AMC Slams MoviePass, Threatening Legal Action

[monkeymagick]

That recent MoviePass deal seemed way to good to be true, it's for reals though, ok. Plenty of people tried to sign up causing the site to slow to a crawl. It turns out AMC Theaters aren't too happy about the pricing model and are threatening the subscription-based service MoviePass. Of course, the company wants a piece of the pie. I'm not sure on what the numbers for AMC's Rewards Program, but they must be terrible because there are no rewards or hardly any.

"I'm not worried about it killing the sale," he said. "What I'm worried about is it confusing customers and making them believe they can't use this service at AMC theaters."

MoviePass didn't just unveil a new pricing plan on Tuesday. It also announced that had sold a majority stake to Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., a publicly traded data firm, for an undisclosed price

 

[kju1]

They already are getting a cut...when they get paid for the face value (or whatever the service negotiated as a price with them) of the ticket. This is just a bad PR stunt or a temper tantrum that someone dared horn in on a monopoly and consider lowering their inflated prices...

 

[ZeqOBpf6]

I read the entire article and still don't understand. FaceTime is buying every ticket at full price. Which means that if people sign up -- and constantly use MoviePass, AMC is rolling in the dough, and FaceTime is the one getting buried.

I understand MoviePass is going to relentlessly datamine its "customers" (the users are really the product) but this is still a huge risk to FaceTime and absolutely none at all to AMC.

At least that's how it seems.

 

[kju1]

I read the entire article and still don't understand. FaceTime is buying every ticket at full price. Which means that if people sign up -- and constantly use MoviePass, AMC is rolling in the dough, and FaceTime is the one getting buried.

I understand MoviePass is going to relentlessly datamine its "customers" (the users are really the product) but this is still a huge risk to FaceTime and absolutely none at all to AMC.

At least that's how it seems.

Fear that somehow in the future the prices will have to come down?

I found AMC's quote of a average movie price of 9.33 to be disingenuous at best. Movie tickets near me are $12 for matinees and $30+ on the high end depending on amenities offered by the AMC (i.e. reclining seats are $28 here). The fee for IMAX or 3D is nearly their average price...

I would be more interested in their median price...

 

[OldGator]

Moviepass is a scam. If 100,000 people in NYC are signed up per month that's only $1,000,000 in revenue. In short to turn a profit Moviepass would have to limit total ticket sales to around 1,500 per day.

 

[kju1]

Moviepass is a scam. If 100,000 people in NYC are signed up per month that's only $1,000,000 in revenue. In short to turn a profit Moviepass would have to limit total ticket sales to around 1,500 per day.

They have publicly acknowledged they will not turn a profit initially and are expecting to be compensated in some other way like ad revenue.

 

[rudedog]

Dont forget the money Moviepass will make of our data, just like facebook does.

 

[Uvaman2]

Amc rewards... Shit i think i had that for a while, used to get free popcorn, and different stuff easy, then.. nothing, it was shit.

 

[OldGator]

They have publicly acknowledged they will not turn a profit initially and are expecting to be compensated in some other way like ad revenue.

100,000 people see 1 movie every day. That's $30,000,000 in compensation to the theaters each month.

$1,000,000 in membership fees versus $30,000,000 in expenses. That's a LOT of ad revenue don't you think?

 

[Dead Parrot]

Maybe AMC wants the secondary revenue stream that Moviepass is counting on to turn a profit. If the only customer data AMC has is Moviepass #12345 bought a ticket, AMC can't sell that data as well. Not nearly as marketable as Jane Doe used her Discover card to buy a prime time ticket to MI6:Busted Ankle.

 

[thekipper]

While it's cheap, I have limited time to consume entertainment/media. Between Netflix/Amazon Prime, family, work, play, I run out of time.

 

[kju1]

100,000 people see 1 movie every day. That's $30,000,000 in compensation to the theaters each month.

$1,000,000 in membership fees versus $30,000,000 in expenses. That's a LOT of ad revenue don't you think?

Not your problem, or mine. They have an unsustainable business model from your point of view but they think otherwise. The market will prove one of you correct.

 

[Mut1ny]

100,000 people see 1 movie every day. That's $30,000,000 in compensation to the theaters each month.

$1,000,000 in membership fees versus $30,000,000 in expenses. That's a LOT of ad revenue don't you think?

