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MoviePass (Unlimited Films in Theaters) Drops to $9.95 a Month

H

hodayathink

Member
Kusagari said:
MoviePass seems like it would make people far more likely to buy overpriced concession food. Which is how they make money anyway.

Not sure why theaters are opposing it.
Click to expand...

Because that's just an assumption, just as I could assume that the people most likely to use it the most are penny pinchers who won't buy any concessions because they're cheap (which is why they were so attracted to Moviepass in the first place).

Anyway, AMC laid out their reasoning, and it isn't so much that, but that Moviepass devalues the price of a ticket, and once Moviepass fails it may become even harder to sell people on $10-12 individual movie tickets if they had gotten used to paying $10 for the whole month.
 
S

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
hodayathink said:
Because that's just an assumption, just as I could assume that the people most likely to use it the most are penny pinchers who won't buy any concessions because they're cheap (which is why they were so attracted to Moviepass in the first place).

Anyway, AMC laid out their reasoning, and it isn't so much that, but that Moviepass devalues the price of a ticket, and once Moviepass fails it may become even harder to sell people on $10-12 individual movie tickets if they had gotten used to paying $10 for the whole month.
Click to expand...

I do think it's a bit too low. I felt like 20, maybe even 25$ would have been fair.

But it's not like it's an issue the theaters didn't create themselves. Overprice tickets on top of snacks would do it.
 
H

hodayathink

Member
shintoki said:
I do think it's a bit too low. I felt like 20, maybe even 25$ would have been fair.

But it's not like it's an issue the theaters didn't create themselves. Overprice tickets on top of snacks would do it.
Click to expand...

Theaters don't make much money on tickets in the first place, though. Like, in the US, around half that movie ticket money goes back to the studios, supposedly. I thought that was something we all basically realized. They could just adopt a "ticket as a loss leader" strategy for every day of the week (it's what many chains do on Tuesdays already), but there's no guarantee of that meaning more money overall.
 
M

mugurumakensei

Member
There are 2 results for this service.

1) It goes up to $15-30 over the next three years with 12 month price guarantees, and the subscriber base ends up increasing concession sales massively resulting in cheaper bulk pricing for MoviePass. I'd like this to be the case especially if it stabilizes in the 15-20 range. $9.99 is honestly too cheap, but I'll take cause it's a sweet deal. With the rise of dine-in theatres like SMG and Alamo Drafthouse, I can even see those guys pumping in cash as MoviePass basically makes those theaters restaurants with a membership fee.

2) It folds.
 
T

tearsintherain

Member
This will be another classic case of MBA classes not extending to reality.

Newly minted MBA student: Our studies show the average movie goer pays $8.55 a ticket and sees 1 movie every 3 months even if she doubles her movie watching , so by charging $10/mo we should be able to eke out a $1-2 profit every month, even if a few people in NYC/LA pay $15/ticket we only need 3-4 people for each of them in the midwest to cover the difference.

Reality: HOLY FUCK ALL THESE MOTHERFUCKERS ARE SEEING FIVE MOVIES A MONTH DON'T THESE ASSHOLES KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THEY ARE COSTING US. LOOK AT THIS ONE GUY WHO GOES TO A MOVIE EVERY GODDAMN DAY WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM.


It will definitely be interesting to see how fast they react to the abusers and what policies they put into place. No matter what happens paying just $10 for the first month should be fun for a grand social experiment in how terrible people can be.

They clearly had some abuse in the past, and their solution was to require people to take a picture of their ticket and mail it to customer service to "prove" they actually went and saw a movie. That isn't going to scale with 200k users.
 
I

infinit777

Member
TetraGenesis said:
In Chicago? That's the only one I saw too! It's way too far from where I am and there's not a movie I'm willing to make that trip for that I can't see in a couple weeks when I get my card but enjoy! That's awesome how you can just order straight from the app! I wish it were like that for way more locations.
Click to expand...


I'm excited to try this as well, I'm near that theater every couple weeks
 
T

trs1080

Neo Member
tearsintherain said:
Reality: HOLY FUCK ALL THESE MOTHERFUCKERS ARE SEEING FIVE MOVIES A MONTH DON'T THESE ASSHOLES KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THEY ARE COSTING US. LOOK AT THIS ONE GUY WHO GOES TO A MOVIE EVERY GODDAMN DAY WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM.
Click to expand...

Scene from MoviePass HQ:
MYzTGl2.jpg
Click to expand...
 
W

What did he mean by this?

Member
tearsintherain said:
They seemed to have added a restrictions screen at the bottom of signup that now says

You can see one movie every day.
You can see each movie one time.
You can see only standard 2D screenings.


So no going to see Star Wars 8 I guess every day for a month... if the service is even running still then. I can definitely confirm with e-tickets you CANNOT buy a second ticket again for the same movie at a later date.

Re: "I don't see theaters around me", you won't until you get your moviepass card. You can see a list of theaters that should work here
https://coryjb.github.io/moviepass/

STANDARD = need MoviePass card
SELECT_SEATING = you can use the app right away and get e-tickets
Click to expand...


You cant see the same movie more than once? Truly?
 
