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

B

BattleMonkey

Member
Toth said:
Maybe they think more movies = more chances of concession purchases?
Click to expand...

They have themselves already said they are losing money on ticket sales, they also get nothing from concession sales.

The whole plan is to just inflate their subscription numbers to become huge. They will then having market power to negotiate with theater chains, be able to sell customer data, and eventually raise the price of the subscription.

The $9.95 price is not gonna be permanent, but once they got millions of people in the program, many are going to stick with it once they are enjoying it, and they can raise the price slowly on them and keep many, this is how it worked with Netflix
 
J

JHoNNy1OoO

Member
tearsintherain said:
If you click on Theaters in the app and nothing shows up, that means none of the theaters in your area are e-ticket enabled.

To test it out, try changing the zip code in the app (right under My Profile) to the zip code 75001 (dallas, TX) and then when you click theaters you'll see like 6 or 7. Click one, click a movie and time, pick a seat. DON'T CLICK on reserve e-ticket at the bottom, it will actually book the ticket there is no confirmation page or anything (doh).

So if your area doesn't have e-tickets, and most people probably don't, you need to wait for the MoviePass card to arrive, its basically a debit card and when you "book" a ticket it loads the ticket amount to the debit card and you just buy a regular ticket using the debit card at the box office of the theater.

You can't book a ticket though unless you are actually AT the theater with this method, so trying a hundred times at home on your phone won't work, it just will always tell you there is no theater near you. You have to be within 100 feet of the theater for it to "activate".
Click to expand...

Thanks for this post. Thought the app was still bugging out since I saw no theatres nearby in e-ticket but those theatres popped up instantly. Guess I'll have to wait for the card.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
SoldierOfLight said:
Of course as soon as I sign up AMC makes the announcement they won't be a part of it. That was my go to theater.
Click to expand...

AMC didn't say they won't be part of it, they said they don't like it and are looking into whether there is anything they can do about it. Someone here posted that AMC also said the same shit forever ago too, and nothing ever came of it. So, I wouldn't worry. Enjoy it, and if anything ever does happen, cancel your subscription.
 
F

Farsi

Member
BattleMonkey said:
They have themselves already said they are losing money on ticket sales, they also get nothing from concession sales.

The whole plan is to just inflate their subscription numbers to become huge. They will then having market power to negotiate with theater chains, be able to sell customer data, and eventually raise the price of the subscription.

The $9.95 price is not gonna be permanent, but once they got millions of people in the program, many are going to stick with it once they are enjoying it, and they can raise the price slowly on them and keep many, this is how it worked with Netflix
Click to expand...

If this is the case I hope it's a gigantic success. Not just to stick it to the theater chains but I think this could be huge for independent films. People will most likely be willing to see them now that they won't have to pay $12+ for a ticket on the weekend especially if people are talking about them.
 
K

kaskade

Member
br3wnor said:
Will be interesting to see how many months they can keep this thing going. I only go to the theater a few times a year so not a product I’d use but if I was in High School or College I’d use the shit out of this. Some theaters where I live charge $15+ for non-matinee showings so the amount of money this company is going to burn through in the first few months will be astounding.



Probably a long term play. If this service became popular enough where 20% or more of AMC’s tickets were purchased through it, eventually Moviepass would come to them and demand a discount. The bigger their market share, the more leverage they have to use against AMC. AMC isn’t make much off of their tickets to begin with, the real drive is concessions, and if Moviepass became big enough they might try to force a share of those profits using the leverage of their user base. In the short term AMC would make out, more people coming to their theaters = more concession money, but ultimately if this service got big enough they’d risk a long term decline in profits.

They also have a valid point where they know Moviepass will eventually have to charge more for their service and if a bunch of people drop out once the service triples in price, now all those people who were used to paying $10 a month to see multiple movies are staring at $12-15 non-matinee tickets which could depress future business.

Ultimately, AMC is trying to make the play that if they don’t allow Moviepass to be used at their theaters, the service will not take off. Given their market share that’s a pretty solid bet.
Click to expand...

BattleMonkey said:
Ticket sales mean very little to a movie chain, the profit comes mainly from extras. AMC is likely afraid of it cutting into sales of specialty screenings which are pure profits, like 3D, XD, Dbox, Imax, etc, etc screenings. Also AMC especially have been pushing higher end movie chains and settings with higher priced "premium" settings that moviepass doesn't support. These are high mark up food and drink setups that will probably lose out if moviepass is too successful, these are big investments that can end up losing huge customer base.

