MoviePass ($10 a month for in-theater movies) (1 Viewer)

Different conversation, but if you believe that travel services have figured out how to do things better, I beg to differ. As someone who owns a business and sees how third party travel sites work day in and day out, they are awful. Great for searching for options, but people should always book directly with the hotel/airline/etc.

Movie Pass is intriguing to me as I love movies, but validating the money it costs now to go to the theater is hard to do unless I know its a sure bet.

Agree - I think the travel sites aren't the best example (and that they're okay for searching but you should always deal directly with the vendor itself).

A better example would be Uber/Lyft - though that's not entirely apt either because what they offer is actually a different product than what people were buying (using an Uber-driven car rather than a cab). Here with MoviePass, you're still going to the same movie at the same theater, you're just buying your admission in a different way.


As to MoviePass, I don't think there's a long-term commitment. You can sign up and get the benefits of it and then if something happens with it, you can walk away.
 
CineMark Movie Club also waives the online fees, so if you are into convenience buying online and reserving your seats, you also save $ in that department.
 
Concessions on average (my family of 4) it is about $36, so with 20% off, I am looking at $28.80 an average saving of $7.20. Then I am saving $ on each additional ticket purchase only paying $8.99 vs $13.69 (used AMC price) saving $18.80.

So it would like this:

First Movie:
CM: $8.99 x 4 = $35.96, Concessions = $28.80, Total = $64.76
MP: $10 x 4 = $40, Concessions = $36, Total = $76

Second movie:
CM: $8.99 x 4 = $35.95, Concessions = $28.80, Total = $64.76
MP: $0 x 4 = $0, Concessions = $36, Total = $36

Difference per movie thereafter = $ 28.76

So after one movie, the CM deal is better by $11.24. After the second movie in a month, if you're with MP, you're ahead by $17.52. And you gain $28.76 each movie thereafter.

Actually, the MP is even better for your scenario than in my original example.
 
i probably go to the movies about 10-12 times a year....i feel that certain movies are meant for the big screen...most of those times, i go on Saturday or Sunday morning when the tickets are half price

that being said, i don't want to feel obligated to go see something i normally wouldn't just to validate the Movie Pass
 
I've been using since October and love it. The thing to remember (at least for me) is that you will probably be more willing to see a "not sure about that" movie because it won't cost anything extra after the $10. Use it for your "yes" movies AND your "maybe" movies.
 
So it would like this:

First Movie:
CM: $8.99 x 4 = $35.96, Concessions = $28.80, Total = $64.76
MP: $10 x 4 = $40, Concessions = $36, Total = $76

Second movie:
CM: $8.99 x 4 = $35.95, Concessions = $28.80, Total = $64.76
MP: $0 x 4 = $0, Concessions = $36, Total = $36

Difference per movie thereafter = $ 28.76

So after one movie, the CM deal is better by $11.24. After the second movie in a month, if you're with MP, you're ahead by $17.52. And you gain $28.76 each movie thereafter.

Actually, the MP is even better for your scenario than in my original example.

Its all in the way you intend on using it based on each person's unique scenarios as to what package to go with. When I looked at it, I did ask myself will I be going multiple times a month or a single trip a month? For me, its an obvious answer I am a once a month trip person and will bank the tickets when I do not go. Though if you are a movie buff and have the time to sling MP is the way. The sharing feature for concessions is a nice "happy" for those extended family members that are with you and the online fees being waived for the online purchase is a nice perk also.
 
Its all in the way you intend on using it based on each person's unique scenarios as to what package to go with. When I looked at it, I did ask myself will I be going multiple times a month or a single trip a month? For me, its an obvious answer I am a once a month trip person and will bank the tickets when I do not go. Though if you are a movie buff and have the time to sling MP is the way. The sharing feature for concessions is a nice "happy" for those extended family members that are with you and the online fees being waived for the online purchase is a nice perk also.

Yeah, I think that's right - if you're a once a month person, the CineMark approach is better. I'm the same way, I just don't see me getting to the theater more than about once a month.

But if you are inclined to go more often, that's where MoviePass seems like a fantastic deal.
 
Don't know if legal or not, but sure it seems underhanded and unscrupulous. If I were in NATO (not that NATO, the other NATO) I'd nip this in the butt.
 
My wife and I jumped when it went to $10 a month last year. We do not see movies. We see maybe 2-3 a year, max. Since then, we see that in a month. We absolutely love it. (And we took advantage of the annual offer they gave us about a month ago to drop to $89 a year if we pay upfront, or essentially $7.50 a month).

As jumpingoff says, it allows us to go see our "maybe" movies now, or the movies we would normally wait and see on rental/TV. It gets us out of the house for a cheap date night (we're not concessions people).

For us, it's been amazing. Now, as to the business side and if it is sustainable or if it disrupts things entirely...well we'll see.
 
Don't know if legal or not, but sure it seems underhanded and unscrupulous. If I were in NATO (not that NATO, the other NATO) I'd nip this in the butt.

