Moviefone phone service is shutting down after 25 years but lives on as an app

Mr. Moviefone’s lines are going dead. For 25 years, residents of America’s biggest cities have been able to call 777-FILM to receive movie listing information and buy tickets. The service’s goofily booming greeting became a cultural catchphrase: “Hello, and welcome to Moviefone!” Over the weekend, callers were told that the automated service would soon go silent, overtaken by new technology and shifting consumer habits. “The 777-FILM numbers will no longer be in service in the near future,” intones a man with a voice decidedly scrawnier in timbre than Mr. Moviefone’s. “To buy tickets and for all of your showtime information please download the free Moviefone app on your smartphone or iPad.”