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MoviePass no longer lets you see the same movie more than once
- 120bits 8y agoOne of my co worker got an email, saying that they're beta testing a feature, where they need to upload the receipts or else their account will be cancelled. This is such a bad business model. Can anyone else confirm this.
- Jtsummers 8y agoYes. They just rolled it out to me as well. And they’ve been doing it to other people for at least 2 months now.
- calbear81 8y agoThis is interesting, I guess they're closing the current loophole where they can't actually determine which movie you're seeing from the debit charge. Currently, if you get blocked from seeing a movie that you've already seen, just pick another one and "check in" and the money gets loaded and just buy the ticket for whatever movie you actually want to see. Adding the receipt verification makes this much harder to pull off.
- gnicholas 8y agoCouldn't someone just buy a ticket for another movie at the same time? It's not like the cineplex is going to suspect you're doing anything wrong if you walk up, get your ticket torn, and then walk into the wrong theater. They got paid either way, and if you leave after just watching the one movie, they're no worse off. Not that I'm suggesting doing this, but it seems like a trivial workaround.
- paxy 8y agoMore and more theaters are doing assigned seating now, so not that easy anymore.
- gnicholas 8y agoI considered that also. But if you’re not going at busy times (which I understand is the case for many movie pass customers, since you can’t reserve in advance conveniently), then seating and capacity wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
- megaremote 8y agoI mean, sure. And you can just sneak in for free. What is your point?
- ethbro 8y agoSneaking in and going to see a different movie than your ticket are two very different things.
- megaremote 8y agoAre they? The film you went to see doesn't make any money in both cases. That is a very similar thing to me.
- nojvek 8y ago
- macandcheese 8y agoI mean the whole thing is such a bad business model.
- baddox 8y agoI think that depends on which specifics of their business model you are considering. I don’t think the broad business model of an unlimited cinema subscription service is inherently a bad business model.
- EpicEng 8y ago>I think that depends on which specifics of their business model you are considering That part of the model which has them bleeding money with no way to turn it around.
- slg 8y agoThis should be make for a good case study for business schools some day. MoviePass was billed as using the gym membership model because it relied on paying customers who don't use the service. However they totally ignored what makes the gym membership model work. It isn't that people are just too lazy to cancel a product they don't use. People feel an obligation to have a gym membership and many of those people don't use it because they simply don't enjoy working out. Canceling a gym membership is admitting failure in achieving a goal to work out. There is therefore a huge emotional investment in maintaining a gym membership. That pressure doesn't exist for MoviePass. Almost no one feels pressure to go to the movies so you don't get people signing up for the service out of obligation. And everyone who signs up enjoys going to the theater at some level so low usage members are hard to come by. Meanwhile the marginal cost of an extra customer in the gym membership model decreases at scale. Adding a single heavy user that works out 10+ hours a week isn't really going to alter a gym's bottom line. This isn't the case for MoviePass. Each ticket costs the company the same amount. If you get one heavy user that buys a ticket everyday, MoviePass might need as many as 25 paying customers who barely use the service. It just doesn't scale.
- panarky 8y ago
- dawnerd 8y agoIve had to do this for about the last month now. Its not really that big of a pain and worth the trade off.
- fanzhang 8y agoWait, making sure they're not getting defrauded is a bad business model?
- Sohcahtoa82 8y agoRequiring customers to go out of their way to ensure they're not abusing their service is terrible customer service and will drive people away. It is absolutely a bad business model.
- tedivm 8y agoCustomers have cell phones, and the receipts are the size of the tickets themselves at most theaters (since they use the same printers). You literally just have to bust your phone out and take a picture.
- fanzhang 8y agoYou see it all the time in the insurance business -- when you make a claim many times insurance companies verify it. Yet insurance is still a good business. Sure, it's a nuisance, but ipso facto a bad business?
- s2g 8y agoI thought they never did?
- mike_n 8y agoalso, you are the product, of course -- https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/05/moviepass-ceo-proudly-says-the-app-tracks-your-location-before-and-after-movies/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/05/moviepass-ceo-proudly-says... kinda crappy business model... but kudos to them for being transparent about it, i guess? also, there really hasn't been more than 1 good new movie per month on average lately. mostly it's just kids movies and superhero stuff. i'd say i'm breaking even on it.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- rhaegar 8y ago"However, it recently began offering a plan that comes with a three-month trial of iHeartRadio premium but limits users to just four movies per month" I think it's still 1-per-day for regular members
- Spivak 8y agoHaha, well you at least have to give them credit for trying. > We hope this will encourage you to see new movies and enjoy something different!
- rhaegar 8y agoJust in time for Avengers... was surely going to see that more than once
- kp1 8y agoNo one is forcing you to use their "services." Stop using their app?
- p49k 8y agoOr cause a ruckus and get them to backtrack? Often the better solution.
- dlhavema 8y agohow often does that actually work?
- quadrangle 8y agoNo one is forcing you to think critically about anything in the world or read critical comments from others. Stop using this website? (You can just copy and paste your comment for every complaint about any business ever other than true monopolies for truly essential things; you'll never have to discuss and consider any concerns ever again.)
- kp1 8y agoWow, who crapped in your Cheerios? With recent shenanigans MoviePass I wonder why people use their app. That's why I made the comment. Why use a service that restricts you? Tracks you (now removed)? Go from unlimited movies, to restrictions? Why use something that you have to pay for and NOT get much value for it? Just go to the movie theater like everyone else?
