# Looking for opinions and information on Movie Pass **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886 "2017-08-17T18:24:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/41 "2017-08-20T02:18:58Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > You want they should come to your home, pick you up in a limo, carry you in a throne from the car to the theater, then hand-feed you grapes and popcorn, hold your cup and straw while you take a sip during the movie? What else can they do to make your life easier? Wow…that’s a bit snarky. What could they do to actually attract me? - Let me buy more than one ticket for a show with one use of the app. - Make it one-touch purchasing, so I didn’t need to use a special debit card to redeem the ticket. - Make it possible to reserve our seats (at theaters that do advance reservations). Right now, they’re offering me a way to save money on movie tickets, but they make the process substantially more cumbersome than just buying a ticket via my theater’s web site. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/42 "2017-08-20T02:24:07Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > 1. It seems from looking into it that you can only see each movie title once. So if that’s true (its been hard to confirm or deny) then if you really like Spiderman Homecoming, you’re shit out of luck and have to pay the theatre full-price directly to see it again - you only can get it the once from MoviePass. You can actually select any movie you want. MoviePass has no way of knowing which ticket you actually buy. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/43 "2017-08-20T02:25:08Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Having to submit a photo of every ticket stub now is a bit of an annoyance. :eek: Is that new? I’ve never had to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/44 "2017-08-20T02:36:20Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > You want they should come to your home, pick you up in a limo, carry you in a throne from the car to the theater, then hand-feed you grapes and popcorn, hold your cup and straw while you take a sip during the movie? What else can they do to make your life easier? Well for me I’m not happy about the data-mining, but for actual suggestions: 1. ability to buy tix for a group or a family, or even just a freaking couple so you could use it for a date night or any sort of actual social occasion like movies usually are. 2. ability to use the app to purchase tix while off-site from the movie theatre location 3. ability to use the app to purchase tix days (or even hours is better than what they’ve got) ahead of time for new releases or theatres with heavy use/crowded show times 4. ability to have multiple accounts per phone app (like Netflix) and/or some sort of ‘offline’ version for people to use from a home computer (like fandango). 5. any sort of more user-friendly alternative to the “physically go to the theatre, load the app, ‘buy’ the tix, wait til they wire the money to the specific single-use-for-MoviePass-card, then go to the ticket counter and buy the tickets AGAIN with that specific card” process because that’s stressing me out just writing it out. 6. seriously tho ditch the single use credit card thing altogether that’s a pain to keep track of. 7. (unclear if this is still limited but I think it is) ability to use their service to watch the same movie more than once if I want to. I often end up watching movies more than once simply because not everyone in my social group can make the same showings due to family/kids/location issues, and I don’t think that’s hugely uncommon. If they fix all that, I might be more inclined to get over the data-mining, but right now it’s a service that doesn’t actually provide any actual useful service for my lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/45 "2017-08-20T02:48:11Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > You can actually select any movie you want. MoviePass has no way of knowing which ticket you actually buy. I had thought about that, but a few thoughts; First since it’s their card I bet they absolutely CAN see what showtime and movie you’ve actually purchased, and Second, the website says there is a 90 minute period while the ‘balance’ stays on the card, so unless you’ve got a huge multiplex in the height of the evening, the balance would time out if you choose one movie showing from the app and then tried to actually purchase a different one sometime later and Thirdly and finally, if you just bought tix during the right time but for a different / later movie time and showing, I bet that it’s against their terms of service to let you repeatedly pick a specific movie and time from their listings and then just purchase whatever the crap you want from the theatre, and I’d be the one to get caught and have my account banned for it because I’m lucky that way. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/46 "2017-08-20T03:03:09Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > You want they should come to your home, pick you up in a limo, carry you in a throne from the car to the theater, then hand-feed you grapes and popcorn, hold your cup and straw while you take a sip during the movie? What else can they do to make your life easier? I want them to have a version that doesn’t require me to own a smart phone. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/47 "2017-08-20T03:59:12Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > I had thought about that, but a few thoughts; > First since it’s their card I bet they absolutely CAN see what showtime and movie you’ve actually purchased They can’t. That’s just not how credit or debit cards work. All they can see is that a transaction went through for a certain amount of money to a particular merchant. > [@](#): > > Second, the website says there is a 90 minute period while the ‘balance’ stays on the card, so unless you’ve got a huge multiplex in the height of the evening, the balance would time out if you choose one movie showing from the app and then tried to actually purchase a different one sometime later That’s not how the service works. You check in to the theater on your phone when you are ready to buy a ticket and are near the theater. The app then loads money onto the card, which you use to buy your ticket (within 90 minutes.) You can buy your ticket at any time. It doesn’t matter when the movie’s showtime is. > [@](#): > > Thirdly and finally, if you just bought tix during the right time but for a different / later movie time and showing, I bet that it’s against their terms of service to let you repeatedly pick a specific movie and time from their listings and then just purchase whatever the crap you want from the theatre, and I’d be the one to get caught and have my account banned for it because I’m lucky that way. 