MoviePass has some competition
8AMC has created a program very similar to MoviePass for their theaters. For $20 a month you can see three movies a week. Unlike MoviePass, with their subscription you can see premium screenings such as IMAX or 3D, see the same movie multiple times, and pre-purchase tickets. It looks like a pretty good competitor, which is good to see as MoviePass may have financial problems. Too bad our single local AMC theater just sucks. They don’t have IMAX or refillable drink cups. They recently upgraded their seats to recliners, but they are as narrow as a coach airplane seat and have a heater button right at your hip that gets pressed every time you move. It’s my least favorite theater in town. Our big chain is Cinemark, which launched its own club that’s not nearly as good. For $8.99 a month you get to see one movie, you get 20% off concessions and the online booking fee is waived. I’m hoping my favorite, Premiere, which is also a stand-alone but has our only IMAX, will enter the fray with something comparable to AMC’s offering before MoviePass goes under.
MoviePass recently offered 3 free one month trials which I gave out to three friends and suddenly I have no lack of movie companions. It would be nice if they were able to continue their memberships.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/20/media/amc-monthly-subscription/index.html
- 10 comments, 24 replies
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Moviepass claims their shedding of cash is intentional, but the path to profitability is not clear from the outside. When they got into it with AMC I suspected something like this might be coming.
There is a clearer path to profit for a theater chain to run this kind of program on its own (and that path is right to the concession stand). They have already sunk the costs for screening the films and have probably already done the analysis on what this will do to ticket sales. However, it leads to other concerns like you raised about their theater being your least favorite. Can they increase draw with subscriptions instead of physical improvements, leading to a budget airline experience where their success is driven by cheap tickets alone?
Increased segmentation of the entertainment industry is a distinct possibility as chains start to both try to differentiate themselves and possibly get more of the vertical market – imagine AMC original movies that screen nowhere else.
It will be interesting to see how this market changes shape with the disruption that moviepass brought. Whether the industry can make the experience better for moviegoers as well as themselves will determine whether they thrive or start to head down the path of the newspaper.
@djslack
Yes. But i think it will be seniors and kids in the summer. Seniors won’t be a concession boon, and kids depend on their parents, so that will vary depending on theater locations.
No. I can maybe see early release screenings by AMC of late season movies, but I would not view a movie made by a theater chain if my only option was to see the movie at one of their theaters. That would be like having to watch a Netflix or Amazon original production on a specific device. Although, some movies have released film-related content on specific media prior to the mass adoption of that media (the internet before it was popular).
Maybe.
Yes. I go see movies at matinees right before they leave the theater, and when i buy a newspaper, it’s in the afternoon or evening and mostly for the crossword puzzle. The editorials can be interesting too.
/image i worked at a movie theatre
{VMod edit: fixed the quoting. Start the line with > to do a quote.}
Thanks for the edit.
/image thanks
The theater that I use MoviePass at is an AMC, so that’s pretty rad.
Wait. What? I don’t recall you giving it to me.
Then again, I had a card/trial several years ago, so I wouldn’t have been eligible anyways.
@PlacidPenguin I gave them to people who’d go to the movies with me.
@moondrake
You’ve never seen a penguin in a movie theater?
@PlacidPenguin why, it’s the logical place to find a penguin outside of the Antarctic.
I have one game in town for movies - Regal - that’s it
@mfladd I have to go to either of 2 nearby towns as my town is too small for a theater. Both theaters are Midwest-based chains (each are different chains though).
@mfladd Me too. If Regal went for the 3 movie a week for $20/month I would go for it. Still hoping for a matinee plan- I went to see Hotel Artemis yesterday and there were only 2 others there.
@sammydog01 unfortunately that’s because Hotel Artemis is doing terrible in reviews. I liked the idea. I took a nap towards the end.
@sammydog01 Me too! Are you sure you weren’t in Southern Iowa yesterday?
@msklzannie I’m pretty sure I would have remembered being in Iowa. That would have been fun though. I really enjoyed the movie- should have encouraged a kid or two to go with me. Stupid Rotten Tomatoes. I was really disappointed in Hereditary which got such good reviews. About 3/4 of the way through it became wait, what just happened, and stayed that way.
@RiotDemon Want to know how it ended?
@sammydog01 I woke up right before it ended. I missed maybe ten minutes. Good ol power nap.
It was a fun movie, just some stuff didn’t make any sense. They were worried about that stupid pen vault and no one even knew it was missing.
