MoviePass Drops to $9.95 a Month For a Movie a Day

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by RayS, Aug 15, 2017.

  1. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I saw "Logan Lucky" last night at a local, unaffiliated movie theater. The app seems to be back to normal after the crazy rush - I had not problems.

    If you are standing in front of the theater and it doesn't show up on the app, use the chat feature and they will generally set you up manually within a few minutes. Worst case scenario I had was the whole system was down, so I paid for the ticket out of pocket, sent them a picture of the stub via the app, and they credited me the price the next day.
     
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  2. bamaaudio

    bamaaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Wow, that's a great deal. I've slowed down this year, but the previous two years there were times where I'd go to the dollar theater 3-5x a week. Don't go to the 'regular' cinema as much but would certainly consider with one of these passes.
     
  3. That is what MoviePass is counting on once this initial rush of new subscribers is over. For their business model to work, they need casual moviegoers to buy the service that only attend a couple of movies per month. Right now they mostly get hardcore moviewatchers looking to save a few bucks. That is why they likely dropped the price so low so quickly.
     
    Shawn likes this.
  4. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    That makes a lot of sense. If you feel like you paid almost nothing to get in, you will probably feel fine about spending $11 for a drink and popcorn. I really think that if they literally sell millions of these, the theaters would see a noticeable increase in concession sales. But sharing that with Movie Pass seems elusive for now. I would love to be completely wrong. Time will tell.
     
  5. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    Same here...150" with a beautiful picture. Isn't hard to achieve these days, at affordable prices. Add in a great sound system and there is no reason for us to go to the theater. Except on the rare exception, like a tent pole film like Star Wars, I'm again reminded that you are correct. You are never going to up your game to that experience, even with some of the gripes (for me, I can't tell you how much I disdain previews that seem to be made for idiots incapable of anything intelligent), commercials, etc. but if it's a great film, all is quickly forgotten except what a great viewing experience it is. And my local has those lovely new recliner seats. Which is the main reason I got a Movie Pass. At least the theaters are really trying to up their game.
     
  6. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    And that will likely be us, as I'm just not interested in that many films and don't have the time. But I do think it will compel us to take a chance on more casual films, and to at least save a little each year.
     
  7. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Investors don't seem to have a problem with wasting a lot of money to start with. Look at Uber. It's literally losing money on every single ride they provide. They are burning through BILLIONS of dollars every year, and investors are willing to continue shoveling money into the furnace. My wife's 300+ films this year isn't even worth considering in that context.

    And yeah, every time we talk about seeing movies in the theater, I mean every single time, someone always has to come in and proudly claim that they never go to the movies, and how the last time they did, they were forced into the worst seat, that every person around them was texting, that children were screaming in their ears and that some snot-nosed punk was doing skateboard tricks on the back of their chair.

    So please, this thread is for those of us who enjoy seeing a film in the theater. Can we please have this one for ourselves? Please?
     
    jriems likes this.
  8. ElevatorSkyMovie

    ElevatorSkyMovie Senior Member

    Location:
    Oklahoma
    I can't imagine going to the movie *every* night. I can't imagine I could go 7 nights straight without running out of films I'd be even mildly interested in checking out.

    But, I don't live in a big city. We have 6 screen (formerly Carmike) AMC, and a 2 screen main street theater. Nearest large town has about 25 screens across 3 different theaters (including an IMAX).
     
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  9. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Vickie and I are able to because we're in Chicago, and we have a huge number of theaters to choose from. And as Chicago is so amazingly ethnically diverse, there are theaters specializing in serving those communities - like the Indian/Pakistani community with Bollywood films, Chinese films, Spanish language ones, and each community has their own film festivals. And even then, there are films that never seem to open in Chicago! There are two "art house" chains that have exclusives that she winds up missing as they don't take MoviePass or she'll intend to see one and will be seeing other films that week, and Friday rolls around and it's closed.
     
  10. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    Oh...now that I get! I think the theaters have done a remarkable job producing preshow videos strongly urging folks to put their phones away. Truthfully, I think that issue has improved immensely. There is still that one idiot here and there that feels the rules don't apply to him, but that's kinda hard to avoid anywhere. I think theaters were on their way to closing down had they not clamped down. People by and large talk during the previews, but during the main movie I haven't had an issue with it personally.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2017
  11. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Seeing more than a hundred films a year, over the past ten years I've had two incidents.

    Once, was out in the deep suburbs, I was in the front row and the sixteen year old girl next to me thought she would be texting her friends throughout the movie. I'm a big, hairy, 56 year old man whose wife (who loves me, mind you) frequently describes to strangers as "scary looking", and I disabused this little twit of that notion right away. I said "Put that phone away. Now!" in a way that I'm fairly sure her mommy and daddy never had.

    The other was in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, and a pair of adult women thought that a movie theater was the perfect place to catch up on their vapid, useless lives. I waited for a quiet part of the movie a minute or so later, I stood up and said in a very loud voice "The Starbucks is downstairs! If you want to talk, that is where you should go! We're here to watch a movie!" They got all huffy and left, and I got a round of applause as they did so.

    Again, that's two out of a thousand.
     
  12. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Anyway, getting back to the topic of this thread, Wired had an article about MoviePass and they interviewed it's CEO:

    MoviePass Wants to Let You See Movies For Next to Nothing—If Theaters Will Let It

    “What we’re trying to do is remove as much friction as possible from going to the movies,” says Mitch Lowe, MoviePass CEO. “We’re trying to do the same thing Netflix did for DVD rental and home rental, which is remove the barriers to experiment and try smaller films.”From anyone else, that might sound like bluster. But Lowe, who joined MoviePass in 2016, comes by it honestly. He was on the founding team at Netflix, and he more recently led Redbox through the explosive period of growth that planted DVD-spitting kiosks in most US grocery stores. Now he believes that the box office—crawling to finish off a historically down summer—faces the same maladies that the DVD industry once did. And that he can apply the same cure.

