Fandango Media, LLC is an American ticketing company that sells movie tickets via its website and its mobile app. It also owns the Fandango streaming digital video store and streaming service (formerly owned by Walmart and originally known as Vudu), and Rotten Tomatoes, a website that provides television and streaming media information. It is a joint-venture 75% owned by Versant, while Skydance retains the remaining 25%.
In 2000, James Michael Cline, with Art Levitt, founded Fandango. In 2003, Fandango secured $15 million in funding from venture capitalists Technology Crossover Ventures. Fandango was privately held. Then-owners included exhibition chains (Loews Cineplex Entertainment, Regal Cinemas, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark Theatres, General Cinema Theatres, Edwards Theatres and Century Theatres) and venture capital firms (Accretive Technology Partners and General Atlantic Partners).
On April 11, 2007, Comcast acquired Fandango, and planned to integrate it into a new entertainment website called “Fancast.com“– to launch in the summer of 2007. In June 2008, the domain Movies.com was acquired from Disney. In March 2012, Fandango announced a partnership with Yahoo! Movies, making Fandango the official online and mobile ticketer for registered users of the Yahoo! service. That October, Paul Yanover was named President of Fandango.
Fandango made its first international acquisition in September 2015 when it bought the Brazilian ticketing company Ingresso, which provides ticketing to a variety of Brazilian entertainment events, including the biannual Rock in Rio festival. On January 29, 2016, Fandango announced its acquisition of M-GO, a joint venture between Technicolor SA and DreamWorks Animation (NBCUniversal acquired the latter company three months later), which it would later rebrand as “FandangoNOW”.
In February 2016, Fandango announced its acquisition of Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes from Time Warner‘s Warner Bros. Entertainment. As part of the deal, Warner Bros. would become a 30% shareholder of the combined Fandango company.[17][18] Its stake was reduced to 25% by 2019.[1]
In December 2016, Fandango Media purchased Cinepapaya, a Peru-based website for purchasing movie tickets, for an undisclosed amount.[19] Later that same month, Fandango moved to Fox Interactive Media’s former headquarters in Beverly Hills. On April 20, 2020, Walmart entered into an agreement to sell Vudu to Fandango Media. The sale was completed on July 6, 2020. Vudu was rebranded as Fandango at Home in 2024. On July 16, 2024, Fandango founder J. Michael Cline committed suicide at the age of 64. On July 6, 2026 Fandango at Home was rebranded as Fandango.
In 2026, Comcast completed the spin off of its Cable Networks and Selected digital properties as Versant, which also inherited Comcast’s Stake in Fandango Media. Also in 2026, Paramount Skydance won the bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery including its 25% stake in Fandango Media. In October 6, 2026, The merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery was completed and the new resulting entity called Skydance Corporation inherited Warner Bros Discovery’s 25% Stake in Fandango Media.
| Formerly | ticketmakers.com (2000–2007) |
|---|---|
| Type | Joint venture |
| Founded | April 27, 2000; 26 years ago |
| Founder | James Michael Cline |
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California, United States |
| Owners | Versant (75%) Skydance (25%)[1] |
| Parent | Versant Digital Platforms and Ventures (75%) Skydance Direct-to-Consumer (25%) |
| Divisions | FandangoFandango streamingINDY Cinema GroupMovieTickets.comRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes Movieclips |
| Website | fandango |
In 2000, James Michael Cline, with Art Levitt, founded Fandango.[6] In 2003, Fandango secured $15 million in funding from venture capitalists Technology Crossover Ventures.[7] Fandango was privately held.[8] Then-owners included exhibition chains (Loews Cineplex Entertainment, Regal Cinemas, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark Theatres, General Cinema Theatres, Edwards Theatres and Century Theatres[8]) and venture capital firms (Accretive Technology Partners and General Atlantic Partners).
On April 11, 2007, Comcast acquired Fandango, and planned to integrate it into a new entertainment website called “Fancast.com“– to launch in the summer of 2007.[9] In June 2008, the domain Movies.com was acquired from Disney.[10] In March 2012, Fandango announced a partnership with Yahoo! Movies, making Fandango the official online and mobile ticketer for registered users of the Yahoo! service.[11] That October, Paul Yanover was named President of Fandango.[12]
Fandango made its first international acquisition in September 2015 when it bought the Brazilian ticketing company Ingresso, which provides ticketing to a variety of Brazilian entertainment events, including the biannual Rock in Rio festival.[13] On January 29, 2016, Fandango announced its acquisition of M-GO,[14] a joint venture between Technicolor SA and DreamWorks Animation (NBCUniversal acquired the latter company three months later),[15] which it would later rebrand as “FandangoNOW”.[16]
In February 2016, Fandango announced its acquisition of Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes from Time Warner‘s Warner Bros. Entertainment. As part of the deal, Warner Bros. would become a 30% shareholder of the combined Fandango company.[17][18] Its stake was reduced to 25% by 2019.[1]
In December 2016, Fandango Media purchased Cinepapaya, a Peru-based website for purchasing movie tickets, for an undisclosed amount.[19] Later that same month, Fandango moved to Fox Interactive Media’s former headquarters in Beverly Hills.[20] On April 20, 2020, Walmart entered into an agreement to sell Vudu to Fandango Media.[21] The sale was completed on July 6, 2020.[22] Vudu was rebranded as Fandango at Home in 2024. On July 16, 2024, Fandango founder J. Michael Cline committed suicide at the age of 64.[23][24] On July 6, 2026 Fandango at Home was rebranded as Fandango.
In 2026, Comcast completed the spin off of its Cable Networks and Selected digital properties as Versant, which also inherited Comcast’s Stake in Fandango Media. Also in 2026, Paramount Skydance won the bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery including its 25% stake in Fandango Media. In October 6, 2026, The merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery was completed and the new resulting entity called Skydance Corporation inherited Warner Bros Discovery’s 25% Stake in Fandango Media.
Until its acquisition of its rival MovieTickets.com in 2017, Fandango was one of three major online advance movie ticket sale sites, along with MovieTickets.com and Atom Tickets. Before being acquired by Comcast in April 2007, Fandango was privately owned; its major stakeholder, Regal Cinemas, which owned the United Artists and Hoyts theater chains, was the second largest movie-theater chain in the U.S. Regal and its partners founded Fandango partly to prevent the older MovieTickets.com from establishing a monopoly on phone and online ticketing services. (MovieTickets.com was publicly owned and traded under the stock symbol HOLL.[29]) The company’s advertising agency reportedly chose the name “Fandango” because it sounded “fun, kinetic and smart”, and “easily pronounce[d] and remember[ed]–even though it really has nothing to do with movies.”[30]
Prior to 2012, Fandango did not provide online ticketing for many AMC Theatres. However, it provided online ticketing for AMC Theatres that were originally part of the Loews Cineplex Entertainment chain, due to contractual obligations in place prior to the 2005 merger of the two movie chains.[31] Loews had previously attempted to break the contract in 2002 under pressure of bankruptcy and from (then) AOL Moviefone and its partner, Loews’ Cineplex subsidiary; Fandango successfully sued both Loews and Moviefone and retained Loews’ business.[32] As of February 8, 2012, Fandango began providing ticketing for all AMC Theatres in the US,[33] after which MovieTickets.com’s fellow shareholders sued AMC for breach of contract.[34] AMC and MovieTickets.com settled in 2013, with an agreement that the theater chain’s online ticketing would be available on both Fandango and MovieTickets.com.[35] In May 2012, Fandango announced a partnership with Moviefone, MovieTickets.com’s former partner.[36] Atom Tickets, a movie ticketing app and website launched in 2014, has been called a “serious competitor” of Fandango’s.