😃 It probably is against their terms and I’m sure they are mining the data for potential abusers. But nobody’s going to stop you from seeing the same movie twice if you want to do that occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/48 "2017-08-20T14:41:21Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > I had thought about that, but a few thoughts; > First since it’s their card I bet they absolutely CAN see what showtime and movie you’ve actually purchased Probably not. It’s just a debit card. The theater asks the bank for $9.50 for a ticket and the bank gives them the $9.50 – there’s no reason for the bank to ask for or want a record of what movie you saw, whether you ordered the appetizers at a restaurant or what color t-shirt you bought. They would know the time you bought the ticket and which theater you bought it at but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/49 "2017-08-20T15:10:35Z")
Huh. So I was looking at people saying they couldn’t use the card to buy concessions - so how do they know that then? The price? Or just the theatre employee knows it’s not for that and has to keep track? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/50 "2017-08-20T17:23:20Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Probably not. It’s just a debit card. The theater asks the bank for $9.50 for a ticket and the bank gives them the $9.50 – there’s no reason for the bank to ask for or want a record of what movie you saw, whether you ordered the appetizers at a restaurant or what color t-shirt you bought. They would know the time you bought the ticket and which theater you bought it at but that’s about it. My understanding is that the debit card is activated through the app. And the app requires you to enter which movie and showtime you’re buying a ticket for. The app then transfers money to the debit card so you can buy the ticket. Now it’s not necessary for the app to record anything other than the amount of money being used and who it was transferred to. But the fact that it requires people to enter the movie and showtime make it very likely that this information is being recorded as well. There’s no reason why the app would collect that information if it was just discarding it. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/51 "2017-08-20T19:09:09Z")
Yes, it collects all the information about what movies you see and where you see them. That’s the entire point. And, unlike virtually every other entity on the Internet that is also collecting information about you, MoviePass is giving you a WHOLE LOT OF VALUE IN EXCHANGE FOR THAT! For a person who sees a different movie every single night, that value is from $7 to $18 a day! Seriously, this is like spitting in the caviar they just served you because it didn’t come with a golden spoon! ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/52 "2017-08-20T19:23:43Z")
Well, it’s more like turning down an All-You-Can-Eat Caviar buffet because you don’t actually like caviar. If you watch lots of movies regularly as a single person and have a normal tolerance for transactional interactions with systems and people, then it sounds great. As it’s designed right now, it’s just not appetizing: doesn’t matter how cheap the caviar is. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/53 "2017-08-20T19:40:48Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Huh. So I was looking at people saying they couldn’t use the card to buy concessions - so how do they know that then? The price? Or just the theatre employee knows it’s not for that and has to keep track? Yeah, it’s going to reject anything that does not exactly match the price of a ticket at that theater. Or at least if you do that frequently, they’ll cancel your account. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/54 "2017-08-20T20:01:23Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Well, it’s more like turning down an All-You-Can-Eat Caviar buffet because you don’t actually like caviar. > > If you watch lots of movies regularly as a single person and have a normal tolerance for transactional interactions with systems and people, then it sounds great. > > As it’s designed right now, it’s just not appetizing: doesn’t matter how cheap the caviar is. OK, so you don’t like seeing a lot of movies in the theater by yourself. For me and my wife, we each have a cell phone like the vast majority of people in the US and we each see more than one film in the theater a month, it’s an amazing deal. I’m not into amusement parks. I haven’t been to one in a decade or two. If someone offered a similar discount to get me into every amusement park in the US every day for less than the cost of a single day’s admission, it wouldn’t appeal to me. And, more importantly, I don’t think I’d bother to go onto a thread about this theoretical ParkPass and both to say so. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/55 "2017-08-20T20:38:36Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Yeah, it’s going to reject anything that does not exactly match the price of a ticket at that theater. Or at least if you do that frequently, they’ll cancel your account. That makes sense, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/56 "2017-08-20T21:45:00Z")
