Movies.com
Type of site
Movies
Available inEnglish
OwnerFandango Media
Commercialyes
Registrationavailable, but not required

Movies.com was a website; the URL now redirects to that of its owner, Fandango Media.

The Walt Disney Company was using movies.com in newspaper advertisements for Disney subsidiary films as early as 1996.[1][2] Disney formally launched the site as a movie based resource in 2000.[3] In 2001, a group of five movies studios announced they were forming "Movielink" to provide video on-demand services. Shortly thereafter, The Walt Disney Company and Fox News Corp. announced that movies.com would be a joint venture to access movies and other content on the internet, allowing the fledgling audience of broadband internet to download movies on demand, then estimated to be about 10 million homes in the United States.[4][5] Both ventures began to be investigated by the U.S. Antitrust Division.[6][7] Fox pulled out of the joint venture in April 2002, citing the potential regulatory and logistical concerns with the concept.[8]

Fandango acquired the site from Disney in June 2008, at which time it was reported that Movies.com had 1.9 million monthly unique visitors, compared to 6.3 million for Fandango.[9][10]

The site was home to the award-winning webshow Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony (2005-06), a bi-weekly movie preview webcast starring the Muppets. Another webshow featured Brandon Schantz and a movie spoof called The DiCaprio Code, parodying The Da Vinci Code.

References

  1. ^ Saunders, Michael (17 May 1996). Movies get showing on the Web, Tampa Bay Times
  2. ^ (14 April 1996). Advertisement for Celtic Pride, Los Angeles Times, p. 328 (advertisement for Celtic Pride, includes note to "Visit 'Celtic Pride' at http://www.movies.com")
  3. ^ (23 June 2008). Fandango buys Movies.com from Disney, NBC News
  4. ^ (5 September 2001). News Corp., Disney in pact, CNN Money
  5. ^ Regan, Keith (6 September 2001). News Corp., Disney Join Movies-via-the-Web Fray, E-Commerce Times
  6. ^ (3 June 2004). JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CLOSES ANTITRUST INVESTIGATION INTO THE MOVIELINK MOVIES-ON-DEMAND JOINT VENTURE, U.S. Department of Justice
  7. ^ Cunningham, Stuart and Jon Silver. Screen Distribution and the New King Kongs of the Online World, p. 21 (2013)
  8. ^ (26 April 2002). Fox Entertainment Group To Withdraw From Proposed Movies.Com Video-On-Demand Joint Venture, Walt Disney Company
  9. ^ Chmielewski, Dawn C. (June 24, 2008). "Fandago acquires Movies.com". Los Angeles Times.
  10. ^ "Fandango buys Movies.com". The Hollywood Reporter. June 22, 2008.
Categories