Moviefone is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

-based moving pictures listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, cinema information, film reviews, and advance tickets, as well as TV content and a comprehensive search tool that allows users to find theaters, channels, and streaming services offering movies and television shows. The service is owned by Born in Cleveland LLC, Cleveland O’Neal III's holding company. O’Neal is creator and producer of ''

Made in Hollywood ''Made in Hollywood'' is an entertainment-focused television series hosted by Kylie Erica Mar and Julie L. Harkness airing in syndication on September 30, 2005 which generally features press junket Film promotion is the practice of promotion sp ...

'' syndicated daytime entertainment show.

History

In 1989,

Russ Leatherman Russ Leatherman (born 14 February 1962) is a cofounder of Moviefone, a popular movie guide. Known for his trademark greeting, “Hellooo and welcome to Moviefone!”, the greeting has been featured or parodied on many programs including ''The Sim ...

, Rob Gukeisen, Andrew Jarecki, Pat Cardamone, and Adam Slutsky launched the interactive telephone service, with initial service in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Leatherman provided the voice of "Mr. Moviefone" for the automated phone service. After gaining popularity, the service later expanded across the United States and eventually adopted an online presence as Moviefone.com. In 1999,

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

purchased Moviefone for $388 million. The acquisition was completed on May 21, 1999. In 2001, Moviefone entered into a partnership with MovieTickets.com that crosslinked their ticketing offerings; by 2004, Moviefone's online arm was acquired outright by MovieTickets.com. However, in 2012, Moviefone announced a partnership with MovieTickets.com's rival

Fandango Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has ...

. On February 23, 2014, it was reported that Moviefone would be shutting down its call-in service and its "777-FILM" phone number, but would maintain its mobile app services. On May 5, 2014, Moviefone was relaunched with a new look, an expansion into TV content, and a comprehensive search tool that allows users to find theaters, channels, and streaming services offering movies and television shows. On April 5, 2018,

Helios and Matheson Analytics Helios and Matheson Analytics was a publicly traded data analytics company based in New York City, New York. The company became widely known during its final years for acquiring and subsequently operating MoviePass, which ultimately lead to the ...

, the majority owner of the movie ticketing service

MoviePass MoviePass, Inc. is an American subscription-based movie ticketing service owned by co-founder Stacy Spikes. The service was launched in 2011 and allowed subscribers to purchase up to a movie ticket a day for a monthly fee. The service utilized ...

, announced the acquisition of Moviefone from

Oath Inc. Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to giv ...

for $1 million in cash and $8 million in stock. In early 2020, Helios and Matheson went bankrupt in deep controversy over multiple changes to the MoviePass service, and at that point had one employee, Matt Atchity, handling Moviefone. The company was worth just $4,379,504, or about 1% of the 388 million when it was purchased by AOL. ''Made in Hollywood'' Producer Cleveland O’Neal III purchased Moviefone out of bankruptcy in March 2020 via his holding company, Born in Cleveland LLC.

In popular culture

In the ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...

'' episode, "

The Pool Guy "The Pool Guy" is the 118th episode of NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld''. This was the eighth episode of the seventh season. It aired on November 16, 1995. The end credit states "In Memory of our Friend Rick Bolden". Rick Bolden was one of the musicians wh ...

" (season 7, episode 8), the character

Cosmo Kramer Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character in the American television sitcom '' Seinfeld'' (1989–1998) played by Michael Richards. The character is loosely based on comedian Kenny Kramer, Larry David's e ...

receives

misdialed call A misdialed call or wrong number is a telephone call to an incorrect telephone number. This may occur because the number has been physically misdialled, the number is simply incorrect, or because the area code or ownership of the number has change ...

s meant for a parodied Moviefone after getting a new

phone number A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...

.The Pool Guy
IMDb.com, Inc. In an episode of the TV series of

Dilbert ''Dilbert'' is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title characte ...

, the

Pointy-haired Boss This is a list of characters that have appeared in Scott Adams' ''Dilbert'' comic strip. Primary characters Dilbert The main character in the strip, Dilbert is a stereotypical technically-minded single male. Prior to October 2014, he was us ...

confuses Moviefone with an automated hotline for checking his stocks, being frustrated that trying to check his IBM stock leads to buying tickets to a horror movie. In the 2001 film ''

Josie and the Pussycats Josie and the Pussycats (sometimes simply known as The Pussycats) are a fictional girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense i ...

'', Mr. Moviefone is the voice of subliminal advertising messages planted into pop music by an ominous record agency.

References

External links

* * List of U.S. states with Moviefone local numbers. {{Verizon Media American film websites Information by telephone American companies established in 1989 Internet properties established in 1989 2018 mergers and acquisitions