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MoviePass wants to let you go to the theater once a day for $10 a month

102 points by rayuela 9y ago

ceejayoz 9y ago
> MoviePass could lose a lot of money subsidizing people’s movie habits. So the company also raised cash on Tuesday by selling a majority stake to Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., a small, publicly traded data firm in New York. The companies declined to comment on terms of the financing but said MoviePass intends to hold an initial public offering by March. Sounds super sustainable.
- tyingq 9y ago
  Yeah, I don't get it. I don't see how the Uber subsidies make sense either, but at least they have a plan on paper as to how it eventually pans out. If these guys have such a plan, it's not mentioned in the article. Maybe the plan is to squeeze theaters after they get a foothold?
- drzaiusapelord 9y ago
  I'm sure there's a monetization plan they aren't talking about because it would be horrible. Perhaps commercials between scenes and/or the $10 pass is only good for daytime showings for long released movies and weekend newer releases are still bought like normal.
bpicolo 9y ago
So soon we'll get to pay $12 for a soda instead of $5?
nxsynonym 9y ago
>“People really do want to go more often,” Lowe said. “They just don’t like the transaction.” It's true. I've been a avid movie goer since I was a young kid. It's the whole experience. I love seeing new movies on big screens, I like the familiarity of movie theaters (pick any theater anywhere and you know exactly how the process will go start to finish), and I like having a reason to leave the house and "do something" without having to make an elaborate plan. The biggest hurdle preventing me from going multiple times per week is the cost of the ticket + concessions (its part of the experience!). I hope this works out in the long run, I just signed up and hope the price point will stick.
- ansible 9y ago
  The biggest hurdle preventing me from going multiple times per week is the cost of the ticket + concessions (its part of the experience!). We have a 2nd run movie theater near where I live. The cost of tickets is $2.50 USD, and the concessions are about the same as first-run theaters (maybe a bit less). The seats are nice, though not the full electric recliners that some theaters have nearby. So if I can wait to go see a movie (and I usually can) that's a much less expensive option. Even so, I end up going just a few times per year.
  - te_chris 9y ago
    Electric recliners?! America never ceases to surprise me.
    - ceejayoz 9y ago
      They're quite nice. https://amc-theatres-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v1495720738/amc-cdn/general/img/AMC_Recliner_0961.png https://amc-theatres-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v149572... Electric so you can pick a specific level of recline, instead of just having a spring-loaded chair with only one option.
      - bmelton 9y ago
        Which is worth having, since I've learned the hard way that drinking a movie-large soda while fully reclined is a risky proposition.
    - 11thEarlOfMar 9y ago
      Yeah, it's a thing and it's totally great. La-z-boys, reserved seats, same price.
    - inetsee 9y ago
      Two of the big theaters where I live have installed the new electric recliner seats. They are not as comfortable as the seats they replaced. In fact, in one theater the new seats are so uncomfortable that we've stopped going to that theater altogether.
vilmosi 9y ago
Sounds like Cineworld's Unlimited Card, albeit cheaper.
- benaadams 9y ago
  Yeah already works in UK have two schemes: Odeon Limitless or Cineworld Unlimited Though are more expensive
martin-adams 9y ago
So the only crazy part of this plan is the $10 a month. Cineworld in the UK have the Unlimited card for years which is effectively the same[1], but costs £17.90 a month (~$23). [1] https://www.cineworld.co.uk/unlimited https://www.cineworld.co.uk/unlimited
- n4r9 9y ago
  Odeon have the same thing, called Limitless: http://www.odeon.co.uk/limitless/ http://www.odeon.co.uk/limitless/
- dark_ph0enix 9y ago
  Difference is, "any theater in the U.S. that accepts debit cards". If you're unfortunate enough to only have a Vue around, your Cineworld pass won't do much.
  - martin-adams 9y ago
    Yes, that's a fair point, and they are paying the theatre the full price of the ticket. I wonder if their plan is to control the supply of visitors to the cinema at a loss, then negotiate a profitable way to continue when the cinemas fear losing the revenue.
    - Operyl 9y ago
      I mean, the article flat out says they're subsidizing the costs and then selling your viewing habit data to make the profit.
RepressedEmu 9y ago
This model introduces disincentives to building value since they don't actually want their subscribers USING the service. They just want them paying for it and forgetting about it like a gym membership. Also at $10 a month wouldn't a subscriber have to average <0.7 movies a month to break even? Monetizing with targeted ads doesn't seem like they'll be able to make their money back. Is there something I'm missing here?
- sp332 9y ago
  After they "verify the market" they will start cranking prices up.
  - nxsynonym 9y ago
    They've already been running this at $50 or $60 a month, why would they drop the price just to raise it again?
    - sp332 9y ago
      MoviePass intends to hold an initial public offering by March. I think they're just dropping the price to show investors how fast they can "grow" before the IPO.
      - RepressedEmu 9y ago
        I think this offers the best explanation for such an unsustainable pricing option. Thanks for the info
  - fizgig 9y ago
    I joined up about a year ago at $30/month. For 3 months, I averaged about 5 flicks per month, which was a net gain over the cost of the individual tickets. Then I got a notice that they were increasing my fee to $40/month and I promptly cancelled. Sure, I could have upped my movie frequency a bit to recoup the extra cost, but that was a little too often to be worth it.
drzaiusapelord 9y ago
How is this remotely profitable? Movie tickets where I live are pushing $20 a ticket as all the theaters have been re-done as up-scale theaters with padded reclining chairs and/or food service because the standard model of cheap seats packed in as tightly as possible with the smallest screen tolerable doesn't seem to be working anymore. Even the tightly run Arclight theaters are little more than lipstick on a pig at this point. Tolerable, but nothing special. If I had to bet, I'd say that we're only going to the movies less and it will continue to be rebranded as a premium experience. The cheap seats model isn't any better than my modest living room system and about 10x less convenient. The only difference is I need to wait a couple months before the movie is available in my home. Hollywood could change that overnight is they chose to. I'm not even going to go into how terrible the standard theater experience is. Smelly floors, beat up seats, loud people, smartphone lights, absurdly priced concessions, unhealthy concession offerings, poor bathroom facilities, paying for parking, 10-20 minutes of trailers, etc.
- ceejayoz 9y ago
  > How is this remotely profitable? It's not. Article says they're planning on burning VC money and figure out some nebulous "sell data analytics" sort of monetization approach.
Dirlewanger 9y ago
Forget using free services to give away my data, I can now pay money for the honor! I hope this shit dies a quick and painful death.
sitepodmatt 9y ago
We had this in the UK about 15 years ago, I recall it was a tenner a month, Virgin cinema possibly? with some exclusions, maybe it was friday/saturday and premiere nights, you might get value for first month or two but after that there was only two films a month at best worth seeing which you'd force yourself to do, novelty faded quickly, after that it had the same value for money as a gym membership in February.
whipoodle 9y ago
