In February I bought an annual “subscription” to MoviePass for my wife and I.

Sounded like a great deal, pay the low price of $90 (each) through the Costco Special and you could see a movie a day for a year at participating theaters.

Only restrictions were “standard” showings, no 3D or RPX where there is an upcharge.

Evidently they didn’t plan their business out too well and the app has problems, support is lacking, app crashes.

They used to let you see the same movie more than once. Then they started making you take a picture of your ticket stub. Now some movies are blacked out (the more popular ones). If they run out of money for the day, no movies are available.

Now they are talking about up charges for certain movies or movie times based on “demand” and limiting the deal to just 3 movies a month.


While it was an absolute bargain at the start, I can no longer recommend it. It is getting to the point where the hassle isn’t worth it.

Wont be renewing it, will go back to using RedBox and Netflix and save the theater for the blockbusters that interest me or really benefit from the big screen.


Great idea, poor execution dragging it down.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 911Boss,

Am I reading this correctly? They took your money for a specified agreement, and then after they had your money, they decided to deliver less than what you had contracted for?

Pretty much, but I am sure they are protected by all the fine print.

After one of the changes I was offered a pro-rated refund if I didn’t want to agree to the new terms.

Still has been a bargain, we have seen 24 movies, so at this point averaging $3.25 each and I am sure we will see at least 15-20 more before the year is up. I’ll finish the year but some of the changes don’t apply to me (3 movie/mo for instance) until my current period is up.

There has been one time we couldn’t use it because the app was down. I think we had to wait a week beyond when we wanted to see “The Equalizer 2”. Once we ended up buying tickets to see a blacked out movie (latest mission impossible) since we had to pay we saw the 3D version which wouldn’t have been covered anyway. My wife is a fan of the MI movies, I could do without but waiting until it was covered or on dvd was a no go out the gate.

Most recent fail was we wanted to see “The Meg” on Friday, but it was blacked out. I had assumed because it was opening weekend, but looks like it may have been that they ran out of money for the day. We were able to see it on Sunday using MP for a 12 noon showing.


Some additional hassle is only one account per smartphone and you can’t log into your account from multiple devices or they think you are “sharing”. So we each have to have our phones, run the then send ticket pictures. Not a huge deal, but duplicates every step. One of the next “upgrades” will probably require a retina scan along with ticket picture to make sure you didn’t loan your card and phone to someone...



I have half a mind to start using it more to get tickets to movies I don’t even want to see just to cost them money. Get the ticket if I happen to be driving by the theater, upload the picture, drive home...

Sounded too good to be true and they gave some very cheap / monthly rates over the summer.

Basically it was $10/mo to see as many movies as you want.

I’m sure kids on summer break took full use of it - we were about to do it when it started crashing and burning.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Am I reading this correctly? They took your money for a specified agreement, and then after they had your money, they decided to deliver less than what you had contracted for?

*Terms and conditions subject to change.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Am I reading this correctly? They took your money for a specified agreement, and then after they had your money, they decided to deliver less than what you had contracted for?

They are now only talking about making that change on your next renewal I believe. For annuals that is whenever that occurs. For the monthly subscribers that's the next month.

My sister was part of running this in the ground. She stuck it to the man alright, with 75 movies in past 8 months.

^^^^^^ I honestly don't know what product Hollywood has produced recently that could get me to the theatre 75 times in a year, even if it was free. Your sister must love $12 popcorn.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
My sister was part of running this in the ground. She stuck it to the man alright, with 75 movies in past 8 months.

Nah, it was the companies fault - anyone with half a brain knows that there are TONS of people who would go 10+ times a month.

My son's GF worked at the theaters this summer between college semesters and kids would show up and roll through 3-4 movies A DAY using it. No need to jump theaters like back in the day, they were doing it legit using MoviePass.

I was initially intrigued by the concept, but their business model seems way too slapdash to me.

"We're going to charge $50/month for unlimited movies. Hmm, we don't have enough customers. Let's try dropping it to $10/month. Whoops, now we have plenty of customers, but our app can't handle the load, plus now we're hemorrhaging money. Let's drop it to $8/month but limit it to one movie per day. Wait, we're losing $85 million per month? Can you believe that some people are going to a movie every day?! Let's try bumping it up to $15/month. Nope, still crashing and losing money rapidly. How about $10/month but only 3 movies a month? Nope, that's still not working, plus now all our customers are angry, and the movie theater owners are threatening to blacklist us... What should we throw at the wall next to see if it will stick and hope to God it keeps us financially viable?"



They're the literal embodiment of those humorous business plan memes that you see on the Web. Y'know, the ones that look like:

Step 1) Come up with idea.
Step 2) Start business.
Step 3) ????
Step 4) Profit!

