Don't Look to the Internet For Pavilion Showtimes

Last week we here at FiPS received an email from a reader who claims that upon arriving at the Pavilion for a 10:15pm showing of Prometheus last Wednesday was told, "There is no 10:15 Prometheus.” When the tipster then explained that he found the showtime on Fandango, the woman in the booth responded, "They're wrong. We're not affiliated with them."

The man arrived home, undoubtedly disappointed at not having had a chance to see Charlize Theron in space. He checked Moviefone and found the same, non-existent 10:15PM showtime listed for Prometheus at the Pavilion.

Having been fucked by both the Pavilion and Fandango on multiple occasions, I did some totally unbiased inFIPStigating on the matter. First, I found out that as of May, 2012, Fandango and Moviefone have merged to create one uber-movie-ticketing-machine, which is probably why both had the same 10:15PM listing.

Here’s what else I learned:

* I checked Fandango for the latest Pavilion showtimes, then called the Pavilion to compare. At present time all movie showtimes are in sync. Damn. No one to blame... yet.

* I noticed that Pavilion movie tickets are not available for purchase on Fandango. Upon checking out the fine print, you’ll see that this does in fact mean that the Pavilion is not one of Fandango’s partners. The woman in the ticket booth was neither lying, nor misinformed (I know, I’m shocked too).

* The message on the Pavilion phone directs callers who want to buy tickets online to do so at paviliontheater.com. I went to that site, which redirected me to Movietickets.com. What the fuck is Movietickets.com? you may be asking. It’s Fandango’s sad, third-string competitor. I guess one could argue the Pavilion owners believed partnering with Movietickets.com over the mainstream Fandango would give them more street cred in Park Slope. However, one could also argue they are too cheap and care too little be listed on the more popular site.

* If you Google “Pavilion Park Slope” or “Pavilion Brooklyn,” the top hit is Fandango’s listing. If you Google “Pavilion 11215” the top hit is Moviefone. This is what likely leads to the confusion about showtimes. 

I guess at the end of the day, the only guilty party is the Internet. Between shit like fine print, poor delineation of movie ticketing sites and unreliable Google results, it’s no doubt this mistake will be made again. Do yourselves a favor. When interested in seeing a film at The Pavilion, make sure to call them to get the proper showti-- who am I kidding? No one is even going to that place anymore. Carry on with your day.