I don't think my problem is the transaction, it's the movies on offer. I don't care about comic book characters. The "transaction" is fine, the junk food and the soda are fine, seats and sound and picture are fine. The movies aren't.
- ceejayoz 9y ago
  I'm confused. The pass sounds like it applies to all movies on offer, not just ones from certain studios.
  - mbillie1 9y ago
    I think the parent comment is referring to the abundance of comic book derivatives, sequels and uninspired remakes that have become increasingly prevalent of late.
    - snuxoll 9y ago
      This is a general trend in media as a whole today - sequels, reboots, remakes/remasters, derivatives of other popular media are just as bad in television and video games. The only saving grace of "TV" is Netflix, Amazon and HBO who are more willing to take the risk on new IP. The last AAA video game I purchased that wasn't based on an existing IP or derivative of a specific formula (see: Ubisoft) was Titanfall. The last movie I saw for myself (and not my daughter) that wasn't based on existing IP I can't even remember, it must have been Grindhouse (Planet Terror / Death Proof). Meanwhile, the last serialized "TV" content I've watched that wasn't a new season of an existing show or a spinoff was Transparent, before that there was Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, etc. I would love for some fresh ideas in the available content out there, but it seems like executives are especially adverse to risk considering the budget it takes to make "current-gen" visuals in blockbusters or AAA video games - and I wonder if that is why serialized shows are where most of the "fresh" content is considering people expect lower production values out of a 20 episode season of 45 minute episodes.
      - graphitezepp 9y ago
BobvD 9y ago
This is already a thing in the Netherlands (Its called a Unlimited Card, I got one), but is more like $20.
- icoder 9y ago
  Yup, Pathe Unlimited Card, named after the chain that operates most (or so it seems to me) cinemas in the Netherlands. A catch is that when you cancel, you can't join again for a long time (or pay a large fine or something). Also, you pay extra for each 3D ticket (I don't really like '3D' but sometimes that's the only version available). You need to go (on average) more than 2 times a month to break even, continuously. Which I find difficult, but that probably says more about me than about the product. Once in a while, there's a deal with 'Postbank Rentepunten' that gives you a card for 3 months for like $40. That works a bit better for me (especially when I time it with the winter holidays, when a lot of new movies come out).
- reaktivo 9y ago
  Don't forget Cineville.
Shivetya 9y ago
The idea is nice but I would have expected region based pricing. Yet if it didn't work out a $30 a month then discounting it severely to get customers doesn't seem like there is any payoff other than for the theaters. Did AMC roll out something higher priced that this for their own system? If they have one surely the other big chains do so this separate service would seem doomed from the get go
jasode 9y ago
>He said the high price of tickets, not competition from Netflix or Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video service, is a big part of what’s keeping people away. “People really do want to go more often,” Lowe said. “They just don’t like the transaction.” Maybe he's right but I'm not convinced. I think kids/teens would love to go the theater more but my personal anecdote is that my friends and I lost interest after age 25. It's just not as exciting to go to a theater when you're not in high school or not part of the dating scene in college. Of course, if you're a parent with young kids, you go because you're the chaperone for the Disney movie. It seems like declining visits by adults is just a general long term trend. Similar to the decline of drive-in theaters. Used to be fun to to drive the car into the lot but the novelty wore off. Adults also went to theaters in 1930s in high numbers (e.g. Gone With the Wind) because theaters were among the first to have air conditioning which was a big deal. Every house has air conditioning now. Lastly, the economics of movie theaters have created a feedback loop that results in "big tent pole" films like Disney / Transformers / Star Wars dominating the screens. Adults want serious drama like "House of Cards" -- which is available at home. One could argue that if ticket prices weren't so high, more adults would have gone to theaters which would then have subsequent effect of HoC, Boardwalk Empire, etc only being released in the theaters. I guess one could go down that rabbit hole of an alternate universe but I'm not convinced by it because I still think adults just eventually get bored of the "theater experience". (Babies crying in the back row, other patrons who don't shut off their cellphone ringers, sticky dirty floors, 15-minutes of ads before the movie starts, etc) EDIT ADD: some replies seem to misunderstand my comments. I know some people do enjoy going the movies and the barrier to that is the price which MoviePass solves perfectly for them. I'm not arguing the existence of such moviegoers. Instead I interpreted “People really do want to go more often,” as a _macro_ trend and my comment is about reversing the macro trend of declining theater attendance. I'm not convinced MoviePass will actually solve that because fundamentally, the thrill of going to the theater wears off (age, Netflix/HBO at home, other entertainment distractions competing for time, etc). Again, that's a macro prediction. Yes, there are lots of enthusiastic moviegoers but they're outnumbered by the people with apathy for attending theaters.
- deleted 9y ago
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arihant 9y ago
Carnival Cinemas in India have a similar scheme called Moviecard. All you can watch, Monday through Thursday. It costs around the same as one movie ticket for the entire month. This seems similar. I always thought the idea was to fill empty theatres with people over weekdays, and of course make money off of refreshments. I mean, they will only fill up seats that are unsold anyway, but with the pass they will at least have shot at selling food.
mvitorino 9y ago
We have an interesting offer in Portugal. If your cable+internet+phone+mobile company is www.nos.pt you get a card that offers you 2 for 1 tickets at their cinemas. If you go alone, you pay full ticket, but you get a popcorn and drink menu for free. Max 1 per day, 8 per month, 52 per year. Each ticket is around 7USD.
myusernameisok 9y ago
One nice thing about the movie theatre is that you're paying a large amount of money (~$5/hr) to be there, so you're more likely to pay attention. I find with netflix, people take shows less seriously and spend time on their phone whilst not paying attention because "its just netflix." I think if theatres had an "all you can watch" model, people would take it less seriously, and the quality of the experience would degrade.
Powerofmene 9y ago
This is an interesting concept but I have to wonder how this is going to affect movie goers long term who do not have a MoviePass or even those with a MP when it comes to new releases. If MP goers can attend once a day then does it not stand to reason that new releases will be harder to get into as this will increase the number of attendees. I know there are a bunch of teens and college students in our area who go to the movies infrequently because of the price but would gladly buy a MP. Stands to reason that new releases that sell out for days will take infrequent movie attendees even longer to get into or deal with even longer lines (wait times). This could back fire a bit by making infrequent movie attendees even more likely to pass altogether and wait for DVD releases, etc. Just do not see how they can sustain a $10 a month price point long term. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over time.
- scaryclam 9y ago
