Yeah, that's true, though as I've mentioned before (I think), I view $6 as a movie price because that's the Tuesday rate at the local Regal. AMC also does $5 Tuesdays for a limited time. So I view $90 as = 15 movies. Obviously Movie Pass opens up other days than Tuesday, though, which is nice. The new rate/yearly billing thing just doesn't give me much hope that they'll be around much longer...
I was happily paying $35 a month not too long ago, so I'll roll the dice on $85 for the year. Of course I now live in a place that has ONE movie theater within a 45 mile radius, so it's not quite the golden ticket it once was (not to mention it hadn't work the last TWO times I went).
No free lunches. Enjoy while it lasts. (Image a service that allowed a lunch a day for $9.95 per month)
I got an email offer where you can buy these as gifts. Tempting, and I love ours, but I'm with those that don't see this being around long. Ten bucks is plenty cheap. Going down further for an annual rate does seem like a desperate cash grab and I'm not comfortable giving these as prepaid gifts. I see them just doing whatever they need to to offset what must be an incredible negative cash flow and then, if nothing materializes as far as a sale goes, or theaters still will not cut them in, they will simply disappear with people's money that paid annually, or for the gift cards. No way I'm doing that. No risk if you just pay the monthly fee.
Given that $44 billion of the gift cards sold have never been redeemed, people who have received gift subscriptions to MoviePass are the least likely to be a loss for the company. Also, the FTC regulates the industry - they cannot simply take the money and run.
I got an email to give MoviePass as a gift, which I was already thinking of doing for someone. They list 3 months for $29.85, 6 months for $59.70 and 12 months for $119.40. So no real incentive to sign up for a package.
Woo! Vickie and I had been buying AMC passes from CostCo at a significant discount, then AMC stopped selling them to CostCo. I had a long talk with a CostCo associate about MoviePass back when MoviePass was $50 a month, and he took notes. I was hoping that they would sell MoviePass memberships. Obviously, MoviePass has been getting plenty of attention on their own, but it's nice to see these two discounters working together.
That's not a realistic analogy. A lunch costs something in raw materials and the time for someone to prepare it. If you are just letting people into a showing that was happening anyway no is no real cost and I would bet the vast majority of every screening isn't sold out completely. Is there even a loss in revenue as people would pay normally? Up for debate but again I suspect people would not go as often if they had to pay each time, and repeat viewings wouldn't be done if you had to pay. Someone may see Star Wars 5 times with a pass but maybe just twice if they had to pay.
Also, theaters unquestionably will make more money from concessions due to the extra traffic. Granted, Movie Pass customers are clearly cheapskates, but they still might buy drink and popcorn sometimes!
That's been our experience - much more likely to buy concessions when the movie is "free" and they have the data to back it up.
Do tickets bought through Movie Pass still earn theater chain loyalty points - ie, AMC Stubs or Regal Crown Club? I assume yes since I think MP works like standard purchases through a debit card...
AMC box office people have been instructed to not credit Stubs points, but it works when buying via the kiosk. That seems amazingly petty. Vickie has been racking up the Stubs points, and she only joined the program when she got MoviePass.
I've been wondering about this too. I haven't gotten any points at the theater I most frequent since joining Movie Pass. But when I ask, they aren't able to say if that is why. Can't complain too much though.
Can someone explain in a step by step approach or tell me if my understanding is correct in how this all works. My assumption is, go to site and register/pay. Then download on to your phone the app. I would assume you are given a code/PW to use. Once within a predetermined distance from theater you open app and download the ticket from the site. I assume being at the theater it will give you a choice of the movies playing and times to select from. Once the chosen movie is downloaded you go in and they scan your phone which you have open and showing the film. Is it that simple or is there more to it?
Up until recently, the box office personnel at the AMC theaters scanned my wife's Stubs code with no complaint. But the last time we were at Chicago's River East 21, we were told they would not do so. Since then she's bought via the kiosk, and entered her code there and the films are showing up on her Stubs account. I suspect she'll do the same thing at Cinemark and Regal if they suffer from the same sort of corporate brain damage seemingly afflicting the AMC management.
When you join, you download the app and wait for a MoviePass branded pre-paid debit card to be delivered via the mail. Once you have it, you go to the theater with your phone. Once there. Open the MoviePass app (with your phone's location turned on) Select the film you want to see, if it is not sold out. MoviePass puts the amount of the ticket on your debit card. Buy the ticket from the box office or on-site kiosk. Photograph the ticket stub with your phone's camera in the app. It sounds more involved than it actually is. Vickie has done this hundreds of times. The last step is to make sure MoviePass doesn't get ripped off by people using their cards on things other than movie tickets. The credit card charge doesn't say what was bought, only that a particular amount was charged by a particular vendor.
I’ve never had to photograph the ticket stub since joining... And yes, I’m racking up regal crown club points, per the question upthread.
I no longer live near a Regal Theater, but it worked great there. I would buy a popcorn on half-price day (Tuesday) and by the next time I went the next popcorn would be free the majority of the time via the "rewards" for the ticket purchases. Talk about best of both worlds.