Paramount offers tickets for Transformers 3 on Facebook

Paramount Pictures has partnered with social shopping company 8thBridge to offer Transformers fans the opportunity to start their next movie experience on Facebook. You can now purchase tickets to Transformers: Dark of the Moon directly on the social network.

To start, you have to Like the Transformers Facebook Page. You can then buy tickets at the movie ticketing store and can invite your friends to their own as well. A Transformers 3 movie trailer and online ticketing feature will also begin appearing in your News Feed.

8thBridge says it is helping bring the movie industry to Facebook in 2011. In addition to the Paramount Pictures team, Fandango and MovieTickets.com also helped to get the project going.

"The launch of Transformers 3 is a big step towards reshaping online shopping around people instead of webpages," Wade Gerten, founder and CEO of 8thBridge, said in a statement. "We're making it easier to go out to the movies by bringing movie ticketing out to you and your friends. Facebook is a perfect place for customers to plan a night out at the movies."

This isn't the first time Facebook users have been able to buy tickets via the social network. In June 2010, Disney launched Disney Tickets Together, which let users preorder passes to Toy Story 3, and as the name implies, invite their friends along.

More than just ticket purchases, Facebook has a chance to really change the movie industry. In March 2011, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution (WBDD) launched its test of streaming movies for rent on Facebook with The Dark Knight. At the time, the company promised more movies would become available for both rental and purchase "on a regular basis over the coming months." Later that month, WBDD offered added five more movies. No more movies have been added since then and we haven't heard anything from WBDD.