You can now buy your movie tickets on Facebook

[merrybigboy]

In an effort to keep up its rapid growth, Fandango is going to sell movie tickets viaFacebook.

Starting this weekend, a portion of Faceboook users in the United States will be able to buy tickets without ever leaving their new feed, the New York Times first reported.

The ticket seller is offering seats to coming films like "The Magnificent Seven," starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt; "Storks," a Warner Bros. animated movie; and the comedy "Kevin Hart: What Now?,” the Times reports.

Although tested in rudimentary ways before, Paul Yanover, Fandango’s president, told theTimes that selling movie tickets this robustly to Facebook’s large audience is a first--it’s Fandango’s way come to the customer, instead of relying on the customer to come to it.

But it’s not just about making purchasing tickets easier. It’s also about incentivizing new people, especially younger ones, to go to the movies at all. As in-home entertainment is becoming increasingly popular, the movie theater industry is struggling to keep up. TheTimes reports that only 513 million people went to the movies this summer, a 3.5% decline from the year before. Although Fandango is not struggling, (in fact, it grew by 81% in 2015), it hopes that making Facebook a one-stop-shop to get tickets will be an attractive option to younger generations, encouraging them to get off the couch and head to the big screen.

But expanding to Facebook is just one way the NBCUniversal owned company is making moves. Via Apple’s new iPhone messaging app, the ticket seller began allowing users to buy tickets without leaving texting conversations on Tuesday. Anyone will the new iOS 10 operating system can simply tap on the Fandango applet while on the Messages page.

And since 70% of Fandango’s ticket sales come from mobile devices, the ticket retailer isn’t stopping there. An interface designed for Snapchat is in the works, once again allowing users to by tickets with out having to leave the platform or go to a separate app.

Although Fandango is facing some competition by a new startup called Atom Tickets, it still proves to be the giant in this portion of the movie industry. It currently serves about 27,700 movie screens in the U.S. and has seen a 51% increase in its ticketing revenue so far this year.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/you-can-now-buy-your-movie-tickets-on-facebook/ar-BBwewV6