In an effort to keep up its rapid growth, Fandango is going to sell movie tickets via Facebook.
Starting this weekend, a portion of Faceboook (FB) users in the United States will be able to buy tickets without ever leaving their new feed, theNew York Times first reported.
The ticket seller is offering seats to coming films like “The Magnificent Seven,” starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt; “Storks,” a Warner Bros. animated movie; and the comedy “Kevin Hart: What Now?,” the Times reports.
Although tested in rudimentary ways before, Paul Yanover, Fandango’s president, told the Times that selling movie tickets this robustly to Facebook’s large audience is a first—it’s Fandango’s way of coming to the customer, instead of relying on the customer to come to it.
But it’s not just about making purchasing tickets easier. It’s also about incentivizing new people, especially younger ones, to go to the movies at all. As in-home entertainment is becoming increasingly popular, the movie theater industry is struggling to keep up. The Times reports that only 513 million people went to the movies this summer, a 3.5% decline from the year before. Although Fandango is not struggling, (in fact, it grew by 81% in 2015), it hopes that making Facebook a one-stop-shop to get tickets will be an attractive option to younger generations, encouraging them to get off the couch and head to the big screen.
But expanding to Facebook is just one way the NBCUniversal owned company is making moves. On Tuesday, the ticket seller began allowing users to buy tickets without leaving texting conversations through Apple’s new iPhone messaging app, according to the Times. Anyone will the new iOS 10 operating system can simply tap on the Fandango app while on the Messages page.
And since 70% of Fandango’s ticket sales come from mobile devices, the ticket retailer isn’t stopping there. An interface designed for Snapchat is in the works, once again allowing users to by tickets with out having to leave the platform or go to a separate app.
Although Fandango is facing some competition by a new startup called Atom Tickets, it still proves to be the giant in this portion of the movie industry. It currently serves about 27,700 movie screens in the U.S. and has seen a 51% increase in its ticketing revenue so far this year.
