NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
America Online's Moviefone unit is transferring its ticketing business to MovieTickets.com. The deal increases competition between two rival companies competing to sell movie tickets in advance over the Internet.
Terms of the deal, announced late Monday, were not disclosed. Under the agreement, those who call Moviefone will have their ticket purchases handled by MovieTickets.com Those who go to Moviefone.com to buy tickets will be linked to a co-branded transaction page served by MovieTickets.com. The companies said that with the agreement, MovieTickets.com will now handle 57 percent of all Internet movie ticket sales.
MovieTickets.com competitor Fandango claims the lead by selling tickets for 10,500 movie screens. Fandango is owned by 10 U.S. and Canadian movie exhibitors, including No. 1 chain Regal Entertainment Group (RGC: Research, Estimates) and No. 3, privately held Cinemark USA.
MovieTickets.com has fewer screens but says it sells to more than 50 percent of the top 100 grossing theaters in North America. Its investors include No. 2 movie theater chain AMC Entertainment (AEN: Research, Estimates), Marcus Theatres (MCS: Research, Estimates) and Hoyts Cinemas.
Other investors in the MovieTickets.com joint venture include AOL and media conglomerate Viacom (VIA: Research, Estimates) with some related companies.
Moviefone invented the advance online sale of movie tickets, but it has lost much of that market to the competing theater-owned joint ventures since. It will continue to offer listing information about movies, deriving revenue from advertising to drive the business rather than ticket sales.
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