4 ms·

MoviePass has changed people’s moviegoing habits

41 points by pmcpinto 8y ago

lykr0n 8y ago
It's true. I used to have put movies into 3 categories. 1. I'll see by myself 2. I'll see if someone else wants to. 3. Nope With MoviePass, my friend group and I have been able to to add a 4th option to that list: I'll see it if it looks interesting enough and I have nothing better to do. When I saw the movie Gringo, I got an email from Moviepass asking "Would you have seen this movie without MoviePass?"
- bemurphy 8y ago
  I'm with you on option 4. I used to spot a movie I wanted to see, and then see it. Now I want to see a movie, and then pick the movie to see. I can't think of too many products I've experienced such a behavioral shift from. I'd change the title too and drop "moviegoing habits" to simply "habits". I'm probably out on average 2 nights more a week than I used to be. I'll stop on the way home from standing appointments to grab dinner and a movie, just to wait out traffic. I don't think I'd ever done this before in my life. If I owned a restaurant near a theater, I'd figure out how to be a Moviepass affiliate, in a heartbeat. Assuming they can survive, of course.
  - lykr0n 8y ago
    For me, it's something to do and a excuse to get together for a afternoon. None of us can feel like "shit, what a waste of money" with MoviePass. It's kinda like if a bowling alley offered all you can bowl for $14.99/month. Do we really want to go bowling every week? Not really, but it's an excuse to hang out outside of work/bars.
echelon 8y ago
The theory is that MoviePass can strong arm theater chains once they have a sizable audience, right? I don't see what's stopping another from stepping into the same space. Where's the moat?
- ethbro 8y ago
  The moat is network effects + revenue sharing with theaters. If that happens, how is a second business going to overcome MoviePass (who would then have the additional revenue streams)? If it's a risky play to do first, then it's even riskier to do second.
  - koolba 8y ago
    A theater chain could easily do it. Imagine if they come out with “AMC pass”. They’ve got the network and prime locations. I bet they’re waiting for MoviePass to go belly up first. No point in having to compete with a company that’s literally throwing money at them (paying full price x3-4 per person per month to AMC).
    - organicmultiloc 8y ago
      Every theater chain already has passes, and has for a couple years now. None of them are halfway as good of a deal as moviepass is.
    - gergles 8y ago
      I guess they could, but they don't seem to want to. Cinemark's competitor gives you ONE movie (non-premium, non-3D, etc.) a month for $8.99. Watching the ad for it preroll every time before a movie I've 'paid for' (with MoviePass) coming on has become a running joke between me and my partner that only people who are such luddites that they've never heard of MoviePass would remotely think it was a good deal.
    - atomical 8y ago
      Imagine when most of their revenue comes from MoviePass. They can't flip a switch overnight.
  - TheCoelacanth 8y ago
    That sounds a lot like saying that their moat is that their business model is too stupid for anyone else to try it.
kyledrake 8y ago
I only watch about 1-2 new movies a year at best. Their service charges $10/mo. I'd rather just pay $15 one-time to watch a movie, like when I see it in a theater. It's a good idea, but I think they need to tweak their business model a bit if they want to bring in people like me that don't want to spend hundreds of dollars a year to watch garbage movies full of mutant CG gorillas punching each other.
- geoffpado 8y ago
  Not every business needs to capture 100% of the populace in their target market. I too only see 2 or 3 movies a year (although I basically only watch the mutant-CG-gorilla type), and I don’t have a MoviePass because it’s not worth it to me. But I don’t think MoviePass execs are losing any sleep not capturing the kind of person who just doesn’t want to see movies, in the same way Ford probably doesn’t care much about people who don’t drive.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Just to add some statistics...... https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/media-and-entertainment-39161 https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/media-and-enterta...
teej 8y ago
