As I wrote in the original thread when they announced the cheaper price, there was no way it could last and was doomed. I’m glad people got to see cheap movies while they could. it sounds more and more to me like this was just a venture capitalist money grabbing scheme by the owners.
The AMC plan makes a lot more sense. Theaters barely make money on tickets anyway and just want you in the door to buy popcorn.
The thing is how much is that data worth? I can’t imagine it’s more than a few cents per customer.
Isn’t AMC Stubbs A-List $20 a month? Or do you have really cheap AMC theaters near you?
That you don’t know how much the data is worth is not surprising, you’re some guy on the internet. The fact that, as far as anyone can tell, the company also had no idea is a bit more of an issue.
About 88% of users only saw 2 films a month or less. Including me. Had the plan only consisted of people like that, it probably would have worked.
The issue seems to be the small % of users who see many many films. I guess that is why all the streaming alternatives have hard upper limits. Sinemia limits you to 2-3 films a month. AMC stubs limits you to 3 films a week.
Isn’t two films a month still more than the sub is worth?
Yes, it is. As I mentioned, the nationwide average cost of a movie ticket is nine bucks, so the two-ticket-per-month customer is costing them $18 per month while the revenue is only ten bucks per month.
The cost is considerably more than $9 per ticket on average.
Seriously, there’s overhead, admin, staffing, merchant services and processing, insurance, debt service and a host of other costs associated with running a business. I’d be very surprised if only 2 tickets per month broke their bank. I wouldn’t be surprised if one ticket per month broke their bank.
What they needed, and early in the game, is to either get a discount on tickets or a piece of concessions. With neither of those happening, it’s not surprise they couldn’t last. Hell, WITH those happening I think it’d be a chancy proposition.
I’ve always suspected that their original business model didn’t include some of the kludginess of their current system (e.g., only able to buy one ticket per app / phone, needing to use the separate debit card), but as they started to go to market, they discovered that they had to do it that way, and some of those probably added to their expenses, too.
When the other thread on MoviePass started, last year, it was when they had just reduced their pricing. It was clear to me, from that point, that they were going to be burning through cash like mad, and that they were doing that in order to build up a big enough business (enough members, enough data) to entice someone to buy them out before they ran out of money.
Apparently MP managed to pay back that payday loan they took out (20% interest for less than a week) so they’ve got some sort of funding coming from somewhere. Earlier today, I looked at the service today around 4pm and saw that 3 movies, all with 10pm showtimes or later, were available on the app. This was at a 16 screen theater, so not only should there have been showtimes before 10pm (obviously), but even if for some reason we were restricted to the last showtime, there should’ve been more movies available. But one of the 3 was one I wanted to see, so I had actually planned to go, but now when I look we’re back to “no screenings at this location”
So apparently if you actually want to see a movie, you’ll have to see which few movies have one showtime available on the app, go purchase them early, then go back to the movie theater later. Until the randomness of the service changes tomorrow. Must be really annoying to be on your way to a theater that shows a screening and then cancels everything by the time you get there.
If you live near AMC theaters, they revealed their own A-list subscription service which is $20 a month for 3 movies a week, but you can do normal online reservation, and that includes special 3d and big screen showings at no extra charge. If my normal theaters were AMC I’d probably give it a try. I’m hoping either Regal or preferably Galaxy comes out with their own version of this. The lasting impact of moviepass might be having theaters themselves come up with their own subscription service, where the business model can be far more viable because they don’t pay full retail price for tickets and because they make money on the increased attendance due to concessions.
The wife and I have been busy with friends here visiting and so no time for movies. But our neighbor has been put out by not being allowed a ticket a time or two. And it looks like the new Mission: Impossible film is excluded from MoviePass at all theaters here, at least for now.
Yeah, the available movies are just a random smattering. At the nearest 16 screen theater, there are a total of 9 showtimes of 5 movies available today. All but two are past 10pm. Sometime this afternoon, it will switch to “no screenings available”, meaning that those after-10 showings are basically moot. 3 of them have surge pricing.
I suppose you could go to your local movie theater at 10am, and buy tickets for a 10:30pm showing before the service is cancelled for the day. That’s literally the only way to use the system now.
I don’t know what the point of dragging on like this is, it’s obvious they’re dying. It’s like they have some bizarre bet they win if they’re still going in a week or something, so they’re dragging along a dead service as little as possible to still technically be functioning.
I was hoping I could sneak in another movie but I’m too lazy to make two trips to the movie theater just to see something and there’s a chance when I get to the actual theater the showtime I wanted to see will be cancelled anyway. My monthly sub renews in 2 days, so I’m going to go ahead and cancel. Too bad.
How often do subscribers get billed for their subscriptions? I’m wondering if they’re hoping to limp along for a few more weeks, still getting subscription income, while getting billed for very few actual tickets, so that the VC investors can get back a little more of their money before the company finally gives up.
There are monthly and yearly plans, the date of subscription starts whenever you activated your card. It’s possible but with the mass cancellations and still paying out some tickets (e-ticketing theaters work, and some people probably actually do go buy tickets early) I doubt they’re actually turning a profit even with the mostly dead service.
We’re billed $9.95 apiece once a month. Even if we do have to pay separately for our Mission: Impossible tickets, it still takes only one movie a month to break even. We’ll watch something. Here in Hawaii, it doesn’t look to be shutting down early in the day, as I noticed several films were still available in the afternoon, which is when the wife and I usually watch.
I’ve already seen 5 films in August (and yes today is Aug 5.) I’m gonna hold on to this service til the bitter end!
MoviePass is now limiting people to only three movies a month.
Here’s another link. The above one is from the Wall Street Journal and is paywalled.
Whoops. I didn’t consider if people could see it. I have a subscription, so everything appeared. I’ll be more mindful of that next time.
From the article:
Those goddamn selfish bastards! They’re the problem, using the service they paid for!