MovieTickets Sees Benefit In Adding Bitcoin

Weeks after MovieTickets.com included bitcoin as a payment option for ticket purchases, the company said it had already begun to reap the rewards. MovieTickets CEO Joel Cohen

that the decision to include cryptocurrency payments has given the company more exposure as well as increasing sales. The site allows users to purchase any available movie tickets using the cryptocurrency, and it appears consumers are taking advantage of that option.

MovieTickets is one of the most popular online ticket-purchase websites in the US with around 240 different theater chains offering film tickets on the site. As mobile payments gain traction, the site found itself adding new check-out options; and with support from Open Road Films and its new film Dope, the site decided to include a bitcoin option as well.

The site's bitcoin integration represented a major step toward mainstream adoption for bitcoin as it put the cryptocurrency in front of thousands of people who may not have otherwise considered using it. To date, Cohen says the company has processed "several hundred" bitcoin transactions.

MovieTickets said that one of the biggest hurdles in incorporating bitcoin was educating theater owners on the process. With many of them wary of the cryptocurrency or simply unaware of it at all, the site had some difficulty getting everyone comfortable with using bitcoin. For the moment, bitcoin transactions remain only a small fraction of MovieTickets' sales, but Cohen says he expects to see that figure continue to increase as the currency becomes more widely accepted.