    ...and:

    MoviePass sees a path not just to sustainability, but to total ownership of a night on the town, in same the way that Netflix owns a weekend on the couch. It’s going to do that with your data.

    Specifically, it sold a majority stake of itself this week to Helios and Matheson Analytics, a big data company that sees big potential in the type of information it can glean from MoviePass members.

    “If you get a trailer right now for Spiderman on Facebook, Facebook can’t tell if you ever actually go to the movie. We can,” says Ted Farnsworth, Helios and Matheson CEO. “We can tell if you look at Spiderman and look at Wonder Woman and Mission: Impossible, we can tell you exactly what movie you went to out of all three trailers.”

    Both Lowe and Farnsworth say that they have no plans to sell user data to outside parties. They do, though, see enormous potential in their ability to target movie promotion to their users that provides a tangible lift at the box office. With 20,000 members that may not amount to much, but with a few million the value proposition makes much more sense.
     
  13. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    Going off topic again for one minute, Chris's second incident above reminded me of:

     
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  14. brownie61

    brownie61 Forum Resident

    I was just about to sign up for Moviepass when I saw this article saying AMC is banning Master Card in Denver and Boston in order to stop patrons from using Moviepass

    MoviePass Customers Banned by AMC

    I see 4-5 movies a month, virtually all at AMC theaters and all at before noon matinees to save money. I figured if I signed up for this new Moviepass deal, maybe I could start seeing movies with friends - it's hard to find someone willing to go with me to a 10:30 am showing on a weekend morning, although I am awake at the crack of dawn regardless so it's no hardship on me.

    I'm not in Denver nor Boston, but Master Card is my only credit card, so don't know if it's worth signing up for something that might be taken away very soon.
     
  15. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    I just read the article, and it only applies to tickets purchased online - which doesn't apply to MoviePass which always has to be purchased at the theater anyway. What this misleading article says, in short, is that AMC banned something that never happened in the first place.

    You have to get the dedicated MoviePass debit MasterCard anyway. Worst case? You get it, use it twice, they go out of business, you saved money and have to cut up a useless debit card. But given that they've survived six years already, rumors of their death may be premature.
     
    RayS likes this.
  16. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Agreed. Either the information in this article is simply wrong, or AMC has launched a pointless strategy - "blocking" purchases that MoviePass didn't allow for in the first place.
     
    Chris DeVoe likes this.
  17. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    By the way, if you use MoviePass or not, shop around. In Chicago, AMC tickets vary greatly depending on location of the theater. For instance, the 9:40 Logan Lucky at AMC River East 21 is $13.65, while the same film at the same time at the Galewood 14 is $7.27. Same quality of theater, 4K Sony digital projection, half the cost.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2017
    benjaminhuf, Shawn and trumpet sounds like this.
  18. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident

    I've been using MoviePass for the last week. Just to say the obvious, but: it works!
     
    Chris DeVoe likes this.
  19. jjh1959

    jjh1959 Senior Member

    Location:
    St. Charles, MO
    My last week of Moviepass hasn't been encouraging. Last Sunday the movie I wanted to see wasn't listed in my theater's choices on the app. I messaged them about it hoping it would be added so I could buy the ticket. Immediately got the message thanking me for contacting them and I'd hear from them in a few moments. Nothing. Tried the same movie again on Wednesday. Another non-response. Emailed them Thursday about it and received no answer.
     
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  20. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    My wife has had the same problem. Generally, the problem films are non-English-language films or tiny indie films. Last night we saw a Hindi language film, and none of the different film sites could even agree on how long the movie was. IMDb claimed it was 3 hours and 58 minutes, while AMC thought it was closer to two. So in some cases, they just didn't have the data to enter.

    When it was $50 a month, they responded immediately via the app, but apparently they haven't been able to hire quickly enough to handle the huge influx of new customers. Next time, she'll try Direct Message on Twitter - the person who handles that seems to respond immediately.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2017
    benjaminhuf likes this.
  21. Mirrorblade.1

    Mirrorblade.1 Forum Resident

    Sadly there are no movies worth sitting through at theater for me..
    Kicking screaming, yelling, fighting, belching hearing people eat.. etc.
    I wait for it on dvd.. there is no magic at movie house anymore.
     
  22. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I went to see a Hindi film last week, and to my surprise the app had it listed. However, the film deviated from the theater's standard pricing structure, and somehow in the confusion MoviePass put $4.50 on my card when the ticket was $5.00. The counter attendant was embarrassed to tell me I didn't have enough money on my card. :) I paid the extra 50 cents when I got my popcorn, and all was well.
     
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  23. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Can you take this discussion to another thread for people who don't like going to the movies? This one is for those of us who love going to the movies. My wife and I saw three films this weekend and none of the stuff you complain about happened to us. Everyone was quiet and polite.
     
    jjh1959 likes this.
  24. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    We ate moving to a subscription based world or enertainment. Music, movies, tv shows, etc. Dining will be next. So much a month and eat at these restaurants as many times up to once a day. Food only, no alcohalic beverages, appetizers or desserts. Its coming
     
  25. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    I signed up for a card a month ago (8/17) and still haven't received it yet. I have received a couple of emails about how overwhelmed they are and how they are staffing up to process cards faster.
     

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