Do you use MoviePass?

[marillion]

CNN is running a story about how when MoviePass dropped its subscription fee to $10 a month, it blew up and they're still trying to catch up with regard to app stabilization and customer service.

CNN article

I've been considering this, and still might do it.. We usually see one movie a month, but during the summer, sometimes we do two, depending on what's coming out... But I'd love to see some of the smaller films that I usually skip because of price.. This would take care of that issue..

AMC made headlines by saying they wouldn't participate in this, but that seems foolish to me, especially when most of the money they make is on concessions, not ticket prices...

I was just curious to see if any of you have taken advantage of this yet...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I would definitely use this if I was an active moviegoer, but I don't go to anywhere near enough movies to make this thing work for me. I'm lucky if I see one movie a YEAR...

 

[Starbreaker]

Yes. I've had it since they went to $10. My girlfriend and I go once or twice a week sometimes. We don't buy popcorn or $6 drinks. $20 a month for the two of and we've seen 18 films at least for $100 or less. Well worth the money. AMC owns 7/8 of the movie theaters around here and no problems visiting any of them.

 

[Timby]

I would hop all over MoviePass if it were more convenient to get to the nearest theater, but I have serious doubts about the sustainability of its economic model, considering the company loses money--in some cases, a not-insignificant amount--on every admission. VC backing only goes so far.

 

[Snaploud]

I looked at the MoviePass website. They lost me when I found out that you can't purchase tickets prior to the day of the show and that most of the theatres around me don't support purchases online.

 

[Timby]

I looked at the MoviePass website. They lost me when I found out that you can't purchase tickets prior to the day of the show and that most of the theatres around me don't support purchases online.

Yeah, that's a negative for me, too. The closest theater to me, which is a ten-mile drive, is a ten-screen theater with assigned seating in all cinemas, all but two of which have something like 50 seats. So I'd have to go to the theater the day of, pray that the movie isn't sold out or that the only seats left aren't in the front row or some shit. Not happening.

 

[Starbreaker]

I looked at the MoviePass website. They lost me when I found out that you can't purchase tickets prior to the day of the show and that most of the theatres around me don't support purchases online.

Do you have trouble getting seats normally? The only time I've had a problem is Star Wars opening night.

 

[Snaploud]

Do you have trouble getting seats normally? The only time I've had a problem is Star Wars opening night.

It's all reserved seating. You need to book ahead if you want good seats in my area.

 

[BillJ]

My wife has it and loves it. I'm not much of a moviegoer, so I just pick up a ticket when I go with her.

The only theater nearby is an AMC. Not sure where the news came from that you can't use it with them?

 

[Starbreaker]

They've blocked some of the high performing stores because they're trying to prove a point with AMC that Moviepass is helping their industry.

 

[Jayson1]

I would hop all over MoviePass if it were more convenient to get to the nearest theater, but I have serious doubts about the sustainability of its economic model, considering the company loses money--in some cases, a not-insignificant amount--on every admission. VC backing only goes so far.

I think they are working off the Amazon model of keeping prices low and making money and building their brand on getting more and more customers instead of thinking of the short term profit margins. If everyone gets around to using MoviePass they will have cornered the market and then they can get even more money out of movie theater chains and even studios and maybe even the consumers.

Jason

 

[Timby]

If everyone gets around to using MoviePass they will have cornered the market and then they can get even more money out of movie theater chains

The thing is, MoviePass doesn't get any money from the theaters; their income is from subscriptions and VC.

Here's how it works: Let's say my wife and I want to go see Jumanji tonight. The tickets are $15 per head, but we have MoviePass (in this hypothetical example), so the tickets are only $10 each. We go to the theater, log in to the MoviePass app, buy our tickets for $20 total out of pocket (the $30 gets automagically loaded onto the MoviePass debit card, which I swipe at the ticket counter, and MoviePass eats the $10 I didn't pay). So they've paid out ten bucks on that transaction, for two people for a single movie. That kind of cash going out adds up very quickly when you're talking economies of scale, which is why I don't believe their financial model is sustainable, at least not at the $10 / month price: Their business plan has to be predicated on enough people signing up for the subscription and then forgetting to use it, which is one hell of a bet.

 

[Snaploud]

What's to stop AMC from copying their model (with a partnership with Fandango, for instance) and then just not allowing MoviePass to be used in their theatres? Would it be considered a violation of antitrust laws or just a company utilizing its own promotions package?

 

[Timby]

AMC would have an issue with doing something like a $10 / month subscription model because of the contractually agreed-upon percentages of a ticket sale it owes to distributors. Considering theaters are already having a hell of a time financially, they aren't in a position to eat a portion of ticket sales to cover their distributor obligations.

 

[Starbreaker]

Their overall goal is to sell user data to studios and advertisers though. They can immediately see what type of other movies I'm seeing .

 

[Scout101]

Kinda difficult to block, as I understood it, as you're basically just paying on a debit card, not sure AMC is seeing into the transaction.

I'd be all over this if I was childless. I can't get out much with a 3 year old, so seeing a movie myself or even a rare date night with the wife is few and far between these days. Otherwise, once or twice a month would be easy to do to make sure you break even or better on the service. And around the big release dates, you'd clean up.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Kinda difficult to block, as I understood it, as you're basically just paying on a debit card, not sure AMC is seeing into the transaction.

IIRC, an individual theater (not a whole chain) can block itself from showing up in the app.

 

[Timby]

Their overall goal is to sell user data to studios and advertisers though. They can immediately see what type of other movies I'm seeing .

The data is absolutely the other part of MoviePass' endgame, which is why a VC firm specializing in analytics invested heavily in the company, but it remains to be seen how valuable that data is in the long run, though, and how much people are willing to pay for it. There's a lot of behavior online, both through mobile and on a computer, that can be--and is--used to derive intent at a fairly high rate of accuracy already and is already being sold by companies like Google, Facebook, etc. I'll be interested to see what MoviePass' subscription numbers and pricing look like in 18 months or so.

 

[Starbreaker]

I would still pay $20-$25 probably. The pass pays for itself after one ticket most of the time currently.