-By Andreas Fuchs

“At Fandango, we’re advocates making sure that the exhibitors are top of mind in all our decisions, as they are our most valuable partners,” assures Robert Macias, director of studio and exhibitor relations at Fandango, Inc., a unit of Comcast Interactive Media (http://bit.ly/cimnet). “For an exhibitor, it’s always helpful to know who you can call to get things done—and so I am a bit of an ombudsman.”

Add in the studio side, whose goal it is to promote their films rather than the theatres where they are playing, and “it’s like a triangle,” Macias observes. “We all deal with the same folks, and since we have more than 15 million monthly unique visitors to our site, we try to drive consumers to see the studios’ movies at the best theatres. We are here to make sure that the overall experience is a good one.”

As www.Fandango.com sells tickets to more than 16,000 screens in ever-increasing record numbers and percentages, “the nation’s leading moviegoer destination” offers information and entertainment, promotions, sweepstakes and other incentives for moviegoers. Since 2000, the list of its founding exhibitors—Carmike Cinemas, Century Theatres, Cinemark, Loews Cineplex, Regal, Edwards and United Artists Theatres—has evolved to include another 16 circuits. Together, Fandango states, they “represent more than half of the entire U.S. theatre market and the vast majority of all theatres in the nation enabled for remote ticketing.”

“By providing consumers with the utmost conveniences before they arrive at the theatre,” Macias explains, “Fandango has become the way that many people go to the movies these days… We make sure that customers have a good experience online, creating less stress and hassle for the exhibitor. Part of my job is to remind the exhibitors that we are the biggest brand in moviegoing online, and that there’s value in partnering with our strength in ticket sales, traffic and awareness as the place where consumers make their moviegoing decisions.” Best of all for theatre operations, “by the time they show up at the theatre, many Fandango consumers already know what they want to see and they’ve printed out their tickets,” he notes, “which gives them more opportunities to check out the snack bar. They don’t have to wait in multiple lines.”

Multiple platforms are on Macias’ mind as well. “In the last few years, Fandango has extended into the mobile space, with a variety of apps for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm and others. So I’m making sure that the exhibitors are properly represented here while explaining the new conveniences as well.”

One circuit that didn’t need much convincing was Reading Cinemas. In addition to “print at home” ticketing, which Macias calls “a wonderful convenience for moviegoers,” the circuit “helped us launch our newest convenience for film fans” in eight markets last March. With Fandango’s Mobile Ticket, “they can get movie tickets sent as barcodes to their mobile phones. The benefit is that moviegoers can simply take their mobile phones straight to the theatre ticket-taker, who scans the phone’s barcode, allowing customers to bypass the box-office windows and kiosks.” Macias reports that “moviegoers have been very receptive” to the idea.

Cinema patrons also love to vote for their favorite movie of the year. For the annual “Fandango Fan Choice Award” at ShoWest 2010, two very happy fans—Lisa and Chris Dorpema from Deetsville, Alabama—were selected as part of the Fandango sweepstakes to attend the closing-night banquet and ceremony on March 18. “Many of us assumed that the top vote-getter among the fans would be Avatar,” Macias reasons, “since it was our top-selling film of all time,” the bestseller for ten weeks in a row with 75% of those sales for the 3D and IMAX editions. “But the fans instead voted for The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” where Fandango had collected some 18% of opening-weekend sales. The Summit Entertainment smash then garnered a vast majority 66% of the more than 71,000 moviegoers who voted their “Fan Choice” amongst the top ten grossing titles of 2009.

“Summit has been having a good year, having snatched away the Oscar from Avatar for its film The Hurt Locker,” Macias reminds us about the ShoWest ceremony where Fandango presented the award to Summit’s heads Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger: “When Avatar producer Jon Landau took the dais later in the evening, he told Friedman, ‘Robby, it’s bad enough that you beat us at the Oscars, but to lose the ‘Fandango Fan Choice Award’ to Summit? Now that’s going too far!’”

Macias has never strayed from his roots in exhibition as doorman/usher at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, Calif. His favorite theatres, however, are the Paramount Theatre there and the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian on Hollywood Boulevard. Since 1982, “when we were playing E.T. and The World According to Garp at the Grand Lake,” he has been involved in all aspects of exhibition. “I’ve opened and closed theatres. I’ve been a union projectionist, run concessions, and even worked as a janitor at theatres—so I feel like I’m an advocate for the exhibitors because I’ve spent most of my life working at the cinemas.” Indeed, prior to Fandango, Macias was director of marketing for Century Theatres.

“The industry is always evolving, never staying the same,” Macias reflects, “and yet people always want to escape to the movies. I’ve been in the theatre business for almost three decades, and I’m still enjoying it.”