I’ve had it for a few months. So far no issues other than the one time I had to actually walk away from the theater because the GPS on my phone was saying that I wasn’t close enough but I was actually standing in the lobby.
So far I’m getting financial benefit than it’s costing me. The one drawback is that it doesn’t work at any of the arthouse theaters I frequent so I end up paying out of pocket for those. But even for when it does work I’m coming out ahead.
I rarely watch multiple movies in a day but even if it was my standard practice to watch 8 movies every weekend it would still generally pay for itself on just the 8 movies a month it would pay for.
I also rarely watch the same movie more than once so the prohibition on multiple viewings of a movie don’t bother me either (and if I did, there are ways around that).
As for the tracking and check-in part, I don’t really see how that is an issue since even if they didn’t do that they’d know what movie theater I was at by where and when the card was used.
So, works for me and I’m not bothered by the limitations.
Yes, I’m sure they very much intend for you to think that, but they don’t actually say it. That’s a red flag.
And moreso in light of the cancellation clause Equipoise highlighted, and obfuscatrist telling of the software blocking a legitimate attempt to use the service.
I just looked up the list for my zip code and there are a lot of theaters in my area. I’ve been to at least 4 or 5 of them with no issues at all. Also, the way Moviepass actually works is instructive. Here’s what I’ve heard from them:
Moviepass is actually a form of “Discover” card. Any theater that accepts the Discover card is actually a theater that accepts Moviepass. When you “check in” at the theater, Moviepass puts a certain amount of credit on the Moviepass card. You then go the ticket booth and pay for the movie with the Moviepass card (which is actually a Discover card). And that’s it. Since it is a Discover card, there is a chance for the user to abuse it. If you charge something other than a movie ticket on it, that’s abuse. So, even though the charge might go through, you are not allowed to buy your popcorn and soda on it, nor are you allowed to buy anything else with it. In that case, Moviepass has a right to cancel.
I understand that some people are skeptical about it. So far, I haven’t had any problem with it, and I seem to be getting my money’s worth.
J.
p.s., Also, I have no relation to Moviepass other than as a customer.
One other thing that you didn’t understand. Moviepass DIDN’T block obfuscatrist from using the card, He just had to move outside so that the GPS on his phone could recognize that he was at a theater. Once his phone correctly noted his GPS location near a theater, his Moviepass worked. (Or at least, that’s how I interpret his message.)
I don’t even see the first thing I failed to understand. They gave me a list of theaters near me, and carefully failed to state that the card would be accepted at any of them. That doesn’t make it a scam, but that’s exactly what I would do if I were running a scam.
Any theater they list takes it, otherwise they’d list all theaters even the ones that don’t.
But yes, the issue with my one transaction wasn’t so much on the MoviePass side but on the phone side. To avoid sharing of the card they require you to actually be at the theater. Sometimes GPS on phones is wonky. I just had to move around a bit until the GPS figured out where I was then it worked fine (and when I mentioned it on Twitter they reached out to me and took all of the information; I’ve been back to the same theater without issue (SF Centre in San Francisco if anybody cares).
I too had concerns before doing it, but figured I could afford the gamble. So far, no complaints.
Another restriction, though, that people may care about is that it isn’t good for any “premium” screenings such as 3D or those Cinemark’s “XD” screens that cost extra.That did cause a minor hiccup when I’d looked the times up online and then went to the theater to find that what I was showing up for was XD and so I couldn’t buy the ticket with Moviepass. But then, at $15 for those tickets I wouldn’t have anyway and nothing about Moviepass caused the error on my part.
For me, the deal breaker would be not allowing you to see the same movie more than once. In order to get your money’s worth out of the pass, you have to got to at least one movie every week.
But there are some weeks when there’s no interesting new movie playing. On those weeks, I’d be willing to watch a movie I’ve already seen and liked a second time but that’s not an option. So I’d either be stuck going to see a new movie I hadn’t really wanted to see or I’d skip that week.
You pay $420 for a one year MoviePass. Going to see forty movies I wanted to see and twenty movies I liked for a second time is worth $420. But going to see forty movies I wanted to see is not worth $420. And going to see forty movies I wanted to see and twenty movies I didn’t want to see is also not worth $420.
At least where I am going to see 40 movies a year (and I see a lot more than that) would be worth about $440 as the ticket prices are $10.75-$12.00 depending on theater.
And like I said, there are ways around it. While you have to be at the movie theater and check in to the movie before you can make a purchase it apparently has no way to know that the ticket you bought is actually the movie you reserved. I know a guy who works across the street from a theater and has
A) Gone over in the morning and checked-in to the 11am screening but bought a ticket to the evening screening (thus allowing him to see another movie the next night without hassle and
B) Wanted to see something again and so check in for Movie A but then bought a ticket to Movie B.
