Fandango buys Brazil’s top online movie ticketer

Los Angeles online movie-ticketing service Fandango is expanding into South America’s largest film market in a deal to buy Brazil’s biggest ticketing company.

Fandango would pay about $71 million to acquire Ingresso.com in Rio de Janeiro, according to a filing with Brazilian regulators. Ingresso is the entertainment ticketing subsidiary of Latin American e-commerce company B2W Companhia Digital.

The deal marks the first international expansion for fast-growing Fandango, the largest movie-ticketing company in the U.S. with sales to 27,000 screens nationwide.

Its website also provides reviews, commentary, trailers and celebrity interviews.

Fandango’s move reflects the rapid growth of the cinema business in Brazil, which accounted for 40% of Latin American box-office dollars last year, according to industry metrics firm Rentrak Corp.

The country is the largest theatrical market in South America and the 11th largest in the world, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

The MPAA predicts that Brazil will constitute the world’s fifth-largest market by the end of 2020. Brazil has nearly 3,000 movie screens, and Ingresso supplies tickets to a majority of them.

“This has been a recordbreaking year for us, and we felt this was the right time to look beyond our borders where there are markets with really avid film-going audiences,” Fandango President Paul Yanover said. “We’re excited about the region and we think Brazil is a fantastic place ... given its growth and size.”

Yanover said Brazil is a potential springboard to expand into other markets in the region. “I look at South America and Brazil as a long-term strategic play for us,” he said. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close by year’s end.