You know, what the fuck ever. Whether you don’t want to join the 21st Century and get a smartphone to able to use an app, or they’re not offering a golden spoon with their caviar, forget about MoviePass. For people who DO have a smartphone, and who DO love movies, and who DO have a fairly decent choice of theaters to go to, it’s an incredible deal. As I mentioned, I was paying $50 a month and thought it was an amazing deal, for ME. Now it’s even more insanely incredible. Y’all go keep on paying full price, and I’ll keep using MoviePass and enjoy it while it lasts. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve used MoviePass for 131 documented movies (it’s more than that, but if I fall asleep in a movie that I’ve used MoviePass for, since I get up at 5ungodlyam to go to work, I don’t document it). It’s been an amazing value for me. I’ve seen (stayed awake for) these movies using MoviePass since the beginning of the year: 20th Century Women 47 Meters Down A Beautiful Accident A Dog’s Purpose A Ghost Story A Monster Calls A Quiet Passion A Taxi Driver Afterimage Aftermath All Eyez On Me Anatahan (1953) Arrival Atomic Blonde Baby Driver Badrinath Ki Dulhania Band Aid Bang! The Bert Berns Story Beauty and the Beast Before I Fall Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened Bitter Harvest Blood and Black Lace (1964) Blue Velvet (1986) Brave New Jersey Cars 3 Churchill Collide Colossal Cook Up A Storm Detroit Dig Two Graves Dunkirk Fight For Space Fire At Sea For Here Or To Go? Get Out Ghost Of New Orleans Gifted God of War Gold Grand Illusion (1937) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story Headshot I, Daniel Blake I, Olga Hepnarova Imperfections Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent John Wick: Chapter 2 Julieta Kedi Kidnapped (1974) King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Kong: Skull Island Lady Macbeth Landline (Matthew Aaron film) Landline (Jenny Slate film) Life Live By Night Logan Logan Lucky Lost Highway (1997) Megan Leavey Miles Between Us Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo Moana My Cousin Rachel My Life As A Zucchini Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer Oscar Shorts (Animated) Paint It Black Patriots Day Phoenix Forgotten Raising Arizona (1987) Rangoon Rashomon (1950) Rear Window (1954) Reservoir Dogs (1992) Sachin - A Billion Dreams Saving Banksy Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) Shaun of the Dead (2004) Silence Singin In The Rain (1952) Sleight Some Freaks Spider-Man: Homecoming Split Stop Making Sense (1984) Strange Weather The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography The Battleship Island The Beguiled The Belko Experiment The Big Sick The Black Prince The Blot (1921) The Book of Henry The Dinner The Eagle Huntress The Elephant Man (1980) The Fifth Element (1997) The Great Wall The Hero The Hitman’s Bodyguard The Iron Giant (1999) The Journey The LEGO Batman Movie The Life Of Oharu (1952) The Little Hours The Lost City of Z The Ottoman Lieutenant The Salesman The Sea The Sense of an Ending The Wall Things To Come Tommy’s Honour Toni Erdmann Tootsie (1982) Ugetsu (1953) Under The Skin Voice from the Stone War for the Planet of the Apes Whisky Galore! Wilson Wish Upon Wolf Warrior 2 Wonder Woman MOVIEPASS PAID FOR ALL OF THOSE! Thank you MoviePass! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/57 "2017-08-20T21:53:53Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Yes, it collects all the information about what movies you see and where you see them. That’s the entire point. And, unlike virtually every other entity on the Internet that is also collecting information about you, MoviePass is giving you a WHOLE LOT OF VALUE IN EXCHANGE FOR THAT! For a person who sees a different movie every single night, that value is from $7 to $18 a day! > > Seriously, this is like spitting in the caviar they just served you because it didn’t come with a golden spoon! I agree. I would have no problems with the fact that Movie Pass is selling my movie watching data. The discounted movie prices would be well worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/58 "2017-08-20T21:57:42Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > You know, what the fuck ever. Whether you don’t want to join the 21st Century and get a smartphone to able to use an app, or they’re not offering a golden spoon with their caviar, forget about MoviePass. You act like the decision not to have a smart phone is just an issue of being cranky. With me, it’s a financial decision. Buying and maintaining a cell phone would cost several hundred dollars. Spending that much money just to save money on movie tickets would be foolish. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/59 "2017-08-20T22:06:14Z")
I’ll be using MoviePass every night this week too. Tonight for Ingrid Goes West, Monday night for Kill, Baby, Kill (a 1964 Mario Bava movie), Tuesday for Dave Made A Maze, not sure about Thursday, but I will see something. Thankfully the app is working again. I had to pay out of pocket 3 nights in a row. I only submitted reimbursement for one of the three, Logan Lucky, although if newbies hadn’t crashed the MoviePass site I could have used it for the other two (but they were cheap, only $6 each since I’m a member at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and I figured MoviePass was getting hammered with reimbursement requests). It’s not that I see a lot of movies because I don’t have a life (although I don’t). Movies ARE my life! ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886/60 "2017-08-20T22:20:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You act like the decision not to have a smart phone is just an issue of being cranky. With me, it’s a financial decision. Buying and maintaining a cell phone would cost several hundred dollars. Spending that much money just to save money on movie tickets would be foolish. I understand, but it really doesn’t have to cost as much as maybe you think it does. I bought an unlocked Android G4 Play last year at Best Buy for $180something, but you can buy an unlocked Android phone online for much cheaper. I use [MintSim](https://www.mintsim.com/) and pay $99.00 every 3 months for unlimited phone and text, and 5gb data, but there are lots of different plans. But if you can’t, you can’t. I do understand, but there’s no way MoviePass can work without an app, so you’ll just have to forget about it for now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-opinions-and-information-on-movie-pass/793886.md?page=4)