So far, both have worked fine for him. But if that is a necessary element I’d probably no go for it because they might figure out some way to block such gimmicks (though hard to see how since they’re just relying on the normal merchant card processing which doesn’t not send over any information on what you actually bought (Moviepass does not enter into a relationship with any of the theater chains, at least not currently).
It’s a debit card. Any theater that takes credit cards will accept it. Which is pretty much all of them, except a few arthouse places.
You can buy a regular ticket with the Moviepass and then exchange it at the ticket window for the IMAX version for the difference in price. You’re still coming out ahead.
To recant what I said in my previous post, it wouldn’t really be worth it for me. I almost always go to a second-run theater - one of those theaters that show movies a few weeks or months after they hit the first-run theaters. For example, the theater I usually go to is currently showing the following movies: Bears, Divergent, Frozen, God’s Not Dead, The Lego Movie, The Monuments Men, Muppets Most Wanted, Noah, The Other Woman, Oculus, The Railway Man, Ride Along, Rio 2, and Robocop. Older movies but you can buy tickets for a substantial discount. I went to see The Other Woman this week on a Wednesday night and I paid two dollars for a ticket.
There are some movies that I want to watch as soon as they come out rather than wait for. I watched X-Men: Days of Future Past a couple of weeks ago, for example. But I have a local neighborhood theater that has weekend matinees for six dollars.
And finally I sometimes go to the “arthouse” theater to watch a movie that won’t play in the regular theaters. That’s the most expensive theater I go to but even there, tickets are only eight dollars. And like my neighborhood theater, they have some six dollar matinees on weekends. (But the parking for that theater is terrible.)
So a Moviepass wouldn’t be for me. I might see a few more movies and I would see most of them sooner but I’d spend a lot more money than I do now.
All movie theaters do not accept Discover Card. According to Moviepass numbers shared during their promo blitz last year the card won’t work at about 7% of theaters nationwide because of the Discover card. So it is definitely that vast majority, but not all and I suspect that 7% is way clustered at the independent and arthouse end of the theater spectrum.
And I definitely don’t want to give the impression that I think Moviepass would be a good buy for everybody. It’s probably a very small population where it would make sense.
I’ve had mine since February 2nd and have been tracking just to see if it comes out ahead. So far I haves spent $210 on it and used it to buy $254.50 in movie tickets (and spent another $47 on tickets not covered by Moviepass). Interestingly, the number of movies I’ve seen has been down from my norm over that period so I’ve actually wondered if it was somehow suppressing how often I go or if it has just been a combination of being busier than usual with fewer movies of interest in theaters.
But still, without thinking the people behind it are scummy scammers I suspect that vast majority would not get value. And of course, the whole model is built on the assumption that the people who don’t get value but pay will outweigh the people who do get value. As long as they’re clear about their terms, and I certainly knew them all before I got it from information they provided, then that doesn’t bother me.
Yeah, that can be done too. And I should have thought of it. But fortunately I’m not a fan of 3D (most of the time it just results in an underlit image which is more the fault of the theater than 3D) or IMAX (most theaters it is impossible to sit far enough away to be comfortable). And IMAX 3D is the bane of all right minded people (looks great so long as you never ever tilt your head in the slightest while watching; I never knew how often I lean my head against my hand while watching movies until my first IMAX 3D movie).
I agree - I generally only see animated stuff in 3D (and then only if it was meant to me seen that way.) Still, I think if you see enough movies to make something like Moviepass profitable, the occasional ticket upgrade would be worth it to. I am starting to think of ways to abuse this in the way I currently try to optimize my use of frequent flyer and hotel programs.
93% is sufficiently close to “all” for these purposes to make the card network moot. I suspect that the arthouse joints that don’t accept Discover also don’t accept any credit cards (I know Film Forum in NYC is like that.) Obviously if most or a lot of your movie viewing is done at an all-cash place then the deal probably wouldn’t be worth it.
Again, not true. Landmark Cinemas (most of the arthouse theaters in the San Francisco area) accepts credit cards (I use them there all the time) but not Discover (and probably not American Express). They do not accept Discover. I’ve never actually seen a cash only movie theater (though I don’t doubt that they exist), but plenty, even if only a relatively small percentage of all theaters in the U.S. that don’t accept Discover.
And yes, 93% is pretty close to all. Unless that remaining 7% constitutes 50% of your movie going.