I’m bullish on HMNY and moviepass. A few things many people overlook, this article included - 1/ MoviePass does not reimburse 100% of the ticket price to all theaters. In at least 1,000 theaters they are getting $3 back or 25% of concessions. This number will continue to increase as moviepass proves they can drive demand. 2/ HMNY literally specializes in packaging and selling data. I think it’s a mistake to treat them as if they don’t know what they’re doing. 3/ There are not a lot of options to deploy performance marketing dollars for movies. Instead, most of the spend goes towards broad-reach, hard to track, media. They can offer studios a way to spend marketing that is not only trackable, but measurably incremental. I cannot overstate how juicy that sounds to a person in charge of spending an $X0,00,000 marketing budget. I feel confident they can get to $5-$10 per subscriber per month in revenue on the backend. If they can hit that, maintain solid churn numbers, and manage fraud, they will have a very healthy subscription business on their hands.
- anilshanbhag 8y ago
  There is close to 0 percentage this company survives. The stock has fallen 40% each day for past few days. AMC head says they don't discount tickets and average moviepass holder watches 3 movies a month paying average $12 per ticket. They burn 21M a month and less than that in the bank. Plus they took money from many consumers for annual passes which will get them sued for fraud.
  - jack9 8y ago
    Now they can't watch more than 4 (select) movies per month and no repeat viewings. Moviepass hasn't changed anything because people generally are being termed out of the original breakneck deals.
    - laken 8y ago
      Moviepass brought back the unlimited plan 2 weeks ago.
    - teej 8y ago
      The one movie a day subscription plan is back as of this month.
lando2319 8y ago
The issue with movie pass is it's too easy to do the math to see if the service is worth it. Something like Netflix or Spotify is harder to fully quantify.
HeavenFox 8y ago
I live in New York, and the other day I was queuing at an AMC when I overheard a young lady talking to her friend in amazement: "Wait, you DON'T have a MoviePass??!!" And indeed it seems that two thirds of the customers in front of me used one to buy their ticket. Granted this is a very skewed sample - the theatre has reserved seating and those paying out of pocket probably bought online in advance. But still, in a market where a matinee ticket costs $15 - $17, if you watch movies it'd be silly NOT to get MoviePass. Surely, MoviePass has transformed how people go to the movies here. I know the company will probably fold sooner or later, but I surely will miss it when it happens, and sincerely hope that the subscription model can live on.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- lykr0n 8y ago
  It will be interesting to see an statics on how much it has changed movie viewership. I'm sure there are a couple of Data Scientists or Business Intelligence people at Regal tracking attendance of Moviepass-ers, and I bet they have a plan to introduce a subscription service the minute Moviepass folds. If I had to bet, MoviePass is the reason my Regal Points expire now.
  - johnpowell 8y ago
    I worked for Regal for three years. Starting as a lowly usher and quickly becoming the projector tech for Oregon and Washington. It is the worst run company I have ever worked for. For example when "Something About Mary" came out we put it in theater 5. 150 seats. It was selling out every show. I was the projectionist at the time and said we should put it in #3 which had 534 seats. The box office was turning away hundreds of people every few hours. I do not care about company profits. But I do care about my friends working concessions and door and usher. If we had the movie in the right theater we could have used more workers. But lazy managers kept the print in #5 for weeks. Since it was a pain to swap prints in the computers. It wasn't.. It took two minutes. That is just one example of many. It got even worse when I had to contact Nashville everyday to get basic supplies. It is never fun explaining why you need a new oscilloscope to a person that doesn't know what one is.
throwaway010718 8y ago
Another potential drawback is that if I were a teenager, I would get MoviePass and just treat the theater as my social club. If a movie was a boring drama that targeted older folks, I'd totally MST3K it with my pals[1]. Granted, I am formerly terrible teenager. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW4lHnLr-bE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW4lHnLr-bE
dboreham 8y ago
Hmm...nope. I still don't set foot in a theater. Unless it's a new Star Wars or Avatar or LOTR, but they've made all those.
atomical 8y ago
It sounds like AMC is afraid of being blackmailed because MoviePass is a victim of its own success. Sometimes capitalism has hilarious results.
latchkey 8y ago
And in other news... https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/09/moviepass-parent-drops-another-46/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/09/moviepass-parent-drops-ano...
fiveFeet 8y ago
Moviepass or not, I would like to see a theater which sells concessions at reasonable prices.

