MoviePass and Other Cinema Subscription Services

[McCrutchy]

This is from The Verge, which already posted some criticism of MoviePass before, but the author is a MoviePass user, and their article seems well-reasoned. It seems that the Honeymoon may be over:

MoviePass is no longer too good to be true

EDIT: I didn't realize that the one-movie-per-day incentive was scrapped about two weeks ago, as I missed the relevant posts. I guess it was nice while it lasted, but with the summer season coming up and kids being let out of school, I'm guessing that this is the end of MoviePass, now.

[Ribs]

I was not aware that the Red Sparrow block was because they were paid off by Death Wish?? That’s somehow way worse than what I imagined (hoping it’d spur Fox into giving them a %)?

[kcota17]

But those changes are for new customers though right? For people who’ve had it for a while, they’re unaffected right?

[DarkImbecile]

Having to upload photos of purchased ticket stubs has been applied to current users (myself included).

[Kirkinson]

Interesting thing I noticed just now while scrolling through theater view — Game Night, a movie I have not seen, was blocked out with the message "You can only see this movie once" at all theaters playing it except for the nearest Regal. It looks like I can still select any of the screenings if I find them via Movies instead of Theaters, but it's very strange and I wonder if it's a glitch or an intentional attempt to get me to see the movie at a Regal theater specifically...

EDIT: Same deal with A Quiet Place, which I also haven't seen yet. It's blocked out and unselectable at most theaters, though in this case at least one theater where it's not blocked out is an indie and not a Regal. If this is not a glitch and they're going to start trying to tell me I can only see certain movies in certain theaters, that will definitely be a line in the sand for me.

EDIT #2: Wow, the number of movies & screenings being affected by this is multiplying every time I reopen the app. More convinced it has to be a glitch (as MongooseCmr suggested while I was making this edit).

[MongooseCmr]

I think it’s a glitch. From the movies page everything I’ve seen is blocked, from the nearest theater I can check into Black Panther again but not others I’ve seen and a few I haven’t. At a different one all but A Quiet Place are open, and at a third a Quiet Place is available. .

[Kirkinson]

Yeah, lots of people on twitter now having the same problem. Guessing they're having some major technical problems implementing their new rules.

[mfunk9786]

Sort of flabbergasted that they’re implementing the once per film thing for existing users, especially having prepaid for a year. Hoping the backlash from this causes it to blow over...

[Kirkinson]

The fact that they rolled these new rules out on Infinity War weekend certainly isn't going to do them any PR favors. Also seeing a bunch of Android users on Twitter saying the app is requiring them to update even though they already have the most recent version, or being told the most recent version is incompatible with their device, thereby rendering the app unusable. They're having quite the fiasco of a night.

[movielocke]

It’s probably because of infinity war, their infrastructure can’t handle the load of increased demans

[mfunk9786]

Huh? There’s no way it’ll make as much money as Black Panther did and the app did just fine during the duration of that film’s run.

[Ribs]

It’s very unlikely to multiply out as well as Black Panther, but to say there’s no way it gets there seems a little limiting. I don’t really think it will happen, especially if this ends up at sub-$240 for the weekend as it’s apparently performing, but really we don’t know of other complicating factors like if audiences really like this (it got an A cinemascore, which while flawed does mean the movie us more liked by a general audience than I expected) or if Deadpool is actually as terrible as the rumors suggest. Regardless, it’s definitely over the next few days bringing more people to the theater than Black Panther did over the same period, and this has been expected for months (unlike that one, whose BO tracking doubled in the weeks up to release), so it’s not surprising at all MoviePass would introduce this now.

[Luke M]

Not to mention probably a bunch more people have MoviePass now than they did when Black Panther was released.

[McCrutchy]

This little chestnut was in Deadline's box office article yesterday:

Helios and Matheson Analytics CEO Ted Farnsworth told us recently that MoviePass isn’t worried about summer’s onslaught of big pics like Infinity War. “Due to the lack of seats, our subscribers typically don’t go on opening weekend because they can’t get in,” specifically given the last-minute purchase nature of the app, rather “they go second or third or fourth week. With an inventory of different movies, when we push one above the other, it turns out that the big ones aren’t a big threat.”

So, MoviePass users love seeing movies, but not until the "second or third or fourth week", after those films have usually moved off of the bigger screens at the multiplex? Okay, Ted.

[swo17]

Well a) that makes sense and b) he would know, since he's in the business of collecting data on that very behavior.

[Luke M]

I bought my opening night ticket early through fandango. I didn’t want to risk screening selling out before I got to theater.

[domino harvey]

Huh? There’s no way it’ll make as much money as Black Panther did and the app did just fine during the duration of that film’s run.

It's on track to be the second biggest opening weekend of all time behind the Force Awakens, so yeah, the app prob could be overloaded

[mfunk9786]

I stand corrected! Man, there is zero consumer fatigue for these movies

[domino harvey]

Wow, it may actually be even more popular than expected. Variety now sez it may top Force Awakens

[solaris72]

The fact that they rolled these new rules out on Infinity War weekend certainly isn't going to do them any PR favors. Also seeing a bunch of Android users on Twitter saying the app is requiring them to update even though they already have the most recent version, or being told the most recent version is incompatible with their device, thereby rendering the app unusable. They're having quite the fiasco of a night.

Yeah, it is not compatible with my Nexus 6. Guess I'll be cancelling...

[McCrutchy]

MoviePass Parent’s Stock Hammered As Cash Reserves Dwindle To $15.5M

[Ribs]

The pertinent figure there is that their monthly operating cost is $22 million, which suggests this is possibly much less viable even for the short-term than I'd have imagined

[mfunk9786]

They'll just borrow more money like every other tech startup. Uber and Amazon and a great number of other companies don't turn a profit, either.

[Ribs]

But that's their total cash reserves (or, rather, their total is like $40 million)- these numbers are really not good, considering they're continually selling more and more of the company and this is after months and months of infusions. My assumption was they were at least on enough of a nest egg to sustain themselves through the end of the year but I can imagine them just giving up or getting bought by some theater chain before the end of the Summer.

[swo17]

But at least they have goodwill with Ribs, and that's something money can't buy