For example there is several newer speciality AMC theaters near me, dine in, premium seats, booze, etc, and moviepass doesn't support them. So if I was a moviepass subscriber, why would I go to these locations? Guess I'm going to the local Regal instead

They also are afraid of how powerful moviepass is going to become, if they succeed in becoming a Netflix like powerhouse in the business with subscriber base, it gives moviepass power over theater chains to push for special pricing and deals.
Click to expand...

Thank you both for those, points. Never really thought of all that. Moviepass would probably benefit them in the short term with an increase in sales but probably won't be sustainable.

Luckily the theater I go to is a small local one so hopefully they couldn't care less about it.

Now I'm just hoping I get my card soon enough, I feel like this the surge of people signing up things will be wonky, it was a pretty smooth sign up for me since I did it yesterday morning. I just hope I got in before the rush.
 
D

Dante316

Member
Still no theaters even though I know my local theater has e-tickets as I have my phone to enter. Guess waiting for the card it is.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Farsi said:
If this is the case I hope it's a gigantic success. Not just to stick it to the theater chains but I think this could be huge for independent films. People will most likely be willing to see them now that they won't have to pay $12+ for a ticket on the weekend especially if people are talking about them.
Click to expand...

Theater chains make very little off ticket sales, so why are we so happy to "stick it to them?" when they are just trying to stay in business? Reason why the prices go up and the concessions cost so much is because they can't operate off ticket sales alone, so they are forced to push prices elsewhere and why so many theaters are trying to change to other formats to bring in extra money.
 
T

The Illiterati

Member
HA....I'm kind of concerned...I just tried to save a seat at my local theatre to try this out, and after choosing my seat through e-ticket it said my seat failed to register. So I went back in to choose again. My initial seat was unavailable, so I chose the one next to it. That one failed to register too. So I tested it through the regular process of purchasing online and both those seats are unavailable to purchase....hope they clear after some time or I could buy out the theater!

Edit:eek:kay they did!
 
M

MikeHaggar

Member
Hero_of_the_Day said:
AMC didn't say they won't be part of it, they said they don't like it and are looking into whether there is anything they can do about it. Someone here posted that AMC also said the same shit forever ago too, and nothing ever came of it. So, I wouldn't worry. Enjoy it, and if anything ever does happen, cancel your subscription.
Click to expand...

If MoviePass pays AMC the actual cost of the ticket (it's my understanding that's what they do), then I don't know why they'd have a problem with it. It will only generate more business for them. My only guess is that they are concerned about long-term effects on pricing and people's expectations/perspective regarding the cost of seeing a movie at the theater.
 
D

Dan-o

Member
All these theater chains want you on THEIR loyalty system because then they can track which movies you see at their theaters. I get it. I'm an Alamo Victory Member, but it's not the only theater I go to, so they only know so much about what I see.

But MoviePass... they can use this opportunity (hundreds of thousands of people, each seeing multiple movies a month) to see what nearly everyone is going to see at any given theater. That's the "big data" push that they should be making here, because they can see more in terms of trends (ie: people living in X zip code are willing to drive 20+ miles to see movie Y, among many many other things). That's the "value" of MoviePass to the industry. They can use that data (anonymizing the users, of course) to benefit chains, distributors, etc.
And, it doesn't kill off any of your loyalty memberships, unless the chains disallow it somehow.

But... they'll probably drive themselves into the ground before they can prove their worth. $10 is just too damn low if they're on the hook for the full cost of every ticket.
 
C

carda114

Member
Can anyone look up if the theaters around me support this? I don't want to sign up and find out that I can't use this. I live in Jamestown, NY, zip code 14701.
 
D

Dan-o

Member
carda114 said:
Can anyone look up if the theaters around me support this? I don't want to sign up and find out that I can't use this. I live in Jamestown, NY, zip code 14701.
Click to expand...
https://www.moviepass.com/theaters/zip/14701
"Chautauqua 2"
"Lakewood Cinema 8"
"Warren Mall Cinemas"
"Dunkirk Cinemas"
"Bradford's Main Street Movie House"
All "Standard" so require the moviepass card. No eticketing.

