Let me preface this by saying that I hate waiting in line. Throngs of humanity standing in line all in their own little worlds. In a group but not often part of it. Ugh.
So recently I’ve been buying our movie tickets (the kid is loving the animated stuff) online.
And it’s so sweet it makes me tear up. Go online, buy the tix, get them from a kiosk at the theater.
No waiting in line. No jostling. No disinterested clerk.
Beauty, eh?
Technology is our friend.
With a very few exceptions I’ve never waited more than 5 minutes for tickets.
Also, at the theatres I go to, with a few exceptions, there isn’t a separate entrance for people w/ tickets (so you gotta be in line anyway)
So for me it isn’t worth the 0.75 expense. But if it is for you-good for you!
Brian
Most of the theatres I go to have automated kiosks where you can buy the tickets with a credit card. There seems to be almost no wait on these things; most people still seem to prefer to wait in line for a human for some reason. I’m glad I’m not a technophobe.
What Revtim said.
Plus, when you’re feeling cheap, you can buy student or senior tickets from those machines. It’s not as if the “Thank you, to your right, Thank you, to your left” humanoid ripping the tickets ever checks.
I like them - provided the theater knows that the system is in place and is using it properly. A couple of times I bought tickets through Moviefone, only to find out that there was no kiosk at the theater - you had to wait in the same line as everyone else. Awful planning on the part of the theater. (This was a small AMC theater; the larger ones like Muvico have the neato kiosks.)
There is only one thing better than movietickets.com, and that is netflix.com.
Why leave the house at all?
Ever?
I’ve been curious about online ticekt buying, but the theater I go to isn’t crowded enough for me to look into it. I guess for me, it’s a solution to a problem I don’t have (yet?).
What theater are you going to JC? Everytime I go to the Regal at Countryside, there is no wait (except for a few highly anticipated movies). Or am I just lucky because I tend to go during the week or later at night.
Here in these parts I’m partial to Fandango.com. I also buy tickets from 1-800-fandango on the heavly attended movies (you pay extra). It’s pretty cool, it remembers who I am when I call in from the same phone number.
E3
For me, fandango/movietickets/etc. rank high enough to be out of the white noise, but as far as general usefulness goes, they’re well below the “store locator” buttons that every chain store has on their websites. And I’d miss Something Positive more if it were to disappear tomorrow.
That’s partly because the wife and I don’t go to that many movies, and when we do, we’re usually at the [Crown Eastport](http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/showtimes.html?z=21401&r=adv&m=&t=Crown Eastport&a=&dt=0&s=tm&p=0), an out-of-the-way art house near Annapolis which we’ve never found full or had to wait in a long line at, but seems to be able to stay in business nonetheless.
RTF - I know that theater!! I’m always amazed to see it’s still in business. The shopping center there is in a constant state of flux, it seems.
As for me, I love the kiosks outside the theaters. Never had to wait in line for one, and the entire transaction, even on the one with the wonky touch screen, takes about 30 seconds. Of course, we usually go to the first matinee on a Sunday, so the crowds are small anyway.
Well, remember, I only get to go to movies that have animated animals at this point. And those I get to go to during weekend afternoons.
I had netflix for a while but when the baby came I found we didn’t have time to keep up with the movies that were coming in. They’d just sit around until I figured I’d never get around to seeing them and send them back.
Ah, the joys of parenthood.
And, Theios? I usually end up at Reston Town Center.
Luckily in Las Vegas, almost every local’s casino has a multi-plex with 12-18 screens and, unless you go to an opening film on a Friday night, there is never a line with more than 5 people. Plus, if you go before 6:00 P.M any day of the week, even new film tickets are half price and there is no line whatsoever.
However, I remember those l o n g lines when I lived in NYC and in some theaters in LA. I would probably be doing the same thing as you if I lived in one of those cities.
I can’t remember the last time I waited in line for movie tickets…and I see a LOT of movies. The computer things at the theatre are a huge help. Every so often I wait in a line to actually enter the actual theatre but there’s really no way around that.
I really hate the movietickets.com commercials so for that reason alone, i will never ever use it.
The only time there are lines near me are Saturday nights at 7 PM, and I don’t go to the movies then. So it would just be wasting money to use movietickets.com.
Ugh, I do too. 3 dopey-looking college students who act so stupid and spelling-challenged they seem like slow 2nd graders is supposed to make me want to use the service? Blah!
But, I have used it, once.
That would have been twice, except that the damn web site crashed the day I wanted to buy Trilogy Tuesday tickets. They were NOT prepared properly for that at all.