  Here in the UK various cinema chains have unlimited subscriptions like that. It's a bit more expensive, but if you watch 3 movies a month you've recouped your costs of membership. I've never noticed a particular problem with number of attendees. I've only ever found 3 people who go to the movies often enough to bother with the subscription.
billsmithaustin 9y ago
> the goal is to amass a large base of customers and collect data on viewing behaviors. That information could then be used to eventually target advertisements or other marketing materials to subscribers. I assume that means more (or "better" ads) before the movie. I prefer to pay extra watch movies somewhere that doesn't show ads, but no doubt there's a cohort who would be happy to watch ads if it means a cheaper ticket price.
- ajmurmann 9y ago
  With more theaters now having reserved seating in the US one can also just come to the theater slightly late and miss most of the ads.
josiahpeters 9y ago
I would pay $10 a month to watch Game of Thrones, House of Cards, or other high production value TV shows on a big screen with other fans each week. I might even pay $20 or $30 a month for just those few months of new episodes for the latest season. I would even pay $10 a month for a few months to watch an episode of Band of Brothers each week. I really enjoy the movie theater viewing experience. Lately I've only gone to the theatre to see the new Star Wars or Pixar films (only because I am a fan of those two franchises). Nothing else that is being released interests me. I'm aware that some theatres book corporate trainings or private showings. I don't think it would be unreasonable for them to air new episodes of top television shows on the night of. It would be interesting to see what demand for that would look like.
- AVTizzle 9y ago
  GoT in theatres sounds amazing. Sign me up.
- wastedhours 9y ago
  That sounds perfect - I had a feeling I read somewhere that they don't do it because TV companies were charging by the showing (and maintaining interest over a run would wane), rather than a split screening/# tickets basis as for films.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  I've seen some theaters that show Sherlock and other high-production TV, and they seem to do quite well with it. I haven't heard about GoT, though. As an side - what would the legality be if a group of people "booked" a theater to air a TV show? Would the theater or viewers be liable for holding a commercial screening using a private copy of the thing?
  - tomjen3 9y ago
    >We’re not open to the general public. Do we still need a license? >Yes. According to Senate Report No. 94-473, p. 60, “performances in ‘semipublic’ places such as clubs, lodges, factories, summer camps and schools are ‘public performances’ subject to copyright control.” https://www.mplc.org/page/faqs https://www.mplc.org/page/faqs That presumably depends on whether the screening is only for e.g your family. Consult a lawyer.
d--b 9y ago
It's been in France since the early 2000s (for 20 euros). It's not all theaters but in Paris, the UGC MK2 card covers a few massive cinemas plus most small independent theaters. It works well.
mbillie1 9y ago
The people objecting that this is not cost effective are missing the point that most people who use this service will simply subscribe, forget, and go to the movies no more frequently than they do now (after a month or so). It's why places like Planet Fitness are able to offer $10/month unlimited memberships.
- tertius 9y ago
  > Ah, so a great valuable product!
  - mbillie1 9y ago
    If you actually use it, sure. Not unlike a gym membership, you let the aspirational purchasing of some people partially subsidize the cost for the actual user base. I'm not making any ethical stand for or against this practice, but it doesn't seem any different than gym memberships (or frankly an online Netflix membership) to me.
- FfejL 9y ago
  Except that the incremental cost of someone using a Gym is almost zero. Once you have enough members to cover the rent & employees, it's almost all upside. MoviePass will pay about $12 each and every time someone sees a movie -- more than the monthly fee any one member is paying. So every super movie fan watching 10 movies a month requires more than 11 other members paying the monthly fee and then not using their membership at all. Hard to see that math working out.
  - mbillie1 9y ago
    > Except that the incremental cost of someone using a Gym is almost zero. Once you have enough members to cover the rent & employees, it's almost all upside. Huh? What exactly do you think a gym's principal expenses are beyond rent, employee cost and equipment maintenance/replacement? And how long do you think a gym treadmill which is run on for ~6 hours a day will last? I'm not saying MoviePass automatically makes sense, but the idea that gyms are "all upside" after the initial equipment purchase is badly misinformed.
vinceguidry 9y ago
One interesting thing about the cinema industry is that it's not the theatre chains that set ticket prices, it's the movie companies. I have a friend who manages one, and worked into the contracts that the cinema chains have with the studios, is a certain number of passes they get every month to give to family and friends. They're contractually not allowed to give the passes on opening weekend. The cinema companies don't really care about some things, like sneaking between movies, sure if they catch you they'll kick you out but they're not looking real hard for you. Other things, like piracy, they care a lot about, films are individually watermarked so whenever a pirated version comes out, they know exactly which theatre it was screened on. That provides a big incentive to catch them. With a Netflix-type plan for cinema, it's not the cinema companies that Netflix is going to have to negotiate with, it's the studios. Literally all the box office take goes directly to them.
alistproducer2 9y ago
Not to be too snippy but this just seems like a way to light lots of VC money on fire. Maybe they've already got assurances of the value of the data from customers? Sign me up. I'll gladly blow through some of that sweet, sweet VC dough (just like Uber and Lyft).
js2 9y ago
Do I still have to sit through 10 minutes of advertisements and 20 minutes of trailers before the movie starts? Every time they find one way to improve the experience (recliners) they find another way to make it unbearable (the increasing amount of ads and trailers).
thomk 9y ago
Oh yeah that'll be fun, now there is no price barrier to entry so the rude idiots that are in theaters now will simply overrun theaters. Ever go see a $1 movie in a low rate theater? That's where this is headed. Honest to god I would pay $20/ticket to go sit in a quiet theater with respectful people who like to get lost in movies and know how to act. I used to go to the movies about twice a month, now I go once every 6 months and about 50% of the time someone is talking or on their phone and I find myself in a confrontation. Ever try to settle back down and enjoy the rest of the movie after you confront someone? Forget it. Unfortunately I'm sure I'm in the minority and this idea will probably work and I'll have to stick to Art House movie theaters or watch movies at home which is fine I guess. I remember watching Star Wars in the theater in the 70's. Guess what? People were too engrossed to be rude. Part of the fun was getting swept up in the reaction of other moviegoers. I hope this is figured out soon, I miss going to the theater!
- ritchiea 9y ago
  Where do you live? I almost never experience this going to the theater in NYC.
  - bb611 9y ago
    In fairness, aren't movie ticket prices in NYC near $20? I haven't tried to see a movie there in >5 years, but at the time going to see one in midtown was ~$16.
    - ritchiea 9y ago
      Yup, pretty much anywhere in the city will be close to that. But that's regular NYC pricing, everything is more expensive there.
  - macNchz 9y ago
