Social-savvy TV junkies usually scoff at the idea of watching commercials. DVRs, Netflix, iTunes and the on-demand culture have made TV commercials for much scripted content, irrelevant. There is an exception though when it comes to movie trailers. Trailer and film junkies get hooked up Apple’s trailer site but those who fall into the genre of of, I watch insane amounts of TV but rarely see movies (like myself), coming across a trailer that entices me on TV can get me to get off the couch.
The obvious thing to do after seeing a trailer is to Google it for more information but often it takes way too many clicks to get to the showtimes you want, the list of characters you want to see or the music that was in the background of the trailer. Now there’s an app that makes this whole process easier. Meet a Shazam/IntoNow for trailers, meet YouWeb’s MoviePal.
MoviePal, an app for iOS, has been incubated by YouWeb a company created by angel investor Peter Rela that, “invests in helping brilliant developers/engineers who have never founded a start-up.” Suneet Shah and Rohan Relan, both Entrepreneurs in Residence at the YouWeb incubator are the cofounders. The $5 billion trailer industry is a great one to focus on and MoviePal helps solve some important needs when it comes to helping you take that trailer on TV and getting you to the theater. The features include:
- Discover movies playing in a theater near you
- Watch trailers for movies coming soon
- Share movie trailers and info with friends through text messages, email, Facebook and Twitter and set a time to see the film
- Get alerts when a movie you tag comes out in theaters
- Keep track of movies you want to watch
One might ask, “well couldn’t Shazam or IntoNow just do this?” Potentially, but there’s definitely a place for both. While IntoNow and Shazam are both focused on making content across all parts of linear programming more interactive, MoviePal might be onto something in letting you keep notes on the trailer you then want to remember to go see in theaters on the weekend. Here’s a great video showcasing the new app: