Mobile tickets sales helped drive significant growth for Fandango during the first quarter, with the company reporting a 127 percent year-over-year jump in ticket sales and its best-ever quarterly percentage of mobile.

Fandango reported that mobile accounted for 23 percent of total ticket sales in the first quarter of 2011. Additionally, the company claimed a 58 percent year-over-year increase in monthly online and mobile visitors, totaling 33 million.

“Fandango’s overall strategy is to provide quick and easy access to movie information and tickets wherever consumers are,” said Harry Medved, spokesman at Fandango, Los Angeles.

“Mobile, of course, plays a huge role in that strategy as consumer demand for movie information and tickets on their mobile devices has never been higher,” he said. “Fandango currently offers award-winning apps for virtually every device, along with our mobile site.

“We also offer innovative programs such as paperless Mobile Ticket scanning, which allows consumers to purchase a paperless ticket and simply scan their device at the theater without having to print a ticket or receive one at the kiosk. This program is currently offered at 1,200 screens across the country, and we plan to roll out ‘Mobile Ticket’ scanning at thousands of additional screens by the end of the year.”

Hungry for mobile
Thanks to the significant popularity of “The Hunger Games,” the movie broke a Fandango record on March 23 for the most tickets sold on opening weekend via Fandango’s mobile platforms.

The success of “The Hunger Games” drove results for Fandango beyond just mobile. Fandango sold 22 percent of the film’s opening weekend box office.

Fandango expanded its theater network in the first quarter by 19 percent, which also helped drive strong results.

In February, AMC Theatres added all of its theaters in the United States to Fandango’s system to let consumers buy movie tickets across Fandango’s mobile services and Web site (see story).

Leveraging growth
The company continues to build relationships to leverage its popularity as a ticketing solution in other ways as well.

For the Super Bowl game this year, Fandango partnered with Universal Pictures for an on-air trailer spot to promote the Fandango mobile apps and boost advanced ticket sales (see story).

Fandango also recently signed a partnership deal with Yahoo to become the movie ticketing provider for all of the network’s sites.

The company has also launched a Facebook Timeline app called “Movies with Friends” that is driving new traffic and fan engagement by enabling Fandango friends to share their moviegoing activities in real time.

Fandango’s movie ticketing apps have 24 million downloads. The app is available on iPhone and iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 as well as other platforms.

“As Fandango’s mobile traffic and sales continue to increase dramatically, Fandango will continue to innovate and deliver new mobile offerings that make the moviegoing process easier, more convenient and more fun,” Mr. Medved said.