Loews Cineplex and AMC to merge (1 Viewer)

[Abby_B]

Very slightly, I think it's almost exactly what they say (if anything, it's "make sure you get to the theater earlier" next time. It's very annoying.

I'm not surprised at all by this merger. I may be in the minority here, but I've always had good experiences with Loews, so I hope they aren't just swallowed completely. I also prefer Fandango and bet that the combined company will use it over movietickets.com given its name recognition at this point (amazing what a paper bag character can do for a company!)

 

[Haggai]

Abby, I'm in agreement with those who say it's all about the particular theater's management. In this area, I've mostly had good experiences with Loews theaters, led (of course) by the Uptown, with the Georgetown and (near where I live) Shirlington theaters being decent as well. But Dupont Circle? Dreadful.

I also don't like the paper bag conceit for Fandango. Those spots always irritate me. But then there's Mr. Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man, now those are entertaining.

On the subject of pre-movie "turn off your cell phone" skits, was it AMC theaters who ran the fake cheerleader/sports movie spot in the last year or so? With the bitchy head cheerleader saying "Think you've got what it takes to FLY with the Hummingbirds," or something like that, and the male cheerleader with the "I thought you were an ATHLETE!" "I AM an athlete!" exchange with the coach? That was SO CLASSIC! I couldn't get enough of that one.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I'm very interested to see what happens there. One of the driving forces behind this merger is the desire to compete more effectively against Regal -- which uses Fandango.

M.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Yeah, but Loews owns Fandango. Not that that necessarily matters - I think that GCC originally owned a chunk, but switched to MovieTickets when AMC purchased them. I'm guessing AMC owns MovieTickets, and the end result will be the end of Fandango.

Which would annoy me, because their interface is a whole lot better than MT's (why can't I see listings for multiple theaters at once? Why?). Of course, the upshot could just be every theater chain uses the same ticketing system and I don't care, since I get times from IMDB anyway.