By: Nick Gambino
It was bound to happen, a Netflix model for going to the movie theaters. Mike Lowe, part of the founding team at Netflix and former President of Redbox, is now CEO of MoviePass, a company which plans to turn the movie-going experience on its head.
MoviePass has been around for a couple of years now with a subscription model that allows you to go to the movies all month long on a once-a-month payment. It started at about $35 a month and then came down to as low as $15 a month with a ton of limitations.
But now they’ve announced that they’ve dropped the price to a mere $10 a month with the option to go to the theater once a day to see any 2D movie (no IMAX, 3D, etc.). To use an industry term, that’s bananas. That’s cheaper than the cost of one ticket any time after noon in most cities.
“People really do want to go more often,” Lowe tells Bloomberg. “They just don’t like the transaction.”
With the MoviePass program operating in 91% of theaters throughout the U.S. this is poised to be a turning point for movie-goers. With the theater industry in decline over the last decade this might just be the leg-up they need to get people going to the movies again in droves.
You would think this would be a win-win for everybody but it seems AMC, the largest movie theater chain in the U.S., isn’t particularly happy. Mere hours after MoviePass made their announcement, AMC released their own statement.
“From what we can tell, by definition and absent some other form of other compensation, MoviePass will be losing money on every subscriber seeing two movies or more in a month,” the statement read.
AMC proceeded to basically threaten legal action, “While AMC is not opposed to subscription programs generally, the one envisioned by MoviePass is not one AMC can embrace. We are actively working now to determine whether it may be feasible to opt out and not participate in this shaky and unsustainable program.”
Of course Lowe wanted to quickly apply some “damage control” to the situation, “It’s the big guy being afraid of the little guy offering better value to the consumers.”
Anyone with even a limited knowledge on finances can see that the model is set up to lose money, at least in the beginning. They don’t currently have any deals in place to get discounted tickets. So while we’re only paying $9.95 a month, MoviePass is paying full price for every movie we go to.
But banking on a rapidly increased subscriber base with some users opting not to go to the movies all that often, they intend to quickly become profitable. Again, it’s not too dissimilar from how Netflix went about conquering the world.
In the meantime, if you’re looking to sign up for MoviePass simply download the app for iPhone or Android and hit the sign-up button. You’ll need to plug in your zip code and all pertinent information. Once you’re ready to go you can start checking out what movies you want to see and whether or not they are in a participating theater near you.
Check out the MoviePass FAQs on how the process works. It’s quite simple, though some reviews in the App Store suggest there are kinks and glitches to be sorted out. As long as they’re easily overcome, it’s still worth the savings.
What do you think of the MoviePass model? Is it doomed to failure or poised to disrupt the movie theater industry? Let us know your thoughts down below!
