Sandra Bullock was the first person to buy a movie ticket online. She immediately spotted a flaw
Sandra Bullock thought she made a mistake while entering her card number and struggled to find the 'delete' button
These days, buying a movie ticket at the theater is less common than booking one online. But back in 1995, Sandra Bullock became one of the first people to buy a movie ticket online. At the time, Bullock was promoting her film "The Net," when she purchased a ticket to go watch it using a computer that looked like it was "hand-cranked." The whole experience was captured by Entertainment Tonight. Bullock was extremely nervous while entering her card number, but the moment she did it, she noticed an important feature missing. The video was reshared on March 30, 2020 and since has 26,031 views, 611 likes, and 38 comments.
'Where's the delete button?'
Bullock sat next to Irwin Winkler, the man who produced "The Net," when she made the purchase. She also talked about it in a recent appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on September 9, recalling that she thought buying a ticket online was fake until she saw the computer was all set up and ready to go. While Bullock played a computer expert in the film, she needed a little help placing the very first order. The computer froze during the process, and she thought she made a mistake while entering her card number and struggled to find the "delete" button. The tickets had a surcharge of $1 per ticket.
Payment flaw
After she selected the movie and time, she noticed one important thing was missing: double verification. Bullock said, "You know what it doesn't do? It doesn't verify that you've typed in the wrong number...it should have double verification. It's just a little something that I thought might help." Now, the feature is commonly known as "two-step verification." It is a security measure that confirms a person's identity before they complete a transaction.
It helps in reducing the risk of fraud and accidental purchases. Usually, users provide a second form of verification, be it a code, a security key, or a biometric scan, to prevent any unauthorized access and data breaches. Bullock added, "Did you notice how neurotic I became when I started punching the number? Anything where I have to punch in my credit card's always a little scary, so make sure you punch in the correct number."
Declining ticket sales
More than three decades later, moviegoers prefer to get their tickets online. Boxoffice Profile surveyed 100,000 moviegoers and found that digital ticket purchases in 2018 went up by 18.7% and box office ticket purchases went down by 5.4%. The Pew Research Center cited data from Nash Information Services regarding domestic ticket sales over the decades. In 1995, 1221.8 million tickets were sold, and it peaked in 2002 with 1570.0 million tickets. Sales saw a sharp decline in 2020, and only 231.6 million tickets were sold. In 2025, sales went up to 768.2 million but were still below pre-pandemic levels.
Sandra Bullock trivia
Several people in the comment section were surprised that Bullock was the first to purchase a movie ticket online. @brettrogers1099 commented, "I love that Sandra Bullock is the reason we have two-step verification." @zakr2 wrote, "She needed the help of two people to buy a movie ticket. One of them already knew where to click and told her what to do. Technology!"
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