Starting with Men in Black 3, which opens wide today, couch potatoes can buy movie tickets on impulse while watching TV. Shazam and Sony Pictures Entertainment have partered to make it possible to purchase tickets by using the free mobile app to tag the blockbuster’s TV commercial.
This capability is part of an exclusive partnership between the two companies that will continue through the summer’s other two tentpole releases, The Amazing Spider-Man and Total Recall. In addition to buying tickets, Shazam users can unlock additional content such as exclusive footage, and purchase DVDs and soundtracks.
Ticket purchases will be processed by Fandango, the movie ticketing service acquired by NBCUniversal Entertainment, which also will enable consumers to choose their preferred theater and showtime.
Dwight Caines, Sony’s president, Worldwide Digital Marketing, said the partnership was important in light of how consumer’s behavior is shifting. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen a huge growth in mobile ticketing, and this initiative creates a bridge with broadcast reach and local transactions,” he said. “For today’s audiences, there’s a direct connection between television and online as audiences are engaged in two screens at once. Using Shazam to purchase tickets directly from Fandango is a great way to build and expand upon that – it helps moviegoers quickly and easily get the tickets to the movies they most want to see.”
Related links:
Shazam – blog post
Men in Black 3 – official movie site
Fandango – official site
From Sony Pictures: In Men In Black™ 3, Agents J (played by Will Smith) and K (played by Tommy Lee Jones) are back… in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him — secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (played by Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind. Barry Sonnenfeld directs the film. The film’s screenplay is written by Etan Cohen, based on the Malibu Comic by Lowell Cunningham. Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald produce, and Steven Spielberg and G. Mac Brown are the executive producers.