41 points by pmcpinto 8y ago

It's true. I used to have put movies into 3 categories. 1. I'll see by myself 2. I'll see if someone else wants to. 3. Nope With MoviePass, my friend group and I have been able to to add a 4th option to that list: I'll see it if it looks interesting enough and I have nothing better to do. When I saw the movie Gringo, I got an email from Moviepass asking "Would you have seen this movie without MoviePass?"

bemurphy 8y ago
I'm with you on option 4. I used to spot a movie I wanted to see, and then see it. Now I want to see a movie, and then pick the movie to see. I can't think of too many products I've experienced such a behavioral shift from. I'd change the title too and drop "moviegoing habits" to simply "habits". I'm probably out on average 2 nights more a week than I used to be. I'll stop on the way home from standing appointments to grab dinner and a movie, just to wait out traffic. I don't think I'd ever done this before in my life. If I owned a restaurant near a theater, I'd figure out how to be a Moviepass affiliate, in a heartbeat. Assuming they can survive, of course.
- lykr0n 8y ago
  For me, it's something to do and a excuse to get together for a afternoon. None of us can feel like "shit, what a waste of money" with MoviePass. It's kinda like if a bowling alley offered all you can bowl for $14.99/month. Do we really want to go bowling every week? Not really, but it's an excuse to hang out outside of work/bars.

echelon 8y ago

The theory is that MoviePass can strong arm theater chains once they have a sizable audience, right? I don't see what's stopping another from stepping into the same space. Where's the moat?

ethbro 8y ago
The moat is network effects + revenue sharing with theaters. If that happens, how is a second business going to overcome MoviePass (who would then have the additional revenue streams)? If it's a risky play to do first, then it's even riskier to do second.
- koolba 8y ago
  A theater chain could easily do it. Imagine if they come out with “AMC pass”. They’ve got the network and prime locations. I bet they’re waiting for MoviePass to go belly up first. No point in having to compete with a company that’s literally throwing money at them (paying full price x3-4 per person per month to AMC).
  - organicmultiloc 8y ago
    Every theater chain already has passes, and has for a couple years now. None of them are halfway as good of a deal as moviepass is.
  - gergles 8y ago
    I guess they could, but they don't seem to want to. Cinemark's competitor gives you ONE movie (non-premium, non-3D, etc.) a month for $8.99. Watching the ad for it preroll every time before a movie I've 'paid for' (with MoviePass) coming on has become a running joke between me and my partner that only people who are such luddites that they've never heard of MoviePass would remotely think it was a good deal.
  - atomical 8y ago
    Imagine when most of their revenue comes from MoviePass. They can't flip a switch overnight.
- TheCoelacanth 8y ago
  That sounds a lot like saying that their moat is that their business model is too stupid for anyone else to try it.

kyledrake 8y ago

I only watch about 1-2 new movies a year at best. Their service charges $10/mo. I'd rather just pay $15 one-time to watch a movie, like when I see it in a theater. It's a good idea, but I think they need to tweak their business model a bit if they want to bring in people like me that don't want to spend hundreds of dollars a year to watch garbage movies full of mutant CG gorillas punching each other.

geoffpado 8y ago
Not every business needs to capture 100% of the populace in their target market. I too only see 2 or 3 movies a year (although I basically only watch the mutant-CG-gorilla type), and I don’t have a MoviePass because it’s not worth it to me. But I don’t think MoviePass execs are losing any sleep not capturing the kind of person who just doesn’t want to see movies, in the same way Ford probably doesn’t care much about people who don’t drive.
scarface74 8y ago
Just to add some statistics...... https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/media-and-entertainment-39161 https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/media-and-enterta...

