Acquisitions and mergers of movie chains have complicated matters regarding which ticketing companies provide online ticketing for a particular theatre chain. MovieTickets.com lost the Hoyts theater chain when the latter was acquired by the
Regal Cinemas theater chain, a founder of Movietickets.com's rival online ticketing agency Fandango; however, when Regal acquired
Consolidated Theatres, the latter retained its contractual relationship with MovieTickets.com. Prior to 2012, MovieTickets.com provided online ticketing for
AMC Theatres except those cinemas originally part of the
Loews Cineplex Entertainment chain, whose online ticketing is provided by Fandango due to contractual obligations in place prior to the 2005 merger of the two movie chains. In 2002, Loews had attempted to break the contract under pressure of bankruptcy and from (then)
AOL Moviefone and its partner, Loews'
Cineplex subsidiary; Fandango successfully sued both Loews and
Moviefone, and retained the Loews business. Furthermore, as of February 8, 2012, Fandango began providing ticketing for non-Loews
AMC Theatres in the US as well, In 2015, Regal Entertainment Group announced that they would begin to offer tickets on MovieTickets.com on a non-exclusive basis, as Regal tickets retained their availability on Fandango. The competition ended with Fandango's purchase of MovieTickets.com in the 4th quarter of 2017. ==See also==