HOLLYWOOD - In an unprecedented weekend, MovieTickets.com, one of the top online ticket sellers, announced Sunday that it had sold $2.9 million in movie tickets for the opening weekend of Warner Bros. new feature film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.The online company had been selling advance tickets since Oct. 31 but reached the $2.9 million mark Sunday.
"We couldn't be more thrilled with the overwhelming success of Harry Potter," Mitchell Rubenstein, Co-CEO of MovieTickets.com. said in Sunday's announcement.
"Driven by Harry Potter, ticket sales for this weekend were many times higher than our previous record, held by Pearl Harbor's Memorial Day weekend opening. After reaching the $1 million mark in online ticket sales last Monday, online sales for Harry Potter tickets had topped $2 million by Friday, and reached $2.9 million dollars today."
A spokesperson for MovieTickets.com told Hollywood.com that the company is actively seeking user feedback on the movie-ticket buying experience. Users can click here to email their comments to feedback@movietickets.com. Additionally, MovieTickets.com recommends that users purchase their tickets, especially for Harry Potter, early in anticipation of Thanksgiving, traditionally a very busy weekend at theaters.
MovieTickets.com is a joint venture between Hollywood Media Corp., which also owns Hollywood.com, and several exhibitor chains including AMC Entertainment, National Amusements, Famous Players, Marcus Theaters, Hoyts Cinema and Viacom. The company sells tickets for approximately 8,100 movie screens throughout North America at 775 different theaters.