- grawprog 8y agoNah dude that's not the way of things today. In today's world people make stupid choices, realize they made a stupid choice, blame everybody else, then throw a temper tantrum until somebody makes it better.
- quadrangle 8y agoI hadn't even heard of MoviePass until seeing this posting at HN. I don't watch movies, and MoviePass sounds ridiculous. I was critiquing your comment because it had no substance and seemed anti-intellectual. It actually sounded like what you see people write to defend bull-crap like MoviePass, as in "Don't like Facebook's terrible actions? You don't have to use it…" used as an argument against people complaining (as opposed to an argument that people should leave Facebook because the complaints are legitimate). Maybe it was just a misunderstanding. Seems you didn't do a good job of making your initial point, and I replied to the words I read.
- cwyers 8y agoShockingly, their terrible business model allowed them to grow quickly as long as they could lose prodigious amounts of money. They're facing competition now from the theater chains (Cinemark, who runs my nearest theater, has a discounted movie pass club that's not nearly as good a deal but is actually a viable business) and it looks like they can no longer afford to lose as much money. They're doomed.
- Jtsummers 8y ago> They're doomed. Honestly, this was my assumption when I signed up for the service. People like me will keep them in business longer than they ought to be (because new people signing up delays their financial failure). But I'm almost at break even after just 1.5 months. As long as they last through June, which I expect they will, I'll have saved money on (mostly) movies I'd have gone to see anyways.
- scarface74 8y agoNew people signing up and using their service actually will accelerate their demise. They pay the movie theatres full price.
- adjkant 8y agoThey recently switched their pay model to upfront quarterly, which gives them an influx of cash short term. Not a good sign for long term but it will keep them afloat and allow everyone to burn VC money for a bit longer. In their minds, I'm guessing that as long as they grow exponentially or close to, they will eventually have the leverage over theatres they need to get a cut of concessions.
- crowbahr 8y agoMy wife and I both have accounts. Tickets in Seattle are usually 12-15 each, so if we use it once a month we're breaking even. I'm very disappointed in this decision but I kinda didn't figure they'd last very long if they didn't strong arm the theaters.
- 8y ago
- drewmol 8y agoMakes me wonder if the small subset of people who would regularly watch the same movie multiple times in a theater are: (1) movie buffs, highly likely to see a movie even if it can't be the same, and (2) high concession spenders? If it's not sold out, seems a bit like licensing already built software: (if it's going unused and doesn't cost to on-board new users or otherwise affect higher paying customers, might as well get butts in the seats)
- cwyers 8y agoExcept MoviePass has no discount on purchasing movie tickets -- they pay full price.
- jjeaff 8y agoIs moviepass able to restrict who charges to the card? When I read about how their preloaded charge card system works, it made me wonder if someone with a square reader could just create a business with the word theaters in their name and charge the value of the ticket while in the theater lobby.
- dawnerd 8y agoThats why they're requiring ticket stub photos now. I imagine they also have some auditing tricks to find people using the card at non approved locations based on transaction history.
- panarky 8y agoTo get the funds loaded on the prepaid debit card you must check in to the movie on your phone, with GPS turned on, and within 100 feet of the theater, and purchase the ticket within 30 minutes of check-in. And you're restricted from using one account on multiple phones.
- jrockway 8y agoNothing an emulator on some server can't solve.
- guidedlight 8y agoMoviePass is great for kids... who have a tendency to watch the same movie again and again.
- cyclonetiger 8y agoThis is on top of only allowing new users to watch four movies per month. Cinemark has a 8.99 a month plan where you get one movie credit per month, and they roll over the credit if you don't use it. That's starting to sound like a far better offer.
- RIMR 8y agoThis reminds me a lot of Jukely. Jukely still lets you see a concert every day, but there are so many hidden restrictions now that the service is practically unusable. You can pay by the month, but certain shows force you into a three-month contract. You can pay for a +1, but some shows don't let you claim more than a single ticket (a dealbreaker for me, since I share the service with my wife). And the quality of the shows has gone down the toilet. I was seeing some big names when the service was new, but now I just get crappy artists that can barely fill half a venue. Of course, all of the sought-after artists have the aforementioned restrictions. This kind of subscription service seems always doomed to fail.
- dawnerd 8y agoNever heard of them before. From the looks of it (being as they mention saying you're on a guest list) they're acting like a promoter and using their block of tickets for subscribers. That's an interesting way to go about it (if thats what they're doing).
- circa 8y agoThey did just introduce this feature in like January too. I'm surprised this is what they're revoking. Must be a lot of repeat offenders.
- coenhyde 8y agoWhat they need to do is target parents, then they'll be raking it in. I've had MoviePass for 4 months and haven't had a chance to use it yet.
- ChuckMcM 8y agoThat is sort of hilarious. I still don't understand how you grow a business which currently consists of taking money from venture capitalists and giving it to people so they can go to the movies. The VC's would get more mileage out of it if they just rented a showing of a movie every day and offered it free to whomever wanted to do if they wouldn't mind sitting through a 30 minute pitch that would feature one of their portfolio companies. And they locked the doors so you couldn't skip the pitch. At least that way they could be helping to mitigate the customer acquisition cost of their portfolio companies with no reduction in the efficiency of movie pass (actually better efficiency since they wouldn't have to pay any moviepass employees!)