchased by AOL for more than $400 million. In 2001, Samir Hanna became the new voice of Moviefone.[citation needed] In 2004, MovieTickets.com acquired outright the online arm of Moviefone.com, after having entered in a partnership in 2001 that crosslinked their ticketing offerings.[1] Today, Moviefone continues as a service of AOL and remains a popular movie information guide in America, bringing movie information and advance tickets to nearly 20 million moviegoers every half-hour[citation needed].
In Media
In an episode of Seinfeld entitled The Pool Guy, Kramer's phone number is very similar to Moviefone's, and gets many calls from people wanting listings. In the end he decides to just play along and give out movie listings. Unfortunately, Mr. Moviefone himself eventually found out and came after Kramer, angry that Kramer was stealing his business. [2] As of January 2009, the actual Moviephone has incorporated voice recognition, prompting users with "Now you can just tell me the name of the movie you want to see", almost identical to Kramer's line in the Seinfeld episode.
Kansas City rapper Kutt Calhoun spoofs the use of Moviefone in his intro track for his album Feature Presentation. The skit includes someone calling "KCMO Moviefone" and goes through the steps to find a listing for "Kutt Calhoun: Feature Presentation".
In one episode of the Dilbert (TV series), the Pointy-Headed Boss, as he is very stupid, once used Moviefone to check on his IBM stock.
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References
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