    It is very theater-dependent in NYC: I live a few blocks from two different theaters, one is quiet and people are respectful, the other is nearly intolerable for anything other than a nonstop action movie because people are talking and texting the whole time. Interestingly, the quiet theater is a few dollars cheaper per ticket.
kemiller2002 9y ago
This is pretty ingenious. Movie theaters don't make money off of the movie, they make it off of the concessions. This lowers the barrier to entry in getting people in the theater. A number of people I know always get popcorn and a drink when they go. They do it every time no matter what time of day. It's just what they do. By lowering the price of admission, they are going to get people to spend more money on concessions by getting them to go to the theater more.
- wahnfrieden 9y ago
  You misunderstand this model - MoviePass does not own nor share a revenue stake with the theaters directly. MoviePass pays the theatres the full price of each ticket, and the theatres don’t provide kickbacks. MoviePass wants to make money off the data they collect.
  - brewdad 9y ago
    Maybe it's me, but I don't see this data as all that valuable. Say I go to the movies 8-10x a month. Given that my local theater probably gets about 20 new movies per month, does knowing which half of the movies I see really provide analytical value over aggregate box office numbers? I wonder if the app is spying on you in more nefarious ways. I guess I could dedicate a retired phone to be my "movies" phone.
    - wahnfrieden 9y ago
      The missing piece with box office numbers is connecting individual ticket sales with other individual ticket sales, as well as a host of other factors (since they have your personal information, and credit card or whatever on file, they can correlate your activity with all kinds of other things).
  - balls187 9y ago
    Another smart HN commenter wrote "If it's free, then you are the product." That seems to be the case with significant discounts.
- 9y ago
gadders 9y ago
I can't see this working for me now, but if I was retired I'd jump at this.
justadeveloper2 9y ago
When my credit card got stolen last week, Moviepass was one of the items purchased with it.
- justadeveloper2 9y ago
  I'm not sure why this is being downvoted--I mean, it seems like a relevant comment to me. People who skim credit cards at gas stations obviously try to use them quickly for some easy gain before going out and buying a $5000 tv. Moviepass is clearly popular in certain circles.
unabridged 9y ago
I don't see how it can be sustained with them paying full price to the theaters. $10 a month Mon-Thur only and I think it might work for them. And how are you going to keep people from sharing the pass?
danschumann 9y ago
I like the idea of this model for open-seating theaters. What about the theaters with only a few big loungers and reserved seating? If you allowed people to schedule/reserve seats, they might not show up. Perhaps if you reserved seats and didn't show up, you'd get charged a penalty ( similar to all-you-can-eat sushi murimoto ).
CivilianZero 9y ago
I used MoviePass when it was a little younger and just a warning to any considering it, there are a lot of hidden restrictions. I know some things could have changed since a couple years ago when I was using it but you were unable to see new movies and some movies would be restricted for their entire theater run. They also presented it as a monthly service that you could cancel when you were done, but it was actually an annual service that you paid for on a monthly basis and trying to leave before the year was up would cost you. A lot. There was also some weird business about having to send new cards (they sent you a card you had to use in person at the theater to pay for your ticket) without warning and until you got the new one you were unable to use the service you were paying for. In addition to that, sometimes the cards would just not work. This happened to me on at least 3 occasions. Also take into consideration, there are some movies you'll want to see in 3d (maybe) or IMAX (more likely) and these are completely excluded. And if you're like me and you like to buy tickets ahead of time with fandango so you can skip lines and be sure the movie you're going to see isn't sold out, using this service means giving up that convenience. Granted, this is all a much better deal now that it's $10 instead of $30.
- martinald 9y ago
  On the relaunched site today it says the restrictions are: You can see one movie every day. You can see each movie one time. You can see only standard 2D screenings. It even points out you can go on opening night and the T+Cs point out there is a month to month plan now, but it's a bit confusing. I do think it's a good offer for $10/month. Cineworld in the UK offers something similar for about £20/month (~$25), but also has an annual commitment and is restricted to one chain of cinemas, none of which are close to me.
  - striking 9y ago
    I wonder if they were able to negotiate a better deal on these things because people don't go to the movies as often anymore..?
    - blacksmith_tb 9y ago
peterwwillis 9y ago
“The more we understand our fans, the more we can target them.”
nobrains 9y ago
"MoviePass will pay theaters the full price of each ticket used by subscribers" - then how will they make money?
arcaster 9y ago
I love this concept! However, when it comes to conventional theaters fetching the most revenue possible, it seems like the problem is what to play in a limited number of theaters, not becessarily as many people as possible. I could see people liking this idea, however if there's only a movie or tv show you wanted to see a few times a month would it really be worth it? I could also foresee this system could further ruin the fun of the big screen, an example is Alamo Draft House in ATX offering tickets and seat reservations months in advance. This makes it nearly impossible to just see a movie one day on impulse with friends.
laurieg 9y ago
When I was younger a cinema chain in the UK used to offer an unlimited subscription for 13 pounds (about $17). The only restriction was you could get cinema tickets for two shows whose start and end times overlapped. I spent a wonderful summer cycling into town every other day and watching 2 or 3 movies before cycling home again. If a movie turned out to be terrible you could just walk out and you hadn't lost anything. I love watching movies at the cinema, but a standard ticket where I live now is around $18 US. There are lots of offers but I can't be bothered to time my trips around couples day/ladies day/special movie day. I just wanna watch a film!
ulkesh 9y ago
Simply put: it was not worth it. I tried it when it first came out. I liked the concept, but they do everything to hide every single problem with it. Some of which has already been said in this thread, but the biggest reason I canceled as soon as I could was: I could not share the service with my wife. She had to have her own separate service. Hell, I couldn't use it with myself if I happened to not have the device that was registered with me at the time. I understand the need to try to get more business, but at the same time, if I'm not using the Movie Pass for that day, why can't my wife use it? Movie Pass locks to a single device (unless they finally did away with that). Also, why can't we use it to see the same movie multiple times if we choose to? I mean I'm paying $10 (or $30 back then) a month for seeing a single movie per day. Are there 30 different movies in the theater in a given month? While conceptually cool, this was put together in the most completely horrible way for the modern consumer. They will never win back my business unless they take away these ridiculous restrictions.
- donald123 9y ago
  Those restrictions are to prevent people sharing it. A single ticket is much more expensive than $10 already, without those restrictions, you bet people will share it with their family and friends, event "rent" it out to strangers. How long do you think that will last before the company goes bankrupt.

