No Lines, Some Waiting

Buying movie tickets by phone or on the Web is a great way to avoid lines at the multiplex. But is it worth the automated hassle? Theater chains generally use only one service, and you can spend two minutes on the phone before discovering that the one you've called will list the movie showings but won't actually sell you a ticket. TIME tried out the three leading services:

AOL MOVIEFONE The granddaddy of the bunch (started in 1989, now owned by TIME's parent company), it makes you sit through an annoying movie ad and then plow through some 20 prompts before completing the deal. Typical call time: 5 min. Web time: 2 min.

FANDANGO Formed in 2000 by a consortium of movie exhibi-tors, it has an efficient voice-recognition system. But the prompts can be confusing: the service doesn't even say you've reached Fandango until three steps in. Call time: 4 min. 30 sec. Web time: 3 min.

MOVIETICKETS.COM No phone-purchase option. But this ticket-buying site is the least cluttered of the three. Most purchases can be completed in 1 min.