MoviePass has announced some incoming changes to the popular monthly plan.
- Within 30 days prices will increase from $9.95 per moth to $14.95 per month
- First Run Movies opening on 1,000+ screens will be limited in their availability for the first two weeks
- Implementation of new tactics to prevent abuse
MoviePass has been struggling recently, the service stopped working briefly due to a lack of funds and they were heavily restriction who could see Mission Impossible over the weekend. Personally I don’t have an issue with restrictions on opening weekend/first two weeks, services like this are only going to be long term sustainable if they can drive incremental revenue and that isn’t really the case with popular opening weekend films. It’ll be interesting to see how many people move to competing services such as Sinemia & AMC A List when the price increases.
They were able to pay off the emergency loan so they are still gasping for life. I have been able to still go every day here in Florida this week after the short outage of last week. I don’t care about the opening weekend as I don’t like crowds, but Mama Mia 2 yesterday was still well attended at AMC. It is my almost daily escape. I am not happy as a shareholder however, that is a huge tax loss that will not recover in any case.
I’m just gonna buy a ticket for something else and sneak in to the movie I really want.
If there were enough good movies to see I could understand getting something like this. But really,how many quality movies are made? Unless you’ve got kids take away all the super hero films and what do you have left?
Big screen TV. Speakers. I’ll rent.
The app is unusable now except for the crap movies at far off theaters. I’m regretting buying the annual pass in April. Has anyone disputed with the credit card company to see if they can claw back the annual fee?
It will depend largely on your credit card company. You’re only guaranteed dispute rights for the first 60 days but I’ve managed to dispute far after the fact concerning subscriptions.
If you bought at Costco your best bet is to deal with them first.
Personally I I’m going to give it a few more days and see how this works out. I couldn’t buy a ticket Friday or Monday. Had no trouble buying tickets Saturday and also checked in for a ticket yesterday. (I went back and cancelled the check in since I actually didn’t have time to see a movie. I was just checking that the app was working or not.)
I mentioned this in another post, but one person had commented that he is going to Regal everyday and buying a ticket just for Regal Crown points and then either giving or throwing away the ticket. Why anyone would go to the trouble to do that is just astonishing to me, but that is probably why the announcement mentioned “implementation of new tactics to prevent abuse”. I also noticed when looking at the app today that major theater chains (AMC, Regal, Century) had no available showings… while smaller chains every viewing (including Mission Impossible, etc) were available. My guess is that MoviePass is attempting to direct traffic to theaters that they have been able to reach some kind of deal – which makes sense – and has been their strategy. Even with the latest changes it’s still an excellent deal. Regardless of what the press says, I wouldn’t count them out yet. They just need an infusion of capital, and considering how much people have thrown into ICOs lately – it’s there.
MoviePass… Great idea, poorly managed.
If they are paying full price for each ticket at most theaters (unless they have agreement with them, which may mostly be the smaller theaters), blocking blockbusters when newly released seems more about narrowing the window available to see those movies, thus decreasing usage.
Personally, I would prefer limiting the number of movies per month (vs unlimited) & having anytime any movie choice. If it gets too hard to use, it will be useless to many.
I can buy 2 ticket passes for a chain at $17 that can be used anytime anywhere for any non-3d movie without restriction & if I have a month I don’t see a movie, I don’t need to spend the money. I’d think a lot of people don’t see more than 2 movies/month. And if you go for a matinee or Tues discount day, it is less even than $17 for 2, no subscription or membership needed.
Movie Pass is now heading to bankruptcy. I am not able to see any movie in my area today. I will hurry up to see as many movies as I can in the next few weeks as MP won’t be around for another 3 months.
The funny thing is this is my feelings exactly.* At this point I think it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy either way. (As in regardless of how sustainable they are or are not , and regardless of how well they can implement the new restrictions and deterrence.)
People ignored the problems behind the scenes with MoviePass until now. Everyone is going to have incentive to see a movie anytime possible at this point. * I just went from a once-a-month moviegoer to a once-a-week moviegoer.
The hook of MoviePass is I told myself I would see a bunch of movies every month and really never did. I’m certain this is true of a lot of people. This type of situation shoots them in the foot regardless of what happens next.
There are not any movies shown in my moviepass app. I cannot check in for any movie in any theater today.
Same here
+1 same
Just checked mine this morning and I am seeing all the movies in my movie theater closest to me now where yesterday I only saw 4 with MI blocked out (Which it is still blocked out right now too)