This new Movies.app has replaced BoxOffice/NowPlaying for me. It just blows it out of the water. I used movies.app on the web since last summer, but found it's appstore version to not be as strong. But this is an amazing movies application.
Plus, BO/NowPlaying links to fandango for online ticketing, which i've NEVER found a theatre that uses. Every theatre around me uses Moviefone.com and movietickets.com.
Downloaded the new movies.app on my way to work and promptly deleted Now Playing
I downloaded "Movies" again (which I previously deleted), just to see if it was indeed better than "Box Office"/"Now Playing" -- but I think I'm going to stick with "Now Playing."
Sure, "Movies" is slicker looking -- but I have the opposite problem as you in terms of ordering tickets. Fandango ticketing serves MOST of the theatres that I go to in my area (NYC), whereas movietickets.com only serves a few. That alone makes me want to keep "Now Playing." But there's a few other things that also make this app better than "Movies" for me:
- Choice between Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes ratings. I actually prefer Metacritic (which "Movies" doesn't even have). Plus, in "Movies," you have to press a separate link that takes you to the Rotten Tomatoes page in order to get a score -- it's not built into the app like "Now Playing." I HATE having to go outside an app for anything, so I wouldn't even bother with scores.
- Reviews. "Now Playing" gives short blurbs of reviews, with links to longer articles if you want to read them. Not super necessary, but it's come in handy a few times.
- E-Mail listings! This is one of the coolest hings about "Now Playing" for me. I'm always designated as the one to find movie times for my friends, and this makes it SOOO much easier to let everyone know what times the movies are -- instead of having to write them down or memorize them, and then distribute to however many friends are going.
"Movies" has a few cool things too, like the ability to "favorite" theatres, and a link to a movie's IMDb page -- however these are apparently coming to "Now Playing" in a future update. (Not sure if current box office info is coming, though -- which would be another cool thing "Movies" has). It has Flixster ratings too, but they are kind of lame, if you ask me. And I could care less about DVD info.
So in the end, while both apps are cool, "Now Playing" edges out "Movies" for me -- for built-in Metacritic/Tomatoes scores, the ability to e-mail showtimes, and because it links to Fandango instead of movietickets.com (which is better for me).
