AOL MovieFone Announces Sellouts of Pre-Opening Austin Powers Screenings Sold Online.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 1999-- Success of pioneering program between New Line Cinema, AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. , and MovieFone demonstrates power of online marketing in filling theater seats New Line Cinema, America Online See AOL. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : AOL), and its new subsidiary MovieFone, the nation's largest movie guide and ticketing service, announced today that theaters in 10 cities sold-out special advance screenings of New Line Cinema's highly anticipated comedy sequel, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged shag 1 n. 1. A tangle or mass, especially of rough matted hair. 2. a. A coarse long nap, as on a woolen cloth. b. Cloth having such a nap. 3. A rug with a thick rough pile. Me. Thursday night's previews were promoted exclusively to AOL and Moviefone.com users, and tickets were sold through special links to Moviefone.com throughout all AOL brands. This promotion marks the first time that an online ticket sales program has been used to pre-sell advance screenings nationwide, and its success demonstrates the power of online marketing in filling theater seats. New Line Cinema, which has been a pioneer in marketing movies online, is the first studio to have ever implemented a program of this kind, and the first studio to have entered into a major agreement with AOL to promote its movies through AOL properties including MovieFone. This partnership between New Line Cinema, America Online, and MovieFone is also the first example of the impact that the newly combined resources of AOL and MovieFone will have on movie marketing. (MovieFone, known by its familiar local phone numbers like 777-FILM and its online service Moviefone.com, was acquired by America Online in late May.) According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Robert Friedman, Co-Chairman of Worldwide Marketing for New Line Cinema, "This is truly the best example of the power of online marketing in filling movie seats. Just a few years ago, who would have imagined that you could fill up a theater exclusively through online advertising and ticketing? This promotion has presented a phenomenal opportunity to test drive our new partnership with AOL and the results speak for themselves." According to Andrew Jarecki, MovieFone CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , "After the break-out success of the first Austin Powers film, this sequel has been highly anticipated by moviegoers. Working with New Line's distribution department and our exhibitor partners, we were able to set up special Thursday night preview screenings in the 10 biggest markets to be sold exclusively online. Then New Line's first-class marketing team, with the online leadership of Gordon Paddison, created special promotional messages to run throughout the various AOL brands that said 'See Austin First!' and gave users the opportunity to click on the message to go to a designated area on Moviefone.com that offered tickets to the screenings." To drive awareness and traffic for the screenings, AOL and MovieFone broadcasted these messages to a giant audience of movie fans not only on Moviefone.com but throughout the AOL family of brands, including the AOL service, AOL.com, Netscape, CompuServe, Digital City, ICQ ("I Seek You") A conferencing program for the Internet from Mirabilis, Tel Aviv, Israel (www.icq.com). It provides interactive chat, e-mail and file transfer and can alert you when someone on your predefined list has also come online. , and Entertainment Asylum. As a result, Moviefone.com began selling tickets rapidly in all these cities and by the day of the screening had already sold out shows many markets. Thursday's advance screenings of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me took place in the following cities: New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , Chicago, San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, Seattle, Kansas City Kansas City, two adjacent cities of the same name, one (1990 pop. 149,767), seat of Wyandotte co., NE Kansas (inc. 1859), the other (1990 pop. 435,146), Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties, NW Mo. (inc. 1850). , and San Diego. MovieFone, Inc., through its MovieFone telephone service (e.g. 777-FILM) and its online sister service Moviefone.com, is the largest movie listing guide and ticketing service in the country, providing millions of moviegoers each week with a complete, free directory of movies, showtimes, theater locations, the ability to purchase tickets, and other content of interest to moviegoers. Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 17 million members, and CompuServe, with approximately 2 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger See AIM. and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers; and AOL MovieFone, the nation's No.1 movie listing guide and ticketing service. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the Company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy. |
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