MoviePass to Introduce Surge Pricing on Popular Movies by July

Megalith

Megalith

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MoviePass, the “Netflix for theaters” that lets subscribers see “unlimited” movies for only $9.95 per month, is getting a little more complicated. While still a good deal for frequent moviegoers, CEO Mitch Lowe says that members will soon be charged an additional $2 for popular movies during certain times, such as opening weekends.

Lowe said this decision was intended to let MoviePass' theater partners attract more traffic for big blockbusters in the middle of the week and on weekends after the movie's opening weekend. It was also designed to "make sure that we can continue to offer a valuable service and support the whole enterprise," Lowe added.
 
Loot Boxes. Every ticket you buy is good for one movie, you MAY get the movie you want to see but guaranteed you will get a GOOD MOVIE no matter WHAT.......give it a year.
 
Master_shake_ said:
That's fucking bullshit.

Greed is greed don't try to pull the wool over people's eyes
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Yup, all movie tickets cost the same (except for 3d and other bullshit) and MoviePass reemberses the theater for the cost of a ticket they don't get bulk discounts, or "fill the seat" discounts, this is simply a way for them to double up on making more money.
 
Or, I’ll continue seeing like 2-3 movies a year for $5 a piece. In a mostly empty theater with reclining seats.
 
Master_shake_ said:
That's fucking bullshit.

Greed is greed don't try to pull the wool over people's eyes
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How can you say it is about greed, when the company isn't making any money, but losing money? You pay $9.95 monthly. Considering that movie tickets cost $10 to $12 depending on the movie and time, and movie pass gets NO discounts. Even seeing just 1 movie a month you break even. Actually, you still save money. Please explain how it is greed? It's about as close to getting something for nothing as you will ever get short of being free.
 
Master_shake_ said:
That's fucking bullshit.

Greed is greed don't try to pull the wool over people's eyes
Click to expand...
sfsuphysics said:
Yup, all movie tickets cost the same (except for 3d and other bullshit) and MoviePass reemberses the theater for the cost of a ticket they don't get bulk discounts, or "fill the seat" discounts, this is simply a way for them to double up on making more money.
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WTF are y'all talking about? Moviepass is hemorrhaging cash right now, tens of millions of dollars a month in the red. You can't be greedy or "double up on making money" when you aren't actually making any money... or even anywhere near it. This is nothing more than a way for them to try and get an extra couple months to reach their long term goals before going under.

Moviepass is an exceptional value for frequent movie-goers, and and extra $2 for big releases doesn't change that. And it only affects the month-to-month subscribers anyway, who are free to walk away at any time if they are no longer happy with the program. Annual subscribers won't have to pay extra.

It astonishes me the things people can bitch about sometimes.
 
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Considering all the good movies are in the summer, I would just pay for 3-5 months worth and just cancel.
 
Or you could just select an old movie playing the same day to activate your card and then buy the ticket for the movie you want. Also the way to pre-order tickets for a different day. The moviepass card has no way to know that you are buying the ticket you indicated in the app or not. Normally I'd be against blatant circumvention of the user agreement but moviepass has become pretty hostile towards their users.
 
Or just wait until it comes out on blu-ray and don't bother going to over priced, nasty theatres packed with dipshits who can't be separated from their phone for 5 fucking minutes.
 
Veritas2884 said:
Or you could just select an old movie playing the same day to activate your card and then buy the ticket for the movie you want. Also the way to pre-order tickets for a different day. The moviepass card has no way to know that you are buying the ticket you indicated in the app or not. Normally I'd be against blatant circumvention of the user agreement but moviepass has become pretty hostile towards their users.
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Oh how wrong you are. Because of this line of thinking, movie pass has audit program in place that randomly requested a picture of the ticket purchased, and if it does not match, your account is locked.
 
tickets are the cheap part of seeing a movie in the theater, its the drinks and popcorn that gets ya.. get me a pass for popcorn/candy and drinks for $10 a month.. haha
 
NWRMidnight said:
How can you say it is about greed, when the company isn't making any money, but losing money? You pay