That's only IF 100,000 people see a movie a day...which is FARRR from what will actually happen.

Most people won't even use it. Hell, I spent over $200 last year on a couple season passes and what not to Six Flags. Used it a total of two times despite the park being 30 mins away.

Six Flags definitely made money off me despite me getting a season pass...why? Because I was lazy and never actually used it. Same is true here.

 

[Spidey329]

From what I've read, AMC is worried that MoviePass is decoupling the end-user from the cost. So in the short term, viewers would get used to paying only $10 per month to see a bunch of movies, thus suppressing the overall value the viewer puts in the ticket. In the short term that's not an issue, but when MoviePass "goes bust" (AMC's view) with this reckless business model, the viewers won't return at the established prices and will instead go elsewhere for entertainment.

That's only IF 100,000 people see a movie a day...which is FARRR from what will actually happen.

Most people won't even use it. Hell, I spent over $200 last year on a couple season passes and what not to Six Flags. Used it a total of two times despite the park being 30 mins away.

Six Flags definitely made money off me despite me getting a season pass...why? Because I was lazy and never actually used it. Same is true here.

Subscription business models have proven successful in other avenues, banking on the gym-effect where people go a few times and then forget that they're being billed until their card expires - which is 2-3 years these days (gone are the days of 5yr expiration dates).

The issue with MoviePass is they're trying to do it with other companies involved. It'd be more sustainable had they bought a smaller movie theater chain and converted it to such a Costco-esque membership service.

AMC is arguing (their legal action part) that they may try to block MoviePass. But that won't hurt MoviePass, that'll hurt AMC as the MP users will just go elsewhere and those places will pick up the increased concession sales. Ironically, MP can claim they increase concession revenue because they did a case study with AMC - this is the data they use to back their claims. AMC of course kicked them to the curb and started the Stubs program (which devolved in greedy tracking and no rewards).

 

[OldGator]

Good chance AMC doesn't want to deal with angry customers who will get screwed by Moviepass as well.

 

[kju1]

Good chance AMC doesn't want to deal with angry customers who will get screwed by Moviepass as well.

Except its not really their say. This is like MS saying Dell we dont want you to sell our product because people will complain when ou go out of business. I can dream dell will die right?

The way they have to OPT out is to just not sell tickets to them directly, which may be questionable from a legal standpoint. But if they are just using the existing APIs to buy tickets AMC is kind of screwed in that their viewship will go down...

 

[krotch]

100,000 people see 1 movie every day. That's $30,000,000 in compensation to the theaters each month.

$1,000,000 in membership fees versus $30,000,000 in expenses. That's a LOT of ad revenue don't you think?

It'll more than likely end up that not everyone is going to be able to watch 1 movie every day. Be it the customer not having the time to watch a movie or the local theatres not being able to accomodate such.

If everyone in my home town got the MoviePass, there's no way the 2 local movie theatres could accomodate the whole population to go watch a movie every day. I'm sure most locations are like that.

 

[OldGator]

Or more likely there aren't even 30 movies out in a month's time.

When Netflix came out I managed to game the system in a way to get almost 100 movies per month delivered to me. After a few months they started throttling and delaying deliveries so it became impossible to get more than 10 per month. I imagine Moviepass is going to do the same to people who become "heavy" users - the same way the cable companies and cellular companies lie about their "unlimited" plans.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

I don't see how this competes with Stubs- I have it, and not for the 'rewards' as much for the other perks, those being you don't have to pay the online fee for ordering, which is most of it, and the 'express lane' for concessions on those rare occasions that I want something at the theater.

Along with assigned seating, it makes scheduling a show much more straightforward, especially for new releases.


Though I could see using this in place of Stubs, except that it will probably be limited to non-3D/Dolby, which I like, and that all of the better theaters near me are AMC.

 

[krotch]

Or more likely there aren't even 30 movies out in a month's time.

When Netflix came out I managed to game the system in a way to get almost 100 movies per month delivered to me. After a few months they started throttling and delaying deliveries so it became impossible to get more than 10 per month. I imagine Moviepass is going to do the same to people who become "heavy" users - the same way the cable companies and cellular companies lie about their "unlimited" plans.

I didn't even think of that. Ya, definitely not going to be 30 different movies releasing every month. Most released nowadays aren't worth watching more than once, if at all.