Add the movie theater to the long list of things that the iPhone has put its stamp on.

Flixster’s popular “Movies” app is getting even more popular with the arrival of the summer movie season. The company says the app has been installed on 4.5 million iPhones (and, presumably, iPhone Touches) since its introduction, giving it a penetration rate of 18 percent.

"Movies" launched in november 2008, but it was an update in April of this year that really made the app popular.

The app recreates the functionality of the Flixster Web site on the go, letting filmgoers find nearby theaters and showtimes, watch trailers, read reviews from professional critics and the Flixster community. For stay-at-home types, the app also offers access to a catalog of 50,000 DVDs.  

Facebook is becoming a lot more useful for entertainment marketing now that fan pages can look more like profiles.

As the LA Times tech blog explains, "brands" that people are fans of can now control their own pages, just like us commoners. They can now get a wall where anybody can see all their recent activity. And the have "info" and "boxes" (aka applications) tabs, just like all us commoners. They can even do status updates, giving fans micro-messages on what their latest episode or product or tour date is (kinda like Twitter).

Previously individuals could only have up to 5,000 pages, which doesn't work for big brands. So they were limited to fan pages. Above on the left is an example of what the old-fashioned fan pages looked like, in this case for "Heroes." As you can see, it's really basic. Fans can leave notes, pictures and reviews. But there's no real "activity" by "Heroes" (or rather the people behind it).

By contrast, check out this newfangled page for "South Park." It looks just like your or my page, except with 1.7 million fans/friends. The wall is updated with new videos, photos, contests, and other stuff the folks at Comedy Central want us to see.

Unlike the old fashioned fan pages, the content on the front of the new one is controlled by the brand itself. It's all the stuff they want us to see. Fans can still comment, of course, but most of the talk is limited to the special "discussion" tab. It's basically like a message board.

Lettings brands own their pages is, of course, one step further away from Facebok's original mission to let Harvard students post individual profiles. It later on became Ivy League students, then all students, then everyone. Along the way members started creating groups around the content they love and brands could make little pages to let people show they are fans.

But now you don't even need to be a person to get a Facebook profile. "South Park" gets a page just like the rest of us. Members may debate whether it's a good move for the purity of the social network. But for entertainment brands like movies, TV shows, and bands, engaging with fans on one of the two biggest social networks just got a lot more powerful.