I'm not sure what would be illegal about it. The tough spot for the theater owners is that MoviePass does indeed bring in customers. Like Jumping said, if you're a member you might be more inclined to go to "maybe" movies instead of just the "definite yes" movies. According to MoviePass, some theater owners have reported significant uptick in customers - and even AMC concedes that a little under 5 percent of its box office is MoviePass members. And that's all within the last few months because membership went from 20K to 1.5M since August. Membership continues to grow and 2018 will likely see a growing share of box office sales to MoviePass members.

Even though the MP subscriber isn't paying for those tickets, the theater owner is being paid by MoviePass (and at full price unless they have negotiated a lower price) - so those are indeed ticket sales that also come with increased concessions sales. And while certainly some of those subscribers would have bought the tickets directly from the theater had MoviePass not existed, it's also true that some MoviePass subscribers go to more movies than they otherwise would have if they didn't have the subscription.

It's like the Atlantic article in the OP said, it's not clear which is worse for theater owners: MoviePass's failure or its success.
 
I'm not sure what would be illegal about it. The tough spot for the theater owners is that MoviePass does indeed bring in customers. Like Jumping said, if you're a member you might be more inclined to go to "maybe" movies instead of just the "definite yes" movies. According to MoviePass, some theater owners have reported significant uptick in customers - and even AMC concedes that a little under 5 percent of its box office is MoviePass members. And that's all within the last few months because membership went from 20K to 1.5M since August. Membership continues to grow and 2018 will likely see a growing share of box office sales to MoviePass members.

Even though the MP subscriber isn't paying for those tickets, the theater owner is being paid by MoviePass (and at full price unless they have negotiated a lower price) - so those are indeed ticket sales that also come with increased concessions sales. And while certainly some of those subscribers would have bought the tickets directly from the theater had MoviePass not existed, it's also true that some MoviePass subscribers go to more movies than they otherwise would have if they didn't have the subscription.

It's like the Atlantic article in the OP said, it's not clear which is worse for theater owners: MoviePass's failure or its success.

The BIG issue I see is the loss of control of your business to a 3rd party. The 3rd party would basically take control of who goes to see movies in your movie theater.

If MP becomes a success, what's to stop them for asking for either a cut of the gate, a cut of the concessions, free tickets for their members? They simply take your theater from their app, and you are SOL. It's a shakedown.

If MP fails, at least I have control of my business, and I'll just be back to how it was 2 years ago.
 
The BIG issue I see is the loss of control of your business to a 3rd party. The 3rd party would basically take control of who goes to see movies in your movie theater.

If MP becomes a success, what's to stop them for asking for either a cut of the gate, a cut of the concessions, free tickets for their members? They simply take your theater from their app, and you are SOL. It's a shakedown.

If MP fails, at least I have control of my business, and I'll just be back to how it was 2 years ago.

Yeah, fair enough - that’s exactly what AMC has been concerned about and MP’s recent activity seems to validate those concerns. But I don’t see what’s illegal about it. If AMC (or any theater owner) is worried about MP’s growing leverage, just refuse to accept that form of payment. They aren’t obliged to sell tickets to MoviePass members.

But they don’t want to do that either because that means turning away paying customers and potentially sending them to a competitor, never to return. Sometimes business requires difficult decisions - that’s in part what is disruptive about it. New platforms and models are pushing established businesses into these kinds of difficult decisions all the time.
 
MoviePass (which allows members to see a movie-per-day at theaters) used to cost between $30 and $50 annually - and had approximately 20,000 members. The way it works is that MoviePass issues the member a debit card that they use (in conjunction with a mobile app) to buy tickets at the theater, and MoviePass then pays the theater operator for the ticket. To the theater operator, it's just a different way of getting the same ticket payment, so it hasn't been an issue.

Then the company was bought by Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), an aggressively acquisitive company that operates in the tech, AI, and data analytics field. After HMNY bought MP, they lowered the monthly subscription fee to $10 in August 2017. Membership began to boom and is now more than 1.5 million members - growth of 7500%. Industry observers (and theater operators) questioned HMNY's motives: how could this be sustainable - MP would be in the red on each account if the user went to the movies more than twice in a month. HMNY explained that its model was to dramatically expand its subscription base and then sell the data about moviegoer behavior, peak times, films, studios, etc. to buyers - and the data would be valuable enough to offset the ticket gap.
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Wait, how is changing the price from $30-50 annually to $10 a month lower the cost? Did you mean $30-50 a month annually? Otherwise that's actually a pretty big jump up. Sorry, just a little confused as to why raising the price caused a jump in sales?
 
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Wait, how is changing the price from $30-50 annually to $10 a month lower the cost? Did you mean $30-50 a month annually? Otherwise that's actually a pretty big jump up. Sorry, just a little confused as to why raising the price caused a jump in sales?

$30 to $50 a month. Typo in OP
 
brah I went to see It and it was the first movie I have been to since Titanic. I was floored. I think skittles were 8 bucks. How do you go up on that.
I talked to a owner of a drive in before..he said he couldnt make it on ticket sales alone..the hot dog,pizza,soft pretzel,twizzlers,popped corn,fresh fruits,candies etc kept him in the black..he also sold t-shirts,ice cream,freeze pops,snow cones..he was even going to get a alcohol sales permit..for obvious reasons he was denied (minors).Zack..you should sit in the back row with your honey..good luck..
 

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