Moviefone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moviefone is the United States' most popular movie listing and information service, where moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theater information, film reviews, or advance tickets by dialing the local telephone service (e.g., 777-FILM) or visiting www.moviefone.com. The service is available nationwide, and is owned by AOL.
[edit] History
In 1989, Russ Leatherman, Rob Gukeisen, Andrew Jarecki and Adam Slutsky launched the interactive telephone service, with initial service in New York and Los Angeles. After gaining tremendous popularity, it later expanded across the United States. In 1999, Moviefone was purchased by AOL for more than $400 million. Today, Moviefone continues as a service of AOL and remains the most popular movie information guide in America, bringing movie info and advance tickets to nearly 5 million moviegoers a week.
[edit] Mr. Moviefone
Mr. Moviefone (voiced by founder Russ Leatherman) has become somewhat iconic for moviegoers, and his trademark greeting, “Hello and Welcome to Moviefone!” is considered a staple of the moviegoing experience. As a movie critic, his reviews have been on CNN, CNN Headline News, ABC-TV, CBS's The Early Show, Fox News, MSNBC, the nationally syndicated The Daily Buzz morning show, and heard on a number of top radio stations nationwide including Z-100 FM in New York, KRTH-FM in Los Angeles and the nationally syndicated Westwood One, USA Radio Network and ABC Radio Network.
Leatherman has appeared on national talk shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Howard Stern Show, The Caroline Rhea Show and others. He has also been profiled in the pages of Time Magazine, People, Entertainment Weekly, Life, Vanity Fair and The New York Times. His inimitable “Hello and welcome to Moviefone!” greeting has been affectionately parodied on dozens of programs including The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the 2005 Academy Awards, VH1’s I Love the 90s, and was the subject of a classic Seinfeld episode.