Boogs31 said:
Could someone check 45840 and 44118 please?
Click to expand...
https://www.moviepass.com/theaters/zip/45840
"Carmike 12 Findlay"
"Ada Theatre"
"Cinemark Woodland Mall Cinema 5"
"Cinemark Tiffin Mall 8"
"Rave Motion Pictures Levis Commons"
"Regal American Mall Stadium 12"
"Paramount Cinema"
All "Standard" as above.

https://www.moviepass.com/theaters/zip/44118
"Tower City 11"
"Capitol Theatre - Cleveland"
"Cleveland Cinematheque"
"Shaker Square Cinemas"
"AMC Ridge Park Square 8"
"Cinemark At Valley View and XD"
"Cedar Lee Theatres"
"Regal Severance Town Center Stadium 14"
(this one goes on and on...huge list..)
All "Standard" as above.
 
K

karmaforgotme

Member
Hmm I did the free month, and it still charged my $9.95? Is this a case of they charge you for the first month, and you get the second month free?

charpunk said:
Do they still automatically send you a card if you have no e-ticket theaters in your area? It did ask for my address when I signed up.
Click to expand...

Log back in to the website and you should see "Has You Card Arrived? Activate." I think that means that they mailed a card to you.
 
S

smisk

Member
Apparently they're having an IPO within the next year? If this is gonna be anywhere near as big as Netflix in the future I'm gonna be tempted to jump in early.
 
A

AmFreak

Member
MikeHaggar said:
If MoviePass pays AMC the actual cost of the ticket (it's my understanding that's what they do), then I don't know why they'd have a problem with it. It will only generate more business for them. My only guess is that they are concerned about long-term effects on pricing and people's expectations/perspective regarding the cost of seeing a movie at the theater.
Click to expand...
As i understand it MoviePass just buys the ticket for you.
They have no deal with these chains.
And the chains being against this is no surprise, because they might get the full amount of money now, but what happens if MoviePass becomes a real power in the market ("Netflix of cinema")?
If they succeed there will be a point at which their market power will be big enough to force chains to directly negotiate with them (and thus loosing money).
 
A

Aselith

Member
bigkrev said:
How long do we think it's going to take to get the card in the mail? They have to be swamped with orders right now
Click to expand...

The confirmation said within 7 days so the expectation is that it will take less than a week but with how busy they are now....never...?
 
Y

YuriLowell

Member
AmFreak said:
As i understand it MoviePass just buys the ticket for you.
They have no deal with these chains.
And the chains being against this is no surprise, because they might get the full amount of money now, but what happens if MoviePass becomes a real power in the market ("Netflix of cinema")?
If they succeed there will be a point at which their market power will be big enough to force chains to directly negotiate with them (and thus loosing money).
Click to expand...


The faster we can get movies into my house and take away the cinema going experience, the better.
 
K

kaskade

Member
Miami Danger said:
Signed up and all available theaters no longer show up on app. Is this just an app issue?
Click to expand...

I believe it’ll only show e ticket theaters without the card. Once your card shows up and is activated it’ll show all the others.

Got my dad to sign up, he was like at 10 bucks its a no brainer.
 
H

hayejin

Member
SexyFish said:
So do I need to order another card through the App after signing up or should I be getting one after the initial registration?
Click to expand...

This is the confusing part but order card function in the app is busted anyway.
The FAQ says they won't send you the card if you have e-ticketing near by.
And if you goto search theaters in the app it says to request a card if you want more results to show up.
Then the whole e-ticketing search prompts you to enter your last four digits of your movie pass.

So yeah I wouldn't expect card to arrive anytime soon seeing how busted the app is and you can't even order a card manually just to be safe.
 
F

F34R

Member
I tried to sign up with the app. Comes back with an error "Could not sign up", but my paypal payment went through. I guess we'll see.
 
B

BassForever

Member
The app is garbage it says no theaters near me take move pass not just in ct but anywhere in all of new england. Gonna wait till I get my card to try further.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Dan-o said:
And, it doesn't kill off any of your loyalty memberships, unless the chains disallow it somehow.
Click to expand...

It kinda kills it for the theaters, people don't have to be loyal anymore. The point of the loyalty programs is to get ppl to keep coming to the same theater, but with Moviepass you lose alot of the incentive to do so, as you can go anywhere for unlimited movies.

I used to go to just Regal locally cause I would build up free movie tix, but now why bother with moviepass?
 
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