Anna Daniels
Moviefone has been around since 1989, popularized as an automated phone service that provided movie showtimes at a time when the internet wasn’t around. As the information age surged forth, Moviefone created an online presence, and in recent years was still attracting more than six million unique monthly visitors still looking for movie times, tickets, trailers, and more entertainment information.
But now Moviefone is just an asset being sold amidst the bankruptcy of the now-defunct MoviePass.
The Wrap has word on Moviefone sold for $1.075 million out of bankruptcy by Helios & Matheson Analytics, the company who owned the movie theater ticket subscription service MoviePass. The once-thriving site was picked up in 2018 from Oath (AOL and Yahoo) for a total of $23 million, which included $1 million in cash and $14 million in options of Helios and Matheson stock. But that was a steep drop from how much Moviefone used to be worth.
Back in 1999, Moviefone was purchased for $338 million in stock by AOL. From there, they partnered with MovieTickets.com before being absorbed by the latter in 2004. Moviefone then shifted over to Fandango in 2012 before ending up with MoviePass. Most recently, the company was being run by a single person after Helios & Matheson Analytics declared bankruptcy.
Valued at $4,379,504 as recently as last month, Moviefone was picked up for a bargain price by Born In Cleveland LLC, though it’s not clear what they intend to do with the purchase, or even what it is that company does. The runner-up was FOMOPOP Inc., a digital publishing company that offers information about streaming services.
When MoviePass picked up Moviefone, they said in a statement:
“This natural alignment between MoviePass and Moviefone will help us grow our subscriber base significantly and expand our marketing and advertising platform for our studio and brand partners. Moviefone has been a go-to resource for entertainment enthusiasts for years, and we’re excited to bolster its presence and bring this iconic platform into the entertainment ecosystem of the future.”
As for what Moviefone’s future holds now, especially during this tumultuous time for the entertainment industry when there aren’t any movie theaters open, we’ll have to wait and see.
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