flixster

Warner Bros. to buy Flixster, Rotten Tomatoes

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced today that it has agreed to acquire movie discovery service Flixster for an undisclosed sum.

The studio said that it will allow Flixster to operate independently, but it plans to expand Flixster's services beyond movie discovery to "digital content ownership and delivery across any connected digital device." As part of the deal, Warner Bros. also will get Flixster-owned movie news and reviews site Rotten Tomatoes. That site will operate independently following the acquisition.

Warner Bros. has made a series of moves recently surrounding the distribution of digital content. The company recently announced … Read more

Fast flicks

Flixster is a popular Web site that combines movie reviews and listings with social networking. Flixster Movies is a Chrome extension that makes selected Flixster content easily accessible from within your browser. Although the full range of Flixster's features isn't represented, it's still a good way to integrate movie showtimes into your browser.

Like most Chrome extensions, Flixster installs easily, appearing as an icon to the right of Chrome's address bar. Click on the icon and a menu appears with tabs for popular movies, movies that are coming soon, and movies that are now on DVD. … Read more

Moviegoer's mecca

Flixter's mobile movie-finder apps continue to dominate, providing an attractive wrapper for Flixster.com that downloads information about films, theaters, and showtimes for current and upcoming movies. Tap any entry to view a host of information, including listings times and reviews from such sites as Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, though you can also pipe in with your own. Those on a Wi-Fi network can stream quite decent full-screen previews, and if you feel no qualms purchasing tickets from a cell phone, Movies will route you to Movietickets.com for ticket sales. Movies keeps track of your ratings and movies … Read more

Flixster buys Rotten Tomatoes from News Corp.

Flixster has acquired movie review site Rotten Tomatoes from the IGN division of News Corp., according to a statement released Monday.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Flixster is a user-generated movie review site. They also feature a robust mobile offering, which includes the most popular movie app for the iPhone, as well as apps for Android, Palm Pre, and Blackberry. The combination of Flixster's user-written reviews and Rotten Tomatoes' critic reviews are likely to complement each other well. Given that Rotten Tomatoes' scores are already incorporated into Flixster's offerings on the Web and on mobile … Read more

Flixster/Rotten Tomatoes/MySpace mystery solved

I recently wrote about interest by News Corp. and its MySpace unit in Flixster, the popular social-networking site for movies.

Titled "MySpace and News Corp. Eye Flixster (But for What?)," I wrote:

Whether this is an acquisition or more of a larger partnership deal with News Corp. digital entertainment sites is unclear. Several sources said a purchase was a possibility, while others talked about a more complex deal that did not necessarily mean a purchase.

Sources said any such deal is not imminent, but that News Corp. itself has been conducting extensive due diligence on the San Francisco-based … Read more

MySpace eyes Flixster for acquisition

Now that the digital equivalent of a super-vac, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, has sucked up some decent music start-ups--Imeem and iLike--for a song, to bolster the social-networking site's efforts to expand into an entertainment portal, what's next?

According to several sources, the News Corp. unit has turned its omnivorous attentions on Flixster, the popular social-networking site for movies.

Sources said such a deal is not immediately imminent, but that MySpace has been conducting extensive due diligence on the San Francisco-based Flixster, part of a plan to combine it with Rotten Tomatoes, another News Corp.-owned site run … Read more

Find a silver screen near you

When the mood for a movie strikes you, launch Movies by Flixster on your BlackBerry. Powered by Flixster.com, this film entertainment discovery app can pull down all the info you need to pick a showtime and theater in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. There are film ratings, show length, peer reviews, and previews you can download over the air if your Wi-Fi connection is good. The app can also tap into your phone's location-awareness to find theaters nearby. In addition to displaying movies yet to be released on the silver screen, Flixster's app keeps you … Read more

For a silver screen near you

This heavily redacted version of Movies, one of the first movie apps available for iPhone and iPod Touch, displays titles, tickets, and showtimes for current and upcoming movies and DVDs, populated by Flixster. A much improved interface and better media integration lets you tap any entry to view a host of information and listings times. Flixster's movie app downloads previews, displays reviews (and lets you add your own), and even lets you buy tickets from the app. Video preview quality is fair-to-decent (you can improve it in the Settings,) but attempting to download the preview without 3G or Wi-Fi … Read more

Review redux: Flixster movie app for BlackBerry

"Come on, Flixster. We know you can do better than that."

Those are the words I wrote on Friday to sum up a review of Flixster's movie app for BlackBerry phones. The trouble is, I goofed. I was apparently a day early, reviewing the previous Flixster for BlackBerry, which did deserve the critiques I dished out, and not the Flixster update that was set to release on Saturday (we still don't see it in the BlackBerry App World as of Sunday, but keep checking the store and this post for an update). A re-review--or rather, a … Read more