If you happen to live in the Detroit , Michigan area, you have the opportunity to be a part of history. A local movie theater, Emagine Entertainment theater in Wayne County’s Canton Township, has launched a new ticket purchasing option that allows you to buy your tickets with your cell phone. The truly innovative part, however, is that when you get to the theater, you don’t have to waste time screwing around with those kiosks that seem to be broken half the freaking time. Instead, a barcode pops up on your phone’s screen (color phones only), and you just present that to the ticket zapper, no muss, no fuss, no ripping anything in half.

After buying a ticket, a customer gets a text message with a link to a site that supplies a bar code, Movie Box Office says. Theater ushers have scanners to read the bar codes.

Beals said the idea came up when he and friends were thinking of ways to promote music events. They thought up the cell phone ticketing idea, then decided it would be more successful in the movie industry.

One expert said the cell phone ticketing method will catch on only if it is significantly easier than buying a ticket at the theater or online using a computer.

“The key is to create enough of an advantage relative to the hassle of learning to navigate the system and typing all of the information into a cell phone keyboard,” said Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, a professor of economics and computer science at the University of Michigan.

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