102 points by rayuela 9y ago

> MoviePass could lose a lot of money subsidizing people’s movie habits. So the company also raised cash on Tuesday by selling a majority stake to Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., a small, publicly traded data firm in New York. The companies declined to comment on terms of the financing but said MoviePass intends to hold an initial public offering by March. Sounds super sustainable.

tyingq 9y ago
Yeah, I don't get it. I don't see how the Uber subsidies make sense either, but at least they have a plan on paper as to how it eventually pans out. If these guys have such a plan, it's not mentioned in the article. Maybe the plan is to squeeze theaters after they get a foothold?
drzaiusapelord 9y ago
I'm sure there's a monetization plan they aren't talking about because it would be horrible. Perhaps commercials between scenes and/or the $10 pass is only good for daytime showings for long released movies and weekend newer releases are still bought like normal.

bpicolo 9y ago

So soon we'll get to pay $12 for a soda instead of $5?

nxsynonym 9y ago

>“People really do want to go more often,” Lowe said. “They just don’t like the transaction.” It's true. I've been a avid movie goer since I was a young kid. It's the whole experience. I love seeing new movies on big screens, I like the familiarity of movie theaters (pick any theater anywhere and you know exactly how the process will go start to finish), and I like having a reason to leave the house and "do something" without having to make an elaborate plan. The biggest hurdle preventing me from going multiple times per week is the cost of the ticket + concessions (its part of the experience!). I hope this works out in the long run, I just signed up and hope the price point will stick.

ansible 9y ago
The biggest hurdle preventing me from going multiple times per week is the cost of the ticket + concessions (its part of the experience!). We have a 2nd run movie theater near where I live. The cost of tickets is $2.50 USD, and the concessions are about the same as first-run theaters (maybe a bit less). The seats are nice, though not the full electric recliners that some theaters have nearby. So if I can wait to go see a movie (and I usually can) that's a much less expensive option. Even so, I end up going just a few times per year.
- te_chris 9y ago
  Electric recliners?! America never ceases to surprise me.
  - ceejayoz 9y ago
    They're quite nice. https://amc-theatres-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v1495720738/amc-cdn/general/img/AMC_Recliner_0961.png https://amc-theatres-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/v149572... Electric so you can pick a specific level of recline, instead of just having a spring-loaded chair with only one option.
    - bmelton 9y ago
      Which is worth having, since I've learned the hard way that drinking a movie-large soda while fully reclined is a risky proposition.
  - 11thEarlOfMar 9y ago
    Yeah, it's a thing and it's totally great. La-z-boys, reserved seats, same price.
  - inetsee 9y ago
    Two of the big theaters where I live have installed the new electric recliner seats. They are not as comfortable as the seats they replaced. In fact, in one theater the new seats are so uncomfortable that we've stopped going to that theater altogether.

vilmosi 9y ago

Sounds like Cineworld's Unlimited Card, albeit cheaper.

benaadams 9y ago
Yeah already works in UK have two schemes: Odeon Limitless or Cineworld Unlimited Though are more expensive

martin-adams 9y ago

So the only crazy part of this plan is the $10 a month. Cineworld in the UK have the Unlimited card for years which is effectively the same[1], but costs £17.90 a month (~$23). [1] https://www.cineworld.co.uk/unlimited https://www.cineworld.co.uk/unlimited

n4r9 9y ago
Odeon have the same thing, called Limitless: http://www.odeon.co.uk/limitless/ http://www.odeon.co.uk/limitless/
dark_ph0enix 9y ago
Difference is, "any theater in the U.S. that accepts debit cards". If you're unfortunate enough to only have a Vue around, your Cineworld pass won't do much.
- martin-adams 9y ago
  Yes, that's a fair point, and they are paying the theatre the full price of the ticket. I wonder if their plan is to control the supply of visitors to the cinema at a loss, then negotiate a profitable way to continue when the cinemas fear losing the revenue.
  - Operyl 9y ago
    I mean, the article flat out says they're subsidizing the costs and then selling your viewing habit data to make the profit.

RepressedEmu 9y ago

This model introduces disincentives to building value since they don't actually want their subscribers USING the service. They just want them paying for it and forgetting about it like a gym membership. Also at $10 a month wouldn't a subscriber have to average <0.7 movies a month to break even? Monetizing with targeted ads doesn't seem like they'll be able to make their money back. Is there something I'm missing here?

sp332 9y ago
After they "verify the market" they will start cranking prices up.
- nxsynonym 9y ago
  They've already been running this at $50 or $60 a month, why would they drop the price just to raise it again?
  - sp332 9y ago
    MoviePass intends to hold an initial public offering by March. I think they're just dropping the price to show investors how fast they can "grow" before the IPO.
    - RepressedEmu 9y ago
      I think this offers the best explanation for such an unsustainable pricing option. Thanks for the info
- fizgig 9y ago
  I joined up about a year ago at $30/month. For 3 months, I averaged about 5 flicks per month, which was a net gain over the cost of the individual tickets. Then I got a notice that they were increasing my fee to $40/month and I promptly cancelled. Sure, I could have upped my movie frequency a bit to recoup the extra cost, but that was a little too often to be worth it.

drzaiusapelord 9y ago

How is this remotely profitable? Movie tickets where I live are pushing $20 a ticket as all the theaters have been re-done as up-scale theaters with padded reclining chairs and/or food service because the standard model of cheap seats packed in as tightly as possible with the smallest screen tolerable doesn't seem to be working anymore. Even the tightly run Arclight theaters are little more than lipstick on a pig at this point. Tolerable, but nothing special. If I had to bet, I'd say that we're only going to the movies less and it will continue to be rebranded as a premium experience. The cheap seats model isn't any better than my modest living room system and about 10x less convenient. The only difference is I need to wait a couple months before the movie is available in my home. Hollywood could change that overnight is they chose to. I'm not even going to go into how terrible the standard theater experience is. Smelly floors, beat up seats, loud people, smartphone lights, absurdly priced concessions, unhealthy concession offerings, poor bathroom facilities, paying for parking, 10-20 minutes of trailers, etc.

ceejayoz 9y ago
> How is this remotely profitable? It's not. Article says they're planning on burning VC money and figure out some nebulous "sell data analytics" sort of monetization approach.

