Moviefone
Encyclopedia
Moviefone is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-based movie listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theatre information, film reviews, or advance tickets. The service is available nationwide in many but not all area codes, and is owned by AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

.

History

In 1989, Russ Leatherman
Russ Leatherman
Russ Leatherman is the famous voice of Moviefone, the nations most popular movie guide. Known for his trademark greeting, “Hellooo and Welcome to Moviefone!”, the greeting has been parodied on hundreds of programs including The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the 2005...

, Rob Gukeisen, Andrew Jarecki
Andrew Jarecki
Andrew Jarecki is an American filmmaker, musician, and entrepreneur. He is best known for Capturing the Friedmans, which won eighteen international prizes including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle award, and was nominated for an Academy...

, Pat Cardamone and Adam Slutsky launched the interactive telephone service, with initial service in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. After gaining popularity, it later expanded across the United States and eventually adopted an online presence as Moviefone.com. In 1999, Moviefone was purchased by AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

 for more than $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

400 million. In 2004, MovieTickets.com
MovieTickets.com
MovieTickets.com is an online movie ticketing website originally founded by AMC Theaters and Hollywood.com and formed in the year 2000. It is currently a joint venture between AMC Entertainment, Hollywood Media Corp, National Amusements, Cineplex Entertainment, Marcus Theatres, Viacom and Time Warner...

 acquired outright the online arm of Moviefone.com, after having entered in a partnership in 2001 that crosslinked their ticketing offerings.

In media

In an episode of Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

 entitled The Pool Guy
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 who worked on the show's theme song.-Plot:Elaine befriends...

, Kramer's phone number is very similar to Moviefone's, and gets many calls from people wanting listings. In the end he decides to just play along and give out movie listings. Unfortunately, Mr. Moviefone himself eventually finds out and comes after Kramer, angry that Kramer is stealing his business. As of January 2009, the actual Moviefone has incorporated voice recognition, prompting users with "Now you can just tell me the name of the movie you want to see", almost identical to Kramer's line in the Seinfeld episode.

Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

 rapper Kutt Calhoun
Kutt Calhoun
Melvin Calhoun Jr., better known by his stage name Kutt Calhoun, is an American rapper from Kansas City, Missouri. His second album, Feature Presentation, debuted at #60 on the Billboard "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums" chart in its first week of release...

 spoofs the use of Moviefone in his intro track for his album Feature Presentation
Feature Presentation
Feature Presentation is the second studio album by Kansas City rapper Kutt Calhoun. It was released on October 7, 2008 and was able to chart #60 on Billboards "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums" chart in its first week of release....

. The skit includes someone calling "KCMO Moviefone" and goes through the steps to find a listing for "Kutt Calhoun: Feature Presentation".

In one episode of the Dilbert
Dilbert (TV series)
Dilbert is an animated television series spin-off of the comic strip of the same name, produced by Adelaide Productions, Idbox, and United Media and distributed by Columbia TriStar Television...

 TV series, the Pointy-Headed Boss uses Moviefone to check on his IBM stock.

In the 13th season of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, in the episode "Blame It On Lisa
Blame It on Lisa
"Blame It on Lisa" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons thirteenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 2002. In the episode, the family goes to Brazil in search of a Brazilian orphan named Ronaldo whom Lisa has been sponsoring...

", the "real" Mr. Moviefone is seen at the phone company with a woman he's about to take on a date. He advises the woman that "tonight's date is rated R, for scenes of nudity."

In the movie The Sweetest Thing
The Sweetest Thing
The Sweetest Thing is a 2002 American film farce directed by Roger Kumble and written by Nancy Pimental, who based the characters on herself and friend Kate Walsh...

, Christina (Cameron Diaz) gives men the AOL Moviefone number when she doesn't want to hear from them again. In the opening sequence, a man dials the number and the familiar voice says, "AOL MOVIEFONE!"
In the movie "30 Minutes or less" the number used to dial the bomb vest is replaced by the number for moviefone.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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