Yeah they definitely needed some better financial assessments of their 'business plan' before going live.

It seems to me, in my simplistic uneducated opinion, that this was a model doomed to failure sorta like Obamacare. Even if MP was getting a deep discount vs regular ticket prices, which I doubt they were, almost all customers would be using more resources than they were paying in. So the system was dependent on people signing up and paying but not actually using it in order to offset those who were. Obviously most people were using it, and like the examples above some were REALLY using it. There's just no way they were going to take in enough revenue to cover what was going out the door.

See parent company stock is now under $.05.

Not sure that's the time to get in yet.....

Yeah, I used to recommend it. Not anymore. The company is crashing and burning hard.

They're limiting my area to just 2 available movies at any given theater at a time. Usually a crappy movie (currently, Slender Man) or an OK movie at a weird time (the Meg late at night on a Sunday).

Their current problem is that they've run out of money to pay for tickets. So, they're putting in as many barriers as possible for you to use the service, hoping that the number of tickets being purchased slows down enough so that the subscriber fees rolling in can keep the company from bleeding out completely.

quote:

Originally posted by Puckpilot78:
It seems to me, in my simplistic uneducated opinion, that this was a model doomed to failure sorta like Obamacare. Even if MP was getting a deep discount vs regular ticket prices, which I doubt they were, almost all customers would be using more resources than they were paying in. So the system was dependent on people signing up and paying but not actually using it in order to offset those who were. Obviously most people were using it, and like the examples above some were REALLY using it. There's just no way they were going to take in enough revenue to cover what was going out the door.

Their model wasn't to make money off of people not using the service (like a gym membership). Their model was that once they got to a certain number of subscribers (5 million subscribers), they would control a significant portion of all ticket sales at any given moment. After they got to that point, they could force theaters to give them discounts on tickets or force theaters to share concession sales, or else Movie Pass would push all of their subscribers to competitor theaters. The next stage was then to bully the movie studios into paying for marketing. If a studio wanted a big opening weekend, they would need MoviePass to help send viewers their way. They tested this with the movie Red Sparrow--MoviePass blocked that movie and it had a terrible opening weekend. Without good opening weekend numbers, movies rarely pick up the momentum needed to be really successful.

Lastly, MoviePass collects data about subscriber habits and was going to sell that data.

Their problem was that they didn't hit the number of subscribers they needed to really control the market before they ran out of money and started to modify the way the subscription works. When they started to modify the subscription, everyone's fears of "too good to be true" came true, and people stop subscribing. At the same time, movie theater chains straight up didn't give into paying the mafia style protection money racket that Movie Pass was selling. MoviePass blocked AMC Theater's busiest locations from the service (LA, NYC), and AMC didn't even bat an eye. In response AMC launched their own subscription service.

They are hemorrhaging money, looking for loans and upside down. Heading to the tank. Hollywood no like.

In the end, they had a plan, made a play for it, and came up very short.

Admirable attempt, but I think their opportunity window has passed.

This video explains what MoviePass was hoping to do.


https://youtu.be/w876zZZIb10

quote:

Originally posted by Skull Leader:
This video explains what MoviePass was hoping to do.


https://youtu.be/w876zZZIb10

The part where the narrator mentions 51% of the people see three movies a year - this is their flaw.

True, at $20 a pop, I MIGHT see as many as three per year however, lower that cost to $10 per month and I will see one movie per month (if not more). They (Movie Pass) have failed to comprehend that people will increase how many movies they are watching.

They should, IMHO, consider subscriptions (three years for $395) AND make deals with Regal and other chains with the limitations on viewing days/times (example: 3 movies per year during premium/peak day/time periods and the remainder during matinees and off-peak periods).


This will give them an influx of cash, raise the value of the stock, create partnerships with theater chains (and locally owned) by filling seats in off-peak times, and put them in a good position for cutting deals with movie producers/distributes.

quote:

Originally posted by Puckpilot78:
It seems to me, in my simplistic uneducated opinion, that this was a model doomed to failure sorta like Obamacare. Even if MP was getting a deep discount vs regular ticket prices, which I doubt they were, almost all customers would be using more resources than they were paying in. So the system was dependent on people signing up and paying but not actually using it in order to offset those who were. Obviously most people were using it, and like the examples above some were REALLY using it. There's just no way they were going to take in enough revenue to cover what was going out the door.

Ponzi ring a bell?

My assumption was they had a deal with participating theaters for discounted admission based on increased ticket sales and concessions.

Whether there are 15 people or 150, they are playing the movie. Get more bodies you sell more $7 popcorn and $6 sodas.

If they weren’t getting a discounted rate, I can see why it was doomed to fail.

Heck, in my area matinee is north of $10 and regular price is over $13. Add 3D or RPX upcharges and it goes even higher.