MoviePass and Other Cinema Subscription Services

[mfunk9786]

I do look forward to what I hope is the inevitable addition of advance ticketing support within the MoviePass app. We only have one theater nearby that supports it, a Studio Movie Grill, and LQ in particular detests seeing films with the lingering smell of ketchup in the air.

Hear hear. Surprisingly few people are bothered by the smell of ketchup but I've always thought it was unpleasant. That bulk ketchup at the theater is the worst.

The ideal "dine-in" theater would let you get food and beverages (alcoholic and non) before you enter the theater, but would be conscious about not offering super odorous or loud foods. But I guess I'm essentially talking about, you know, a regular movie theater. Still like the addition of beer at the dine-ins though.

[Luke M]

I never would’ve saw Tomb Raider, Pacific Rim Uprising, nor Ready Player One without MoviePass. All those movies I used to be on the fence about seeing now it’s just an issue of finding the time.

[mfunk9786]

On the other side of the same coin, I would have paid actual cash money to see something like A Quiet Place and then been cursing myself as I walked out of the theater for the misfire. So MoviePass has been a huge boon for guilt-free movie attendance.

[swo17]

You still helped John Krasinski make money though

[mfunk9786]

[mfunk9786]

My local Landmark theaters now appear to offer e-ticketing within the MoviePass app, allowing you to reserve tickets earlier in the day from wherever you're at, then present a confirmation code when you arrive.

[DarkImbecile]

I can see why theaters would be reluctant to do e-ticketing since it would seem to make it more likely that someone would reserve a seat and never claim it, costing either the theater or MoviePass money; that said, I assume MoviePass could just cut someone off for doing that as they have for people who buy tickets at a theater and then leave, or buy food with the card.

[Oedipax]

My local Landmark theaters now appear to offer e-ticketing within the MoviePass app, allowing you to reserve tickets earlier in the day from wherever you're at, then present a confirmation code when you arrive.

Just got the same email for the Landmark in Atlanta (on the same day my physical card arrived!)

[Brian C]

The Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago is no longer available. A real shame, I go there pretty frequently. They're a non-profit, though, connected to the School at the Art Institute of Chicago, so I wonder if that has anything to do with the reason why.

[DarkImbecile]

The Great Disruptor

[Lars Von Truffaut]

The Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago is no longer available. A real shame, I go there pretty frequently. They're a non-profit, though, connected to the School at the Art Institute of Chicago, so I wonder if that has anything to do with the reason why.

Yeah, this bites. I had put off seeing Faces Places and was pumped to catch up with that and watch Lucrecia Martel's Zama... I also think they are the ones hosting the Bergman Retrospective when it hits Chicago this summer. Brian, it may be time for us to discuss splitting the cost of a dual-membership...

Am I crazy, or was ArcLight also available at one point, but now not listed as one of the theaters? I wonder what the frequency is of dropouts and how may have come back to the fold. (Isn't this essentially what happened with AMC River East?)

[Brian C]

ArcLight was never listed as far as I know. Certainly not since I signed up in November. I’d hardly go anywhere else if it was on MoviePass.

I actually tried to go see Zama the other day but couldn’t check in, and couldn’t get a response from the help chat. It’s apparent now why that was the case.

[Lars Von Truffaut]

Also, Doc Films is off the grid. Perhaps also for the reasons mentioned of GFSC, as Doc is affiliated with U of C.

[goblinfootballs]

The Great Disruptor

With memberships to two local non-profit theatres, a limited attendance at chain theatres, and an antipathy towards disruptive business models, I've never considered joining MoviePass. This quote from the Variety article makes me think I made the right choice:

but MoviePass believes the data it collects on consumers can help it turn a profit

[Ribs]

This passage is... facinating, though:

Lowe is the Forrest Gump of media disruption, popping up as businesses are being upturned. A high school dropout, he got his start selling black-light posters in Europe. That business died after Disney, upset at seeing cartoon depictions such as Snow White being lewdly serviced by all seven dwarves, sued and the company went bankrupt. From there, he did a stint in finance, bought some video stores in the 1980s, became a co-founding executive of Netflix and headed up Redbox when the kiosk giant was feuding with studios for access to their films.

