Moviefone Company

Russ Leatherman's name may not be familiar to many, but his voice is another story. Hint: "If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, press 1 now." In his voice-over incarnation as Mr. Moviefone, Leatherman is the go-to guy for movie times, theater information and advance ticket sales, which Moviefone processes to the tune of about 5 million per week. But Leatherman isn't all talk: The 42-year-old L.A.

Russ Leatherman's name may not be familiar to many, but his voice is another story. Hint: "If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, press 1 now." In his voice-over incarnation as Mr. Moviefone, Leatherman is the go-to guy for movie times, theater information and advance ticket sales, which Moviefone processes to the tune of about 5 million per week. But Leatherman isn't all talk: The 42-year-old L.A.

Online movie-ticket service Fandango Inc. of Los Angeles and AOL Moviefone, a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc., have settled their battle over the right to sell tickets for Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. theaters. The settlement, which is expected to be announced formally today, leaves Fandango holding the exclusive rights to Loews, a founding partner of Fandango. The legal battle, which stretched across several courts, erupted as Loews was reorganizing under the protection of the U.S.

Online movie-ticket service Fandango Inc. of Los Angeles and AOL Moviefone, a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc., have settled their battle over the right to sell tickets for Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. theaters. The settlement, which is expected to be announced formally today, leaves Fandango holding the exclusive rights to Loews, a founding partner of Fandango. The legal battle, which stretched across several courts, erupted as Loews was reorganizing under the protection of the U.S.

"We put the movies at your fingertips," reads a current newspaper ad for Moviefone. But if the movie your fingers wanted to find on Friday morning was Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry," just released by Fine Line Features, you were out of luck. It was the latest example of what studio marketers and exhibitors contend has been a pattern by Moviefone of excluding in its listing those films from companies that don't pay Moviefone thousands of dollars in advertising money.

A New York arbitration panel has awarded MovieFone Inc. $22.7 million in a dispute with ticketing equipment manufacturer Pacer/Cats. That company's former assets were purchased from Wembly by Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster Corp. MovieFone, an 8-year-old New York-based film information line that operates in 30 cities nationwide, initiated the action after what it contends were attempts by those three companies to disrupt its electronic movie ticketing business.

Three young entrepreneurs who gambled $250,000 on a new telephone movie guide nearly lost it all, but they learned a valuable lesson: If you need money to launch a new product or service, you'd better produce a working model to show potential investors because words alone won't persuade them. "We were about to lose everything we had, but to attract an investor, we had to have a working system," said J.

America Online said Monday it will buy the movie listing and ticketing company MovieFone in a stock deal worth about $388 million in an effort to attract more users to its locally oriented Web sites and cash in on the electronic commerce boom.

Reserved seating has long been standard for live entertainment venues. Now, moviegoers in New York--and soon, Los Angeles--will be able to choose in advance where they'd like to sit in a handful of movie theaters. The 1,600-screen Cineplex Odeon chain and the MovieFone (777-FILM) telephone ticketing service will introduce reserved seats at two midtown Manhattan theaters this month. One is the Ziegfeld, the country's largest single-screen auditorium. Each theater seat will be numbered.

MovieFone Inc. shares rose as much as 37% intraday after the largest U.S. movie ticketing service expanded its ties with three of the nation's top theater chains and said it expects record usage of its service this year. The shares of the New York-based company ended up $1.94 higher at $13.75 on Nasdaq. MovieFone, which sells tickets over the telephone and the Internet, expects usage to rise 30% to 110 million user sessions this year.

Online movie ticketing site Fandango.com has sued AOL Time Warner Inc.'s rival service Moviefone, alleging that it interfered with a ticketing deal with the Loews Cineplex theater chain in a way that threatened the site's survival as a business. The suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles, claims Moviefone negotiated with Loews to abandon the theater chain's exclusive agreement for advanced ticketing with Fandango in favor of a competing deal with Moviefone.

America Online said Monday it will buy the movie listing and ticketing company MovieFone in a stock deal worth about $388 million in an effort to attract more users to its locally oriented Web sites and cash in on the electronic commerce boom.

MovieFone Inc. shares rose as much as 37% intraday after the largest U.S. movie ticketing service expanded its ties with three of the nation's top theater chains and said it expects record usage of its service this year. The shares of the New York-based company ended up $1.94 higher at $13.75 on Nasdaq. MovieFone, which sells tickets over the telephone and the Internet, expects usage to rise 30% to 110 million user sessions this year.

"We put the movies at your fingertips," reads a current newspaper ad for Moviefone. But if the movie your fingers wanted to find on Friday morning was Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry," just released by Fine Line Features, you were out of luck. It was the latest example of what studio marketers and exhibitors contend has been a pattern by Moviefone of excluding in its listing those films from companies that don't pay Moviefone thousands of dollars in advertising money.

Reserved seating has long been standard for live entertainment venues. Now, moviegoers in New York--and soon, Los Angeles--will be able to choose in advance where they'd like to sit in a handful of movie theaters. The 1,600-screen Cineplex Odeon chain and the MovieFone (777-FILM) telephone ticketing service will introduce reserved seats at two midtown Manhattan theaters this month. One is the Ziegfeld, the country's largest single-screen auditorium. Each theater seat will be numbered.

A New York arbitration panel has awarded MovieFone Inc. $22.7 million in a dispute with ticketing equipment manufacturer Pacer/Cats. That company's former assets were purchased from Wembly by Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster Corp. MovieFone, an 8-year-old New York-based film information line that operates in 30 cities nationwide, initiated the action after what it contends were attempts by those three companies to disrupt its electronic movie ticketing business.

Online movie ticketing site Fandango.com has sued AOL Time Warner Inc.'s rival service Moviefone, alleging that it interfered with a ticketing deal with the Loews Cineplex theater chain in a way that threatened the site's survival as a business. The suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles, claims Moviefone negotiated with Loews to abandon the theater chain's exclusive agreement for advanced ticketing with Fandango in favor of a competing deal with Moviefone.

Three young entrepreneurs who gambled $250,000 on a new telephone movie guide nearly lost it all, but they learned a valuable lesson: If you need money to launch a new product or service, you'd better produce a working model to show potential investors because words alone won't persuade them. "We were about to lose everything we had, but to attract an investor, we had to have a working system," said J.