WapReview

Since its launch in 2009, The Wrap has quickly grown to become one of the most respected and popular sites covering Hollywood and the movie business. The Wrap was founded by author and former New York Times Hollywood correspondent, Sharon Waxman who currently serves as the site's CEO and Editor in Chief

The Wrap's mobile version is an adaptive site that uses different layouts for various classes of devices. Their are at least three versions (images below) ranging with page sizes ranging from 29 KB for the lightest version to 288 KB for the richest.

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Finally! IMDb: The biggest and best movie and TV site has its own mobile version.  Full text search of the iMDb database.  Listings include star rating, plot summary, critic and user reviews, trailers, photos, full cast list with links to cast members bios.  Thanks to Deb Morrissey for the tip!

Fandango (mobile.fandango.com) has launched a mobile web site. As every moviegoer in the US knows, Fandango is a web business selling movie tickets. They are best known for the goofy ads featuring a frumpy couple played by hand puppets made from paper bags that participating theatres show before every movie. To use the web version of Fandango, you pay by credit card and print out your ticket. The site also lets you search for movie theatre show times, read reviews and purchase tickets online. The mobile edition manages to include all of these features.

 

Fandango's mobile ticketing is a little primitive but workable and compatible with all mobile web capable phones. You first have to set up an account giving Fandango your credit card information - this can be done on the mobile site or from your PC browser. When you want to purchase a ticket, you log into mobile Fandango, select the theatre, feature and showtime parameters and purchase the ticket. At the theatre you give the ticket seller your credit card to verify your identity and get your tickets. The mobile is essentially making a reservation. Fandango is primarily useful for getting a into hot new movie that sells out it's showings without having to wait in line for an hour.

There is a "convenience charge" of $1.25, added to the ticket price which will limit adoption I'm afraid. According to Internet Retailer, Fandango has plans to eventually be able to display a bar-code on the phone screen which would be scanned at the theatre and alleviate the need to hand over your credit card. I think that's just an intermediate step. In the near future phones will include smart Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. After purchasing the ticket on the phone, an NFC enabled turnstile will admit you after verifying with the phone that you have a ticket. As this sort of service becomes ubiquitous the "convenience charge" will disappear, becoming a part of the required cost of doing business for theatres and retailers just as the costs associated with credit cards are today.

For now the best features of Fandango Mobile are the extensive theatre and showtime listings and the reviews. For most films, Fandango offers three full length reviews by critics from The Washington Post, Variety and USA Today.

Fandango Mobile (review) has some competition! Both sites work similarly, you first set up an account and give the service your credit card information (Fandango lets you do this right on the mobile site but MovieTickets makes you go to their website). One you want to buy a movie ticket using your phone it only takes a few clicks because your credit card is on file. Like Fandango, Movie Tickets lets you search for movies showing nearby, lists showtimes and has mini reviews. Both services add a service charge to the price of the ticket, Fandango's is $1.25, MovieTickets's service charge is a dollar for web purchases, I suspect it's the same for mobile ones but their doesn't seem to be anyway to verify that without purchasing a ticket.

Mobile version of the hugely popular subscription service that lends movie DVDs by mail and also has a limited on-demand streaming service. The mobile site, requires that you login as a Netflix member, lets you view your Netflix queue. You can also search for movies by title and view the cast list, poster art and a plot synopsis of each. From the search results you can add a movie to your queue but you can't do any other sort of management like removing titles or reordering items in the queue.

Universal Pictures has launched this mobile site to promote current and upcoming movie releases. Six films are featured in the current edition with cast list, plot synopsis, photo gallery and video trailers. The trailers are the best part. They are delivered in at least two different formats, 176x144 and 240X320 depending on what your phone supports. This is one of the few mainstream sites that provides videos in the highest quality my Nokia N95-3 can display, 240x320px using the H.264 video and AAC audio codecs. The trailers I watched were very impressive in both audio and video quality. The 2 to 3 minute trailers run 4 to 5 MB in size.

AOL owned Movie Phone lets you find local movie show times, read reviews and movie industry news. MovieFone links to the mobile version of MovieTickets.com for online movie ticketing.

Mobile version of a movie industry newsweekly. Notable feature is the Weekly Top 10 listing of the top grossing current films with detailed statistics like average gross per theater.

In LA for the Oscars?  Don't miss visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 2500 pink and bronze stars set in three and a half miles of sidewalk beginning at the corner of Hollywood and La Brea. Each star is dedicated to a great performer or fictional character from  motion pictures, live theater, radio, television or recording.

You can buy overpriced maps of the Walk of Fame at tourist traps all over the LA area but there's a better way to navigate the walk and it's free. dotMobi's James Pierce has created an interactive mobile guide to the Walk of Fame.

It's at hwof.mobi and is a map based turn by turn guide to the entire route.  As you travel along the route you can read  biographic information about the recipient of each star at your  feet.

You can also search for a star by name or browse through listing of recipients in each of the five categories (motion pictures, live theater, radio, television or recording). Each star has it's own page with a photo of the sidewalk star, biography of its recipient and a map of the star's location. There is also a history of the walk and directions to the starting point.  If you are lost, the site's "Where am I" feature lets you type in a street name to pull up a map to get your bearings. Hwof.mobi is a great example of using mobile context to deliver information relevant to the user's location and activity.

Nationwide Canadian theater chain's mobile site lets you find find movies, view show times, buy tickets and have them sent to your phone as a scanable barcode. Source: Mobility.mobi

Find movies and show times for Cineplex theaters across Canada. Streaming video trailers and Links to Google maps showing theater locations.  There's no search by movie or ability to jump to first letter of title. You have to scroll through multiple pages of movie titles to find the one you want. Source Oh! Mobile Directory.

That's the Rocky Horror Picture Show, of course. The site lists regular showings of the film in the US and beyond along with a list of the props that fans bring to RHPS screenings and a cue sheet listing when to deploy each prop.

Reviews, cast lists, stills and downloadable 176x144 px trailers for current moves.  Cineman also has movie news, chart of the top movies as voted by Cineman members and show-times for theaters in Switzerland. Source: Oh! Mobile Directory

A non-profit community based website showcasing Australian animation. Reviews and videos from TV series, short films, feature films and other animated content from ‘down under’. Resources for animation students and professionals. Mobile View by Mobify

Find Cineworld cinemas, check show times, book tickets and get driving directions to the cinema using this mobile site from the 2nd largest multiplex cinema chain in the UK. 60 pence per ticket biiking fee.  Source: Oh! Mobile Directory

Easy to use movie ticketing site from Australia's Hoyts. Find movies and buy tickets online with PayPal or a stored credit card.  $1 AU/ticket booking fee.  Source Oh! Mobile Directory

Movie Reviews, Recomendations and movie showtimes (for Boulder CO only). This is independent site reviews and rates movies, both new releases and older films available on DVD. Reviews average about 15 screenfulls on a phone an 8 line or 176x220 display which is a good compromise between depth and usability.

FEARnet has trailer videos, reviews and news about the latest horror and suspense movies and videos.

WML-only Bollywood (Indian cinema) site. Reviews news and gossip about the Indian film industry.