teej 8y ago

I’m bullish on HMNY and moviepass. A few things many people overlook, this article included - 1/ MoviePass does not reimburse 100% of the ticket price to all theaters. In at least 1,000 theaters they are getting $3 back or 25% of concessions. This number will continue to increase as moviepass proves they can drive demand. 2/ HMNY literally specializes in packaging and selling data. I think it’s a mistake to treat them as if they don’t know what they’re doing. 3/ There are not a lot of options to deploy performance marketing dollars for movies. Instead, most of the spend goes towards broad-reach, hard to track, media. They can offer studios a way to spend marketing that is not only trackable, but measurably incremental. I cannot overstate how juicy that sounds to a person in charge of spending an $X0,00,000 marketing budget. I feel confident they can get to $5-$10 per subscriber per month in revenue on the backend. If they can hit that, maintain solid churn numbers, and manage fraud, they will have a very healthy subscription business on their hands.

anilshanbhag 8y ago
There is close to 0 percentage this company survives. The stock has fallen 40% each day for past few days. AMC head says they don't discount tickets and average moviepass holder watches 3 movies a month paying average $12 per ticket. They burn 21M a month and less than that in the bank. Plus they took money from many consumers for annual passes which will get them sued for fraud.
- jack9 8y ago
  Now they can't watch more than 4 (select) movies per month and no repeat viewings. Moviepass hasn't changed anything because people generally are being termed out of the original breakneck deals.
  - laken 8y ago
    Moviepass brought back the unlimited plan 2 weeks ago.
  - teej 8y ago
    The one movie a day subscription plan is back as of this month.

lando2319 8y ago

The issue with movie pass is it's too easy to do the math to see if the service is worth it. Something like Netflix or Spotify is harder to fully quantify.

HeavenFox 8y ago

I live in New York, and the other day I was queuing at an AMC when I overheard a young lady talking to her friend in amazement: "Wait, you DON'T have a MoviePass??!!" And indeed it seems that two thirds of the customers in front of me used one to buy their ticket. Granted this is a very skewed sample - the theatre has reserved seating and those paying out of pocket probably bought online in advance. But still, in a market where a matinee ticket costs $15 - $17, if you watch movies it'd be silly NOT to get MoviePass. Surely, MoviePass has transformed how people go to the movies here. I know the company will probably fold sooner or later, but I surely will miss it when it happens, and sincerely hope that the subscription model can live on.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
lykr0n 8y ago
It will be interesting to see an statics on how much it has changed movie viewership. I'm sure there are a couple of Data Scientists or Business Intelligence people at Regal tracking attendance of Moviepass-ers, and I bet they have a plan to introduce a subscription service the minute Moviepass folds. If I had to bet, MoviePass is the reason my Regal Points expire now.
- johnpowell 8y ago
  I worked for Regal for three years. Starting as a lowly usher and quickly becoming the projector tech for Oregon and Washington. It is the worst run company I have ever worked for. For example when "Something About Mary" came out we put it in theater 5. 150 seats. It was selling out every show. I was the projectionist at the time and said we should put it in #3 which had 534 seats. The box office was turning away hundreds of people every few hours. I do not care about company profits. But I do care about my friends working concessions and door and usher. If we had the movie in the right theater we could have used more workers. But lazy managers kept the print in #5 for weeks. Since it was a pain to swap prints in the computers. It wasn't.. It took two minutes. That is just one example of many. It got even worse when I had to contact Nashville everyday to get basic supplies. It is never fun explaining why you need a new oscilloscope to a person that doesn't know what one is.

throwaway010718 8y ago

Another potential drawback is that if I were a teenager, I would get MoviePass and just treat the theater as my social club. If a movie was a boring drama that targeted older folks, I'd totally MST3K it with my pals[1]. Granted, I am formerly terrible teenager. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW4lHnLr-bE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW4lHnLr-bE

dboreham 8y ago

Hmm...nope. I still don't set foot in a theater. Unless it's a new Star Wars or Avatar or LOTR, but they've made all those.

atomical 8y ago

It sounds like AMC is afraid of being blackmailed because MoviePass is a victim of its own success. Sometimes capitalism has hilarious results.

latchkey 8y ago

And in other news... https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/09/moviepass-parent-drops-another-46/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/09/moviepass-parent-drops-ano...

fiveFeet 8y ago

Moviepass or not, I would like to see a theater which sells concessions at reasonable prices.