Dirlewanger 9y ago

Forget using free services to give away my data, I can now pay money for the honor! I hope this shit dies a quick and painful death.

sitepodmatt 9y ago

We had this in the UK about 15 years ago, I recall it was a tenner a month, Virgin cinema possibly? with some exclusions, maybe it was friday/saturday and premiere nights, you might get value for first month or two but after that there was only two films a month at best worth seeing which you'd force yourself to do, novelty faded quickly, after that it had the same value for money as a gym membership in February.

whipoodle 9y ago

I don't think my problem is the transaction, it's the movies on offer. I don't care about comic book characters. The "transaction" is fine, the junk food and the soda are fine, seats and sound and picture are fine. The movies aren't.

ceejayoz 9y ago
I'm confused. The pass sounds like it applies to all movies on offer, not just ones from certain studios.
- mbillie1 9y ago
  I think the parent comment is referring to the abundance of comic book derivatives, sequels and uninspired remakes that have become increasingly prevalent of late.
  - snuxoll 9y ago
    This is a general trend in media as a whole today - sequels, reboots, remakes/remasters, derivatives of other popular media are just as bad in television and video games. The only saving grace of "TV" is Netflix, Amazon and HBO who are more willing to take the risk on new IP. The last AAA video game I purchased that wasn't based on an existing IP or derivative of a specific formula (see: Ubisoft) was Titanfall. The last movie I saw for myself (and not my daughter) that wasn't based on existing IP I can't even remember, it must have been Grindhouse (Planet Terror / Death Proof). Meanwhile, the last serialized "TV" content I've watched that wasn't a new season of an existing show or a spinoff was Transparent, before that there was Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, etc. I would love for some fresh ideas in the available content out there, but it seems like executives are especially adverse to risk considering the budget it takes to make "current-gen" visuals in blockbusters or AAA video games - and I wonder if that is why serialized shows are where most of the "fresh" content is considering people expect lower production values out of a 20 episode season of 45 minute episodes.
    - graphitezepp 9y ago

BobvD 9y ago

This is already a thing in the Netherlands (Its called a Unlimited Card, I got one), but is more like $20.

icoder 9y ago
Yup, Pathe Unlimited Card, named after the chain that operates most (or so it seems to me) cinemas in the Netherlands. A catch is that when you cancel, you can't join again for a long time (or pay a large fine or something). Also, you pay extra for each 3D ticket (I don't really like '3D' but sometimes that's the only version available). You need to go (on average) more than 2 times a month to break even, continuously. Which I find difficult, but that probably says more about me than about the product. Once in a while, there's a deal with 'Postbank Rentepunten' that gives you a card for 3 months for like $40. That works a bit better for me (especially when I time it with the winter holidays, when a lot of new movies come out).
reaktivo 9y ago
Don't forget Cineville.

Shivetya 9y ago

The idea is nice but I would have expected region based pricing. Yet if it didn't work out a $30 a month then discounting it severely to get customers doesn't seem like there is any payoff other than for the theaters. Did AMC roll out something higher priced that this for their own system? If they have one surely the other big chains do so this separate service would seem doomed from the get go

jasode 9y ago

>He said the high price of tickets, not competition from Netflix or Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video service, is a big part of what’s keeping people away. “People really do want to go more often,” Lowe said. “They just don’t like the transaction.” Maybe he's right but I'm not convinced. I think kids/teens would love to go the theater more but my personal anecdote is that my friends and I lost interest after age 25. It's just not as exciting to go to a theater when you're not in high school or not part of the dating scene in college. Of course, if you're a parent with young kids, you go because you're the chaperone for the Disney movie. It seems like declining visits by adults is just a general long term trend. Similar to the decline of drive-in theaters. Used to be fun to to drive the car into the lot but the novelty wore off. Adults also went to theaters in 1930s in high numbers (e.g. Gone With the Wind) because theaters were among the first to have air conditioning which was a big deal. Every house has air conditioning now. Lastly, the economics of movie theaters have created a feedback loop that results in "big tent pole" films like Disney / Transformers / Star Wars dominating the screens. Adults want serious drama like "House of Cards" -- which is available at home. One could argue that if ticket prices weren't so high, more adults would have gone to theaters which would then have subsequent effect of HoC, Boardwalk Empire, etc only being released in the theaters. I guess one could go down that rabbit hole of an alternate universe but I'm not convinced by it because I still think adults just eventually get bored of the "theater experience". (Babies crying in the back row, other patrons who don't shut off their cellphone ringers, sticky dirty floors, 15-minutes of ads before the movie starts, etc) EDIT ADD: some replies seem to misunderstand my comments. I know some people do enjoy going the movies and the barrier to that is the price which MoviePass solves perfectly for them. I'm not arguing the existence of such moviegoers. Instead I interpreted “People really do want to go more often,” as a _macro_ trend and my comment is about reversing the macro trend of declining theater attendance. I'm not convinced MoviePass will actually solve that because fundamentally, the thrill of going to the theater wears off (age, Netflix/HBO at home, other entertainment distractions competing for time, etc). Again, that's a macro prediction. Yes, there are lots of enthusiastic moviegoers but they're outnumbered by the people with apathy for attending theaters.

deleted 9y ago
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arihant 9y ago

Carnival Cinemas in India have a similar scheme called Moviecard. All you can watch, Monday through Thursday. It costs around the same as one movie ticket for the entire month. This seems similar. I always thought the idea was to fill empty theatres with people over weekdays, and of course make money off of refreshments. I mean, they will only fill up seats that are unsold anyway, but with the pass they will at least have shot at selling food.

mvitorino 9y ago

We have an interesting offer in Portugal. If your cable+internet+phone+mobile company is www.nos.pt you get a card that offers you 2 for 1 tickets at their cinemas. If you go alone, you pay full ticket, but you get a popcorn and drink menu for free. Max 1 per day, 8 per month, 52 per year. Each ticket is around 7USD.

myusernameisok 9y ago

One nice thing about the movie theatre is that you're paying a large amount of money (~$5/hr) to be there, so you're more likely to pay attention. I find with netflix, people take shows less seriously and spend time on their phone whilst not paying attention because "its just netflix." I think if theatres had an "all you can watch" model, people would take it less seriously, and the quality of the experience would degrade.

