MovieLaLa Brings Hollywood Into the Age of the Social Network

The new app hopes to help fans discover new movies

MovieLaLa wants to bring movies into the era of social networking.

Founded by Dana Loberg and Sahin Boydas, MovieLaLa launched to the public Tuesday with an app you can download for your mobile device. Once you log-in with Facebook, the app will show a feed that offers movie recommendations, trailers and other information related to movies you should like.

The platform bills itself as a social layer for the movie business, helping customers find new movies they would like to see and connecting people with similar tastes in films.

“Movies are inherently social and social networks changed the web, but when it comes to movies no one has updated that,” Loberg told TheWrap. “If you look at IMDB, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes, there is nothing curated or personalized. You’re constantly running around the Internet to find movies to go to.”

Also read: How ‘Cheap Thrills’ Social Media, Viral Marketing Spawned a Surprise Box-Office Hit

MovieLaLa flags movies that you and your friends should both want to see based on a shared fandom of an actor or director. It will notify you when that movie is in theaters, and connect  also enables fans to engage with trailers and share them on myriad social platforms.

While the app is for consumers, Loberg and her co-founder see an opportunity to help Hollywood in the process. Movie studios spend a fortune to market many of their movies, and much of that money is lavished on posters and TV spots that may not be reaching the right audience.

MovieLaLa has had conversations with all of the studios about providing data to identify likely viewers, and it has a partnership with Fandango to sell tickets through its platform.

“If it’s a major movie studio, we can help them target users on the Internet, engage with them and send them push notifications,” Loberg said, adding that it could help smaller movies with less money to spend on marketing.

Also read: Hollywood’s Fake Follower Problem: Just How Well ‘Liked’ Is Your Favorite Social Media Sensation?

Loberg and her team of eight are focused on improving the products, designing new features and, eventually, expanding overseas. They have raised $750,000 to-date, and will try to raise a Series A round in the summer. In the mean time, The Los Angeles native hopes for some competition.

“I don’t see a lot of people in this space right now — innovating every section of movie marketing,” she said. “There’s so much you can do. You can do Uber for movie tickets.”

Comments