Leading entertainment ticketing site BookMyShow has launched a PreBook feature for movie tickets. PreBook allows users to book their favorite movie at their favorite cinema and pay for it in advance. All this, even before the movie is listed. The feature allows selecting multiple locations, dates and define a time range to accommodate the unpredictable listings that would be announced only a week before the opening.
While this feature is being pitched as a convenience factor to grab your favorite seats well in advance and also comes at a premium of Rs.25 per ticket as convenience charges (otherwise Rs.15+taxes) but if you dig deep this feature could well prove to be a game changer for the industry.
Scheduling a movie is a big decision for distribution executives and theater owners. There is little predictability in what would rock and what would bounce at the box office until the movie is actually screened and reviews are out. With PreBook feature the analysis would be a little easier as decision makers could gauge the demand well in advance. Also, ticket pricing for opening days could be decided based on these reports. With new screens coming up daily and empty theaters all around there has been a lot of discussion about the ticketing model and introducing auctioning of last minute tickets and reverse auctioning of flop shows, with PreBook feature this all looks possible. Ofcourse, it is now upto BMS as to how they can make it popular. 
BookMyShow’s parent company Bigtree Entertainment is also the sole representative of Rentrak’s tracking tool, International Box Office Essentials (IBOE). This is a analytics tool used by the cinema houses to get real time reporting on the box office performance. Along with PreBook the analytics can be even stronger and may be avoid screening those flop shows.
In multiplex business where most costs are fixed, even a percent increase in occupancy can be a sure game changer for investors. Your thoughts on this feature from BookMyShow?
[Naman is a startup enthusiast and has worked with couple of Indian startups as Product Manager. He is the founder of FindYogi]