Powerofmene 9y ago

This is an interesting concept but I have to wonder how this is going to affect movie goers long term who do not have a MoviePass or even those with a MP when it comes to new releases. If MP goers can attend once a day then does it not stand to reason that new releases will be harder to get into as this will increase the number of attendees. I know there are a bunch of teens and college students in our area who go to the movies infrequently because of the price but would gladly buy a MP. Stands to reason that new releases that sell out for days will take infrequent movie attendees even longer to get into or deal with even longer lines (wait times). This could back fire a bit by making infrequent movie attendees even more likely to pass altogether and wait for DVD releases, etc. Just do not see how they can sustain a $10 a month price point long term. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over time.

scaryclam 9y ago
Here in the UK various cinema chains have unlimited subscriptions like that. It's a bit more expensive, but if you watch 3 movies a month you've recouped your costs of membership. I've never noticed a particular problem with number of attendees. I've only ever found 3 people who go to the movies often enough to bother with the subscription.

billsmithaustin 9y ago

> the goal is to amass a large base of customers and collect data on viewing behaviors. That information could then be used to eventually target advertisements or other marketing materials to subscribers. I assume that means more (or "better" ads) before the movie. I prefer to pay extra watch movies somewhere that doesn't show ads, but no doubt there's a cohort who would be happy to watch ads if it means a cheaper ticket price.

ajmurmann 9y ago
With more theaters now having reserved seating in the US one can also just come to the theater slightly late and miss most of the ads.

josiahpeters 9y ago

I would pay $10 a month to watch Game of Thrones, House of Cards, or other high production value TV shows on a big screen with other fans each week. I might even pay $20 or $30 a month for just those few months of new episodes for the latest season. I would even pay $10 a month for a few months to watch an episode of Band of Brothers each week. I really enjoy the movie theater viewing experience. Lately I've only gone to the theatre to see the new Star Wars or Pixar films (only because I am a fan of those two franchises). Nothing else that is being released interests me. I'm aware that some theatres book corporate trainings or private showings. I don't think it would be unreasonable for them to air new episodes of top television shows on the night of. It would be interesting to see what demand for that would look like.

AVTizzle 9y ago
GoT in theatres sounds amazing. Sign me up.
wastedhours 9y ago
That sounds perfect - I had a feeling I read somewhere that they don't do it because TV companies were charging by the showing (and maintaining interest over a run would wane), rather than a split screening/# tickets basis as for films.
Bartweiss 9y ago
I've seen some theaters that show Sherlock and other high-production TV, and they seem to do quite well with it. I haven't heard about GoT, though. As an side - what would the legality be if a group of people "booked" a theater to air a TV show? Would the theater or viewers be liable for holding a commercial screening using a private copy of the thing?
- tomjen3 9y ago
  >We’re not open to the general public. Do we still need a license? >Yes. According to Senate Report No. 94-473, p. 60, “performances in ‘semipublic’ places such as clubs, lodges, factories, summer camps and schools are ‘public performances’ subject to copyright control.” https://www.mplc.org/page/faqs https://www.mplc.org/page/faqs That presumably depends on whether the screening is only for e.g your family. Consult a lawyer.

d--b 9y ago

It's been in France since the early 2000s (for 20 euros). It's not all theaters but in Paris, the UGC MK2 card covers a few massive cinemas plus most small independent theaters. It works well.

mbillie1 9y ago

The people objecting that this is not cost effective are missing the point that most people who use this service will simply subscribe, forget, and go to the movies no more frequently than they do now (after a month or so). It's why places like Planet Fitness are able to offer $10/month unlimited memberships.

tertius 9y ago
> Ah, so a great valuable product!
- mbillie1 9y ago
  If you actually use it, sure. Not unlike a gym membership, you let the aspirational purchasing of some people partially subsidize the cost for the actual user base. I'm not making any ethical stand for or against this practice, but it doesn't seem any different than gym memberships (or frankly an online Netflix membership) to me.
FfejL 9y ago
Except that the incremental cost of someone using a Gym is almost zero. Once you have enough members to cover the rent & employees, it's almost all upside. MoviePass will pay about $12 each and every time someone sees a movie -- more than the monthly fee any one member is paying. So every super movie fan watching 10 movies a month requires more than 11 other members paying the monthly fee and then not using their membership at all. Hard to see that math working out.
- mbillie1 9y ago
  > Except that the incremental cost of someone using a Gym is almost zero. Once you have enough members to cover the rent & employees, it's almost all upside. Huh? What exactly do you think a gym's principal expenses are beyond rent, employee cost and equipment maintenance/replacement? And how long do you think a gym treadmill which is run on for ~6 hours a day will last? I'm not saying MoviePass automatically makes sense, but the idea that gyms are "all upside" after the initial equipment purchase is badly misinformed.

vinceguidry 9y ago

One interesting thing about the cinema industry is that it's not the theatre chains that set ticket prices, it's the movie companies. I have a friend who manages one, and worked into the contracts that the cinema chains have with the studios, is a certain number of passes they get every month to give to family and friends. They're contractually not allowed to give the passes on opening weekend. The cinema companies don't really care about some things, like sneaking between movies, sure if they catch you they'll kick you out but they're not looking real hard for you. Other things, like piracy, they care a lot about, films are individually watermarked so whenever a pirated version comes out, they know exactly which theatre it was screened on. That provides a big incentive to catch them. With a Netflix-type plan for cinema, it's not the cinema companies that Netflix is going to have to negotiate with, it's the studios. Literally all the box office take goes directly to them.

alistproducer2 9y ago

Not to be too snippy but this just seems like a way to light lots of VC money on fire. Maybe they've already got assurances of the value of the data from customers? Sign me up. I'll gladly blow through some of that sweet, sweet VC dough (just like Uber and Lyft).

js2 9y ago

Do I still have to sit through 10 minutes of advertisements and 20 minutes of trailers before the movie starts? Every time they find one way to improve the experience (recliners) they find another way to make it unbearable (the increasing amount of ads and trailers).

thomk 9y ago

Oh yeah that'll be fun, now there is no price barrier to entry so the rude idiots that are in theaters now will simply overrun theaters. Ever go see a $1 movie in a low rate theater? That's where this is headed. Honest to god I would pay $20/ticket to go sit in a quiet theater with respectful people who like to get lost in movies and know how to act. I used to go to the movies about twice a month, now I go once every 6 months and about 50% of the time someone is talking or on their phone and I find myself in a confrontation. Ever try to settle back down and enjoy the rest of the movie after you confront someone? Forget it. Unfortunately I'm sure I'm in the minority and this idea will probably work and I'll have to stick to Art House movie theaters or watch movies at home which is fine I guess. I remember watching Star Wars in the theater in the 70's. Guess what? People were too engrossed to be rude. Part of the fun was getting swept up in the reaction of other moviegoers. I hope this is figured out soon, I miss going to the theater!

