“The Hunger Games” might have set a record for the movie industry on Friday, March 23rd, when it grossed $214 million in sales worldwide and $155 million for United States and Canada alone, which is the highest of all time among non-sequels, but it also managed to set a record in the technology industry. Mobile movie ticket sales reached an all-time high according to data from Fandango.
The immensely popular movie holds Fandango’s record for most tickets sold on opening day via a mobile device in history. Additionally, Friday was the all-time top day for Fandango ticket sales. Out of all tickets sold with or without mobile use, Fandango captured a 22 percent share for “The Hunger Games,” topping the previous record of 19 percent for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.”
My theory for these mobile records is simple. The main demographic for “The Hunger Games” is teens and twenty-somethings. Which demographic is the most likely to use mobile technology to accomplish tasks such as, oh I don’t know, purchasing movie tickets? Teens and twenty-somethings. Pair together a popular teen movie with mobile technology and you get an explosion in usage, but as we all know, over time this will become the norm.
Consider this. Instead of buying tickets ahead of time using a smartphone, what about utilizing Square’s Card Case service now known as Pay with Square? Before walking into the theater, open a tab in the app. Go up to the nice ticket lady, snag however many tickets you need and tell her to charge it under your name. That’s it. All you need is the app and your identity to pay for things. That’s a future I’m looking forward to.