C

CyReN

Member
Just used e-ticketing at MJR in Michigan to see Logan Lucky, worked great. Glad to see the app starting to run a bit quicker too.
 
Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Captiosus said:
Reading the post-price slashing interviews with CEO Mitch Lowe, he admits the plan is to hope they get enough people signed up in "cheaper" areas where tickets are $7 or less to offset the losses they'll incur.



As much as I hate to admit it, AMC is right that this model is unsustainable for MoviePass. It currently costs me $10.50 for a single 2D, no-frills, adult ticket. To offset this $1.55 loss, Moviepass needs a similar subscriber in the midwest who only sees one movie where the ticket is 8.45 or less. If I decide to see a movie every weekend, they have to hope that similar subscriber in the midwest does as well - or they will need MULTIPLE subscribers to subsidize my trips. And people crazy enough to see two or three movies a week, every week? There's almost NO chance they'll recoup the losses on those subscribers.

I can't even see them breaking even. I highly doubt anyone in this massive influx of new signups will sit on their subscription and not go to the movies in a given month. With the average movie ticket price being around $8.65, the only way they could possibly come close to breaking even is limiting people to one movie per month - and they'd still need massive adoption rates.
Click to expand...

Movie theaters don't make most of their money off of ticket sales.

http://www.businessinsider.com/movie-concessions-drive-amc-earnings-2015-2

This service functions like a loss leader.
 
S

see5harp

Member
What did he mean by this? said:
You cant see the same movie more than once? Truly?
Click to expand...

The app does keep track of which movies you see, so it's obviously possible to enforce this if they wanted. It makes sense for there to be some sort of restrictions to prevent certain types of use cases. I would think this is one of the easier to agree on since there are only a handful of times in my life I've seen something twice.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
They haven't updated all their old ToS, which is a little odd, but whatever. You CAN see the same movie more than once now. From their Twitter account:

Y0az3ax.png


I have already seen Logan Lucky, and bought a ticket to Dark Tower (just to test the app, didn't actually go see it). I can still buy tickets again for both.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
darkazcura said:
This worries me. Is it a glitch or does it just assign you a random seat?
Click to expand...

I've mentioned it here a few times, and it is working for other people. When I get to the screen to select my seat, I don't actually see the seats. So, I can't click on anything. No, it doesn't let me just purchase a ticket and give me a random seat. Since it's working for others, and not for me while everything else has been working 100% for days, my guess is that it is having problems getting seating information from this specific theater or chain. Which sucks for me, 'cause I'm essentially waiting for them to fix their seating chart for my one theater, since it is working for others elsewhere.
 
T

tearsintherain

Member
TheExhaustedWalrus said:
I can't look at local theaters, it says I need a card, and also I can't look at showtimes. Some sections are just completely blank, too.
Click to expand...

You, like 99% of the rest of us who don't live near theaters that do assigned seating -- only a handful of theaters across the US support MoviePasses version -- need to wait for our MoviePass debit card to come by mail. No one has gotten theirs yet who signed up last week.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
tearsintherain said:
You, like 99% of the rest of us who don't live near theaters that do assigned seating -- only a handful of theaters across the US support MoviePasses version -- need to wait for our MoviePass debit card to come by mail. No one has gotten theirs yet who signed up last week.
Click to expand...

Small correction, but they don't have to do assigned seating. That's what I can't get working. My theater is mostly unassigned, with just one 2D screen that is. I can go see everything else just fine. Saw Logan Lucky last night with no issues.

But, yeah. If your theater doesn't support Movie Pass e-ticketing, then they won't show up until you have the debit card, as you can't see movies there until then. Apparently most theaters don't support them yet. I am apparently extremely lucky in that my favorite local place does. The other two theaters around me don't, so all I see right now is 1 out of 3 places. This is by design, not something wrong with the app.
 
A

Arttemis

Member
Hero_of_the_Day said:
They haven't updated all their old ToS, which is a little odd, but whatever. You CAN see the same movie more than once now. From their Twitter account:

Y0az3ax.png


I have already seen Logan Lucky, and bought a ticket to Dark Tower (just to test the app, didn't actually go see it). I can still buy tickets again for both.
Click to expand...
Holy SHIT! I HOPE THEY LET ME FINALLY DO THIS! I had moviepass for a year and a half and hated that restriction, but it was still with it for ~$35/mo. If this is tweet is correct (or will be correct soon), I'm going to be ecstatic.
 
C

CyReN

Member
Been DMIing with the Movie Pass account, again it's confirmed you will be able to see movies again. I had to send pictures so they can pass it off to their devs to get fixed.
 
S

see5harp

Member
It seems crazy to me that they had this huge plan in place to sell 50% of their stake, lower their price to $9.99, and not have simple shit like an updated FAQ for their website and app. I know it is just a handful of people but jesus that's pretty unprofessional.
 
jfoul

jfoul

Member
App is so janky. No theaters show up in the app in the Portland area. I can't even use the damn service. Starting to regret this purchase.
 
R

RastaMentality

Banned
hodayathink said:
Because that's just an assumption, just as I could assume that the people most likely to use it the most are penny pinchers who won't buy any concessions because they're cheap (which is why they were so attracted to Moviepass in the first place).