I also think that, though they clearly have gigantic capital infusions, they're generally being a little vague when talking about the long-term health of the company assuming theaters don't come to the table in a way that makes me think they're well aware their model isn't really accounting for that possibility.

I really don't mind the data thing, either, but I *really* do not believe that customer's data is worth enough to sell to make up the gigantic deficit the rest of the business has to run on.

[DarkImbecile]

I thought this was an interesting section:

MoviePass acknowledges that for its business model to work, it needs to attract customers in Midwestern and Southern states where ticket prices are cheaper. The bulk of its users are in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles where the cost of a single movie is greater than a monthly membership. At the same time, the company wants to drive down usage. To be profitable, it wants the bulk of its subscribers to see an average of just over a movie a month. Lowe estimates that the company can produce $6 of additional monthly revenue per customer on top of the subscription fee by selling ads and getting a cut of ticket sales and concessions from partners.

I would assume that the phrasing "drive down usage" is a slight misrepresentation of the goal of driving down average usage by building a costumer base beyond those using the service 3-5 times a week (like many of the people on this forum), but I do wonder if they'd eventually do something like cap the number of uses at a given theater per month/week in order to keep the heaviest users from unbalancing the user pool too severely. If they were able to get a more even distribution of subscribers across the country and outside of the 50 biggest urban area, that'd be probably the biggest single step toward long-term sustainability without substantial reduction in usability; still, I'm saving $100+ a month on this service, so any steps they take to reduce usage are going to have to get pretty draconian before it stops being worth it.

[DarkImbecile]

Here's one for you, Ribs

[jindianajonz]

MoviePass acknowledges that for its business model to work, it needs to attract customers in Midwestern and Southern states where ticket prices are cheaper. The bulk of its users are in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles where the cost of a single movie is greater than a monthly membership.

That's going to be a big problem, since the math just doesn't work out. Not only are small town film goers disincentivized by the fact that cheaper prices compared to the monthly cost means they have less to save by going with MoviePass, but the number of films that screen in small towns is limited, meaning there are less opportunities to see films to make the service worthwhile. I recently moved from a town of about 30,000 with a 10 screen theater which mostly gets blockbusters and evangelical films, and most people I talk to about MoviePass say it would be great if they lived in a bigger city, but it just doesn't make sense there since there's rarely more than a single movie a month that they are interested in seeing.

[Brian C]

My parents jumped on it, under the logic of “we’d go a lot more if we didn’t have to pay for it.” They live in suburban Florida where the film selection is ... well, hit-and-miss, not quite blockbusters-only, but a movie has to mount some semblance of a wide release to play there.

[Lars Von Truffaut]

Yesterday I went to see You Were Never Really Here with a friend who also has MoviePass. As we sat down to discuss the film afterwards, I also brought up that Siskel Center was no longer listed. He was stunned and kind of sad — he was the one who finally convinced me to give it a go because he knew how often I frequented that particular theater. He pulled out his phone. We compared maps. Lo & behold, GSFC was listed as one of his available theaters!

He has only seen 4 films since he got MoviePass 3 months ago. I have seen 18 in 6 or 7 weeks. Has that got something to do with it? And then this morning I am looking to see what film to watch later this afternoon and I see the Gene Siskel Film Center listed once again. So bizarre...

[Luke M]

Reminded me of a minor annoyance, I really dislike how the theater selection defaults to map view instead of list view.

[Brian C]

Yeah I noticed the Siskel was back yesterday too, but forgot to mention it here. Doc also.

But now they’re both gone again this morning!!

Just kidding, they’re still there. And now ArcLight is too!!

Just kidding, ArcLight isn’t really there.

[jwd5275]

Looks like the new MoviePass promotion limits a person to 4 movies per month.

[domino harvey]

RIP MoviePass

[DarkImbecile]

Only for new customers, though... looks like everyone else is grandfathered into the one-per-day limit. Not sure if that'll be true upon renewal, but for now if they can make it seven more months I'll be happy.