And I know a lot of people that wear those kinds of boots that aren’t cops…
Has anyone tried https://www.sinemia.com/ ?
@karoshi 1 movie a month for $5 is not much of a deal.
@karoshi @moondrake you can get 2 for 9.99 that include 3d/IMAX/4d options. If you use it specifically for those, it’s a decent deal.
MoviePass operating at a loss is intentional, because they’ve got no way to make money. You pay less than the ticket price, and they pay the difference.
Their idea is that theater operators will see such an increase in business and concession sales due to MoviePass that they will start giving them discounts. Then maybe they will make money.
I think it is a sign that it’s not going to go that way. Enjoy MoviePass while you can.
@craigthom one of the things that MoviePass is doing right now is buying stakes in movies and then pushing those movies in the app. Hoping to recoup some money if the movies get big.
@RiotDemon Only problem with them trying to push movies in-app is that even though I’ve updated the app several times since my subscription began in March, the movies listed have only updated about once. It still lists “I Feel Pretty” as “coming soon” and “Sgt Stubby” as a new release. (I even cleared the app’s cache just to check if that would make the list update; it didn’t.)
@RiotDemon They lost all credibility for making wise movie investments when they were attached to Gotti.
Here they come stupid Candie questions. Yes, I’ve been living under a rock and I just heard about the subscription movie plans. Am I right that the AMC movie deal is for 3 tickets a week for $20 per month? So that’s 12 tickets a month and I can bring anyone I want with me to use the tickets or do I have to use them myself and how does that differ from Movepass? AMC is my local theater so I would primarily use my tickets there.
@candiedisilvio1 MoviePass is $9.99 a month for a regular 2d movie every day, except you can’t see the same movie twice.
afaik, you can’t share with friends on anyone’s plan.
The AMC pass let’s you see 3D and IMAX movies, so if that’s your thing, it would be a better plan.
The closest AMC is 30 minutes from me and I rarely watch 3D movies because it doesn’t work that great with my glasses.
People think MoviePass is going to go bankrupt and that’s why they are jumping on other plans. I’ve already got way more than my money’s worth so far. If it does go under, you’re only out 10 bux.
@candiedisilvio1 I think AMC was offering a couples pack but I don’t see it in the article and I didn’t look at it when I saw it. Here’s a nice analysis of the available programs.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-amcs-new-subscription-service-stacks-up-to-moviepass-and-its-competitors-2018-06-21
@candiedisilvio1 thank you @riotdemon and @moondrake for breaking it down for me. That article was great I’m going to go for the MoviePass option so if anyone’s in the upstate NY area I’ve got the popcorn!
I’m not sure why anybody would sign up for the double the price AMC plan while MoviePass is still alive.
I mean, I actually avoid 3D movies to begin with, and wouldn’t see the same movie twice anyway unless I ran out of movies I didn’t see once.
I just got an email from MoviePass about “upgrades” coming soon. You will be able to buy tickets for friends at theaters that reserve seats, you will be able to upgrade to 3D for an additional fee, and something called peak pricing.
Peak pricing means if you go to a movie that’s popular or at a popular time you will have to pay extra. Everyone will be able to waive one peak fee a month. Stuff I see online says an extra $2 for opening weekends.
@sammydog01 that’s fucking lame.
I don’t normally see stuff during opening weekend… So I’ll have to try and reserve judgement.
Edit:
At least it’s not changing until my year is up.
@RiotDemon I see movies at least a week after opening on weekday afternoons so if people seeing movies on opening Saturday nights subsidize me I’m ok with that.
@sammydog01 I’m just hoping that they don’t decide that super popular movies get peak pricing for several weeks instead.
I have until the end of November, so I have time to stop being grumpy.
@RiotDemon @sammydog01 Peak Pricing allows MoviePass to, if they are indeed operating at a loss, extend the “glide” of their descent to bankruptcy. It seems like a natural step toward finding the right price to charge in order to stop operating at a loss; however, I can see how the introduction of Peak Pricing would be jarring to subscribers as the inception and implementation of the feature was likely initiated by those to whom $2 isn’t much money. I would have introduced a variable peak pricing system ranging from about 50 cents to $2 based on demand. I’m not a MoviePass subscriber, but I’d be OK with Peak Pricing, at least until the cost of the MoviePass subscription outweighed the cost of going to the movies without it.
/image peak pricing
If I didn’t have kids and/or a wife, I’d almost certainly be going broke seeing movies by myself. $20 a month seeing 3x movies a week would be a godsend.