Anyway, AMC laid out their reasoning, and it isn't so much that, but that Moviepass devalues the price of a ticket, and once Moviepass fails it may become even harder to sell people on $10-12 individual movie tickets if they had gotten used to paying $10 for the whole month.
Click to expand...
Nah, when you're going to the movies for cheaper or free you're probably more likely to go buy concessions since you didn't just drop 12 bucks on a ticket. This is why I said those free advance screenings are a boon for theaters who participate in it because people seeing free stuff buy a ton of concessions. And you have to wait in line for that too so people buy food at the theater instead of leaving.
 
D

DarkChronic

Member
Welp, just signed up. App is janky like others have said, but can't do anything until the card shows up in a week anyway.

Will report back next week.
 
S

see5harp

Member
They charge you up front but your month isn't supposed to start until you receive and register the card. It's like some of you don't know how to read.
 
O

overcast

Member
Hysterical said:
Not sure why ive been charged when i dont even have the card yet
Click to expand...
The month doesn't start until you get the card.

Also don't expect to be able to get tickets until you receive your card. Then you can input it in your app and go in to the theater and use it like you would a debit card.
 
H

Hysterical

Member
overcast said:
The month doesn't start until you get the card.

Also don't expect to be able to get tickets until you receive your card. Then you can input it in your app and go in to the theater and use it like you would a debit card.
Click to expand...

Ahh okay that makes sense. The FAQs made it a tad confusing about how that works. Thank you for the response
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I'm generally surprised by the lack of theaters with e-ticketing anywhere in New Jersey unless I'm missing something. Like they just built a large Regal cinemas like 2 miles from me not even a year ago and they don't even have E-ticketing.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
HStallion said:
I'm generally surprised by the lack of theaters with e-ticketing anywhere in New Jersey unless I'm missing something. Like they just built a large Regal cinemas like 2 miles from me not even a year ago and they don't even have E-ticketing.
Click to expand...

It's not that the theater doesn't have eticketing, it's that MoviePass hasn't collaborated with them to bring it to their app specifically

Edit: unless even fandango doesn't have eticketing for that theater. In which case idk lol
 
H

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
This sounds really good, since it's already less than the price of a ticket.

I'll wait a month before I decide to get it.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
I emailed support about my issue with my theaters seating charts not showing up. They were quick to respond. Unfortunately, their response had fuck all to do with what I said:

Hi,

Thank you for contacting MoviePass! Our developers are working to make a theater list more accessible for all users. Please
visit our FAQ's (https://moviepass.zendesk.com/hc/en-us) for updates.

Thank you,
Your MoviePass Concierge
Click to expand...

I didn't say a fucking thing about the theater lists.
 
F

Forsaken82

Member
What did he mean by this? said:
You cant see the same movie more than once? Truly?
Click to expand...

You are getting access to roughly 8-10 new films a month for less than 10 dollars a month... (assuming you have already seen everything else you wanted to throughout the year) and you are complaining about not being able to use it to see the same movie more than once at the theater?
 
T

The Illiterati

Member
Well, the wife and I both got to see Logan Lucky using E-Ticketing through MJR, so at least something is improving on their end. Honestly, it started working faster than I thought it would. Most of you complaining at this point haven't even waited seven business days for your card to show up.
 
G

Glass Shark

Banned
Some people have said the trial time period doesn’t officially start until your card comes, is there any source to back this up? If so, I can’t find anything.
 
K

Kgamer314

Neo Member
Hero_of_the_Day said:
I emailed support about my issue with my theaters seating charts not showing up. They were quick to respond. Unfortunately, their response had fuck all to do with what I said:



I didn't say a fucking thing about the theater lists.
Click to expand...

I got the same thing when I emailed their support. I also got a second email with a case number pertaining to the issue I contacted them about (it wouldn't let me sign into the app the other day for whatever reason). I think they automatically send back an email about the theater list because their support inbox is probably overwhelmed with people just asking about the compatible theaters and the map.
 
S

Skeletron

Member
I signed up the other day and got all the way through the signup process but haven't received any sort of confirmation. Guessing it didn't go through...
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
Saw Annabelle: Creation using e-ticketing today. Went off without a hitch! Love this service.

Surprisingly solid horror flick too! Light years ahead of the first one!
 
L

Lijik

Member
signed up yesterday, there was a theater close enough to me that didnt need the card so i went to go see spiderman today. Everything has gone fine so far luckily. Looking forward to using this more when i get the card so i can visit closer theaters
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Inferno313 said:
Saw Annabelle: Creation using e-ticketing today. Went off without a hitch! Love this service.

Surprisingly solid horror flick too! Light years ahead of the first one!
Click to expand...

Stay safe.
 
T

TeegsD

Member
So when I click on theaters, my theaters show up for a split second that disappear. I assumed it was like you guys said, due to it not accepting e-tickets. However, if I quickly tap a time at a theater, itll allow me to check in. Is that different from the e-ticket?

Also now seeing that my card number is no longer showing up on the card page. Just an "Order Card" button...
 
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