So you'll probably never need another movie tickets, trailers, showtimes or reviews app for the rest of your lifetime now that Fandango has purchased its main competitor Flixster, along with Flixster's sister company Rotten Tomatoes.
Fandango, which is owned by NBCUniversal announced the acquisition via news release today. Fandango didn't say how much it had paid Warner Bros. for the two properties, but it was probably a whole lot based on recent history.
Way back in 2011, Warner Bros. purchased Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes for a reported $60 to $90 million, and Flixster has only gotten better since then by adding the ability to buy tickets directly through its app. After that, Flixster integrated Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer scores directly into its app as well, and began streaming trailers as part of its showtime listings.
Fandango and Flixster are the two most popular methods for buying movie tickets before arriving at the theater. Rotten Tomatoes, of course, is the movie review aggregator that takes all the critics reviews for a movie, then determines which percentage of those reviews overall were positive to come up with a score (that we don't always agree with).
Shortly after Warner Bros. first purchased Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes, it was rumored that they might begin offering streaming movie rentals as part of their services, although that never materialized. It sounds like that could change, though, based on what Fandango President Paul Yanover said in the news release announcing today's acquisition:
“Our new expanded network will offer unparalleled capabilities for all of our exhibition, studio, and promotional partners to reach a massive entertainment audience with innovative marketing and ticketing solutions that benefit from original content, home entertainment products, ‘super tickets,’ gifts with purchase, and other new promotional opportunities.”
