Wow. Where I live, since at least 2005, I can choose the seats in a movie theatre when buying a ticket (even online now). Seems like a lot of prior art.
The patent in question (which I believe is 8,024,234) only covers a method for people selling tickets to compare prices for tickets across a venue in the form of a venue map. It does not describe an interface for purchasing them.
(Don't construe this as a defence of it though.)