After watching the compelling trailer for “Jurassic World” on TV, some viewers inevitably will hop on their smartphones to learn more about the movie or watch the trailer again. Did Steven Spielberg direct this movie as well? Is that the same actor from TV-series “Parks and Recreation?” When will it hit theaters?

For consumers with the AMC Theatres app, all these questions are answered in the app. And the app also has another feature that’s very important for the company: Consumers can purchase movie tickets right in the app.

Ticket sales from smartphones and tablets now account for more than half of AMC’s digital ticket sales, says Brent Cooke, vice president of digital marketing at AMC. Three out of every five online ticket purchases are from smartphone and tablet. That includes sales from the company’s responsive website and its app. The desktop represents the minority of digital traffic for the movie theater chain, Cooke says.

AMC uses mobile software provider VMBC for its digital initiatives, and Cooke describes AMC’s digital strategy as “mobile first.” Consumers are often deciding what movie to go see while they are out of their homes and are often turning to their smartphones for information, Cooke says.

“Our research shows that a great deal of our consumers are making their movie-going decisions while they are in market somewhere else (other than at home in front of a computer),” Cooke says.

AMC launched the first iteration of its app, for both Android and iOS, three years ago in 2012.

And the app has contributed to a significant shift in how AMC’s moviegoers buy tickets. “What we have seen is a three-fold increase in the number of tickets that are bought digitally over the past three years,” Cooke says.

Previously, consumers could only buy tickets digitally for AMC Theatres through a third party, such as Fandango. Since April 2014, however, AMC rolled out a feature to launch purchasing from AMC in the app, desktop and mobile web, a feature that has caused an uptick in mobile ticket sales, Cooke says.

Most moviegoers still purchase tickets at the theater, Cooke says. But AMC provides its customers with other ways to interact with the app at the theater. That includes the RunPee feature, which suggests three- to four-minute windows during the movie when someone could use the restroom without missing too much. It tells customers what point in the movie to go, how long they have and a brief synopsis of what they missed while they were gone.

When browsing the app away from the theater, customers can add upcoming movies to their shopping cart and receive push notifications when those tickets go on sale. AMC rolls out an update of its app every six to eight weeks so consumers are continually reminded that they have downloaded the app, which AMC hopes will encourage them to open it again soon, Cooke says. More than 75% of AMC app users update the app within 72 hours of publishing a new release, he says.

He says members of AMC’s loyalty program, AMC Stubs, convert more often since the theater company updated its digital platforms. Members don’t pay ticketing fees online and receive $10 back for every $100 they spend.

Cooke says he can’t point to the AMC app as driving loyalty membership, but says purchases from AMC stubs members in the app are very high, he says. Even still, moviegoers who have the AMC app are its most valuable customer because they spend more and visit more often than other customers, Cooke says.

Follow mobile business journalist April Dahlquist, associate editor, mobile, at Mobile Strategies 360, @Mobile360April

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