MoviePass lowers price again, temporarily

MoviePass is offering a special holiday price of, they say, $6.95 per month.

https://www.moviepass.com/

  1. You have to sign up for and pay for a full year. With the processing fee it works out to $89.95, which makes the monthly price

  2. $7.49 ish per month. Still, wow!

  3. It’s identical to regular MoviePass, as far as what movies you can and can’t see (one 2D movie a day, no 3D or IMAX or special presentations.)

  4. The offer is good for both new and current members. Current members won’t get a new card. If you switch plans, you’ll be charged the $89.95 on the day of your next billing period start.

  5. Until the special offer expires, the are NOT offering the $9.95 plan for new subscribers.

  6. If you are already on the $9.95 plan and don’t switch, everything remains the same.

My next billing period is tomorrow, so I switched today. I hope they charge my debit card tomorrow and not a month from now.

God I love MoviePass! Since I got my card last December I’ve seen well over 170 movies using it.

Sounds like they are in need of an influx of cash (and why wouldn’t they be).

I tried to switch to the new annual plan after getting their email, but the only option that appeared to me was the $9.95 monthly plan. I sent an email to their support but I’m not getting my hopes up.

I changed via their web site (not the app), on my phone, and had no problems. I scrolled down to find the new option. You might try again. I can’t take a screenshot because it’s just showing me my new plan.

They did charge my debit card $89.95 today so, yay, I don’t have to worry about paying MoviePass for a whole year! The only other test will be on December 18, to make sure I’m not charged the normal monthly fee, but I’m sure they won’t.

I added up the times I’ve used MoviePass since I got it, and so far the count is 205 MoviePass movies since last December 18. Several more will be added to that. Needless to say, I LOVE MOVIEPASS!

It’s not clear to me that paying $90 up front is better than paying $10 a month, given their cash flow situation.

Then don’t, if it worries you. I understand why it’s a concern. I know that my situation is highly unusual and I have a very different perspective. Until the price changed in August, I’d been paying $49.95 a month and thought it was an incredible bargain (for me, since I see a ton of movies: 434 so far since January 1). For me, paying $89.95 for 12 months is less than I paid for 2 months before the price drop. I’ve gotten so much value out of them already even if they folded tomorrow I’d kiss my hand and sadly wave goodbye, thanks for all the movies.

Super tempted. I live next door to a Cinemark. But I don’t go to 9 movies in a year! (That would cover the cost for me) My friends say I will go to more movies if I buy the pass. I guess I can manage to go to 9. Hmmm

How does this thing work? Would I have been able to see Justice League last night (first weekend)? Are there restrictions on ticket availability?

Yes.
I saw Justice League using it last Thursday, the night before it opened (many theaters around here play new movies the night before opening).

This next bit is in spoiler tags not because it’s a spoiler for anything, but because it’s a lot of text about how MoviePass works and so people can easily skip it.

[spoiler]
Movies are pre-approved before loading into the app. You can only see 2D movies, so no 3D, IMAX, or special presentations like Fathom Events, though once in a great while a Fathom movie will be approved. I don’t know if it was a mistake but if a showtime is “hot” I’ll take advantage and have never been called out on it.

You can only use MoviePass for one movie a day, but they don’t have to be 24 hours apart. I could see a movie at 10:00pm then use MoviePass again for a movie at 1:00am. I’ve never tried seeing movies that close together but it should work in theory. I’ve often seen movies at, say, 8 or 9pm, then seen a movie at 6 or 7pm the next day.

You must have a smartphone, either iPhone or Android. If you don’t have a smartphone you should close this thread now. You have to use an app, and if you can’t use an app you can’t use your MoviePass card. There’s no getting around it.

You should have a data plan. If you’re on WiFi you’d better make sure there’s a McDonalds or Starbucks or other reliable WiFi source right next to the theater, because you have to “Check in” to the movie you’re seeing and you have to be within 100 yards of the theater to check in. So you could theoretically use an iPod Touch, for example, but I wouldn’t try it.

First you join and pay the subscription fee. Temporarily they’re only offering a yearly rate of $89.95, but normally it’s $9.95 a month.

Then you wait for your card. It could take a week, it could take several weeks. Their customer service, once excellent, was sent into disarray when they lowered the price to $9.95 and hundreds of thousands of people all joined in the space of a few days. It took them months to recover and they’re still mopping up. Be patient though, and don’t throw away any plain white envelopes you get in the mail.

The card itself is an empty debit card.

You download the MoviePass app to your smartphone and register the card in the app once you get your card.

Once your card is registered, go see a movie. Log into the app, use the '“hamburger menu” to choose your location. Use the menu again to choose your theater. They will be listed in the order of proximity.

Click on the theater you’re going to and the list of movies playing there, and their showtimes, will appear. Approved movies will show the times in red (on my Android app, anyway). Non-approved movies have their showtimes in grey and the buttons are not hot, so nothing happens if you click on (touch) them.

Find the movie and showtime you want that’s approved. They used to say you couldn’t check in more than 30 minutes before the start of the movie but they must have relaxed that a little. I’ve only tested it a couple of times, checking in around 45 minutes before, and wasn’t called out.

Click on the showtime and it takes you to a page to check in. Don’t check in until you’re sure the movie you want is not sold out. If I’m going to a big movie I usually wait to check in until I’m at the box office, standing in front of the ticket agent. I have the app all ready to go so when I’m told it’s not sold out I check in. If I’m told it’s sold out I use the Back button to back out of the Check in page and rethink my options. So no, I’m not going to be able to see a prime time showing of The Last Jedi. I’ll try at a weird time. I saw a 6 pm Justice League and it was only 3/4 full. It took me a few days to see Thor: Ragnarok but I didn’t try for any odd times.

You’ll get a screen that says Purchase your ticket.

When you see that you’ll know that MoviePass has loaded the price of the ticket onto the MoviePass debit card. You don’t have to tell them the price via the app. MoviePass will know. Just have the ticket agent swipe the card just like any normal credit/debit card, and you should be good to go.

Next time you look at your app use the hamburger menu and choose Viewing History, and the movie you just saw should be listed. It’s a fun little perk though it might go away. It’s a relic from the days when you could only see a movie once using MoviePass, a way to remind yourself that you’ve already seen that movie using MP. That’s no longer a rule. You can use MP for a movie as many times as you want, as long as it’s on a different day.[/spoiler]There’s more but I’m tired of typing on my phone. Any question, just ask.

One thing to add to Equipose’s summary (I’m not a user, but I’ve read several threads on the service here in recent months):

As I understand it, a MoviePass account only allows you to buy one ticket for a showing of a film. If you want multiple tickets, each person getting a ticket needs their own account, on their own phone (and thus, needs to buy their tickets individually).

Not necessarily a dealbreaker, and if you go to movies solo, not an issue at all, but if you always go as a couple (or as a group), it’s apparently a hassle.