Wow…that’s a bit snarky.
What could they do to actually attract me?
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.
You can actually select any movie you want. MoviePass has no way of knowing which ticket you actually buy.
:eek: Is that new? I’ve never had to do that.
Well for me I’m not happy about the data-mining, but for actual suggestions:
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.
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. 
I want them to have a version that doesn’t require me to own a smart phone.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
That makes sense, thanks!
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!
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.
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’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!
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 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.