Fandango says that summer ticket sales -- that's May-August for movie theaters -- were up 26% year-over-year, thanks to blockbuster hits such as The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises.
The company credits mobile with helping drive ticket sales to its theaters. Fandango says that downloads of the apps were up 43% year over year, bringing total downloads to 26 million. Fandango has apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of mobile's importance is the fact that almost 30% of all ticket sales sold in the summer of 2012 were from mobile. Fandango tell us that its previous best summer was in 2011, when only 16% of ticket sales were from mobile devices.
Fandango has been on a tear over in 2012. Earlier this year, the company signed deals with AMC Theatrres and the Regency Theatres chain -- adding even more screens to the service. Moreover, the company signed partnerships with MSN, Yahoo and AOL's Moviefone.
The Moviefone and AMC Theatres deals are significant because Fandango won that business away from rival MovieTickets.com. (Fandango previously offered tickets only at AMC theaters that were originally part of the Loews Entertainment chain.)
With the advent of paperless tickets, users are increasingly using mobile as a way to not just buy movie tickets, but enter theaters as well.