ritchiea 9y ago
Where do you live? I almost never experience this going to the theater in NYC.
- bb611 9y ago
  In fairness, aren't movie ticket prices in NYC near $20? I haven't tried to see a movie there in >5 years, but at the time going to see one in midtown was ~$16.
  - ritchiea 9y ago
    Yup, pretty much anywhere in the city will be close to that. But that's regular NYC pricing, everything is more expensive there.
- macNchz 9y ago
  It is very theater-dependent in NYC: I live a few blocks from two different theaters, one is quiet and people are respectful, the other is nearly intolerable for anything other than a nonstop action movie because people are talking and texting the whole time. Interestingly, the quiet theater is a few dollars cheaper per ticket.

kemiller2002 9y ago

This is pretty ingenious. Movie theaters don't make money off of the movie, they make it off of the concessions. This lowers the barrier to entry in getting people in the theater. A number of people I know always get popcorn and a drink when they go. They do it every time no matter what time of day. It's just what they do. By lowering the price of admission, they are going to get people to spend more money on concessions by getting them to go to the theater more.

wahnfrieden 9y ago
You misunderstand this model - MoviePass does not own nor share a revenue stake with the theaters directly. MoviePass pays the theatres the full price of each ticket, and the theatres don’t provide kickbacks. MoviePass wants to make money off the data they collect.
- brewdad 9y ago
  Maybe it's me, but I don't see this data as all that valuable. Say I go to the movies 8-10x a month. Given that my local theater probably gets about 20 new movies per month, does knowing which half of the movies I see really provide analytical value over aggregate box office numbers? I wonder if the app is spying on you in more nefarious ways. I guess I could dedicate a retired phone to be my "movies" phone.
  - wahnfrieden 9y ago
    The missing piece with box office numbers is connecting individual ticket sales with other individual ticket sales, as well as a host of other factors (since they have your personal information, and credit card or whatever on file, they can correlate your activity with all kinds of other things).
- balls187 9y ago
  Another smart HN commenter wrote "If it's free, then you are the product." That seems to be the case with significant discounts.
9y ago

gadders 9y ago

I can't see this working for me now, but if I was retired I'd jump at this.

justadeveloper2 9y ago

When my credit card got stolen last week, Moviepass was one of the items purchased with it.

justadeveloper2 9y ago
I'm not sure why this is being downvoted--I mean, it seems like a relevant comment to me. People who skim credit cards at gas stations obviously try to use them quickly for some easy gain before going out and buying a $5000 tv. Moviepass is clearly popular in certain circles.

unabridged 9y ago

I don't see how it can be sustained with them paying full price to the theaters. $10 a month Mon-Thur only and I think it might work for them. And how are you going to keep people from sharing the pass?

danschumann 9y ago

I like the idea of this model for open-seating theaters. What about the theaters with only a few big loungers and reserved seating? If you allowed people to schedule/reserve seats, they might not show up. Perhaps if you reserved seats and didn't show up, you'd get charged a penalty ( similar to all-you-can-eat sushi murimoto ).

CivilianZero 9y ago

I used MoviePass when it was a little younger and just a warning to any considering it, there are a lot of hidden restrictions. I know some things could have changed since a couple years ago when I was using it but you were unable to see new movies and some movies would be restricted for their entire theater run. They also presented it as a monthly service that you could cancel when you were done, but it was actually an annual service that you paid for on a monthly basis and trying to leave before the year was up would cost you. A lot. There was also some weird business about having to send new cards (they sent you a card you had to use in person at the theater to pay for your ticket) without warning and until you got the new one you were unable to use the service you were paying for. In addition to that, sometimes the cards would just not work. This happened to me on at least 3 occasions. Also take into consideration, there are some movies you'll want to see in 3d (maybe) or IMAX (more likely) and these are completely excluded. And if you're like me and you like to buy tickets ahead of time with fandango so you can skip lines and be sure the movie you're going to see isn't sold out, using this service means giving up that convenience. Granted, this is all a much better deal now that it's $10 instead of $30.

martinald 9y ago
On the relaunched site today it says the restrictions are: You can see one movie every day. You can see each movie one time. You can see only standard 2D screenings. It even points out you can go on opening night and the T+Cs point out there is a month to month plan now, but it's a bit confusing. I do think it's a good offer for $10/month. Cineworld in the UK offers something similar for about £20/month (~$25), but also has an annual commitment and is restricted to one chain of cinemas, none of which are close to me.
- striking 9y ago
  I wonder if they were able to negotiate a better deal on these things because people don't go to the movies as often anymore..?
  - blacksmith_tb 9y ago

peterwwillis 9y ago

“The more we understand our fans, the more we can target them.”

nobrains 9y ago

"MoviePass will pay theaters the full price of each ticket used by subscribers" - then how will they make money?

arcaster 9y ago

I love this concept! However, when it comes to conventional theaters fetching the most revenue possible, it seems like the problem is what to play in a limited number of theaters, not becessarily as many people as possible. I could see people liking this idea, however if there's only a movie or tv show you wanted to see a few times a month would it really be worth it? I could also foresee this system could further ruin the fun of the big screen, an example is Alamo Draft House in ATX offering tickets and seat reservations months in advance. This makes it nearly impossible to just see a movie one day on impulse with friends.

laurieg 9y ago

When I was younger a cinema chain in the UK used to offer an unlimited subscription for 13 pounds (about $17). The only restriction was you could get cinema tickets for two shows whose start and end times overlapped. I spent a wonderful summer cycling into town every other day and watching 2 or 3 movies before cycling home again. If a movie turned out to be terrible you could just walk out and you hadn't lost anything. I love watching movies at the cinema, but a standard ticket where I live now is around $18 US. There are lots of offers but I can't be bothered to time my trips around couples day/ladies day/special movie day. I just wanna watch a film!

ulkesh 9y ago

Simply put: it was not worth it. I tried it when it first came out. I liked the concept, but they do everything to hide every single problem with it. Some of which has already been said in this thread, but the biggest reason I canceled as soon as I could was: I could not share the service with my wife. She had to have her own separate service. Hell, I couldn't use it with myself if I happened to not have the device that was registered with me at the time. I understand the need to try to get more business, but at the same time, if I'm not using the Movie Pass for that day, why can't my wife use it? Movie Pass locks to a single device (unless they finally did away with that). Also, why can't we use it to see the same movie multiple times if we choose to? I mean I'm paying $10 (or $30 back then) a month for seeing a single movie per day. Are there 30 different movies in the theater in a given month? While conceptually cool, this was put together in the most completely horrible way for the modern consumer. They will never win back my business unless they take away these ridiculous restrictions.

donald123 9y ago
Those restrictions are to prevent people sharing it. A single ticket is much more expensive than $10 already, without those restrictions, you bet people will share it with their family and friends, event "rent" it out to strangers. How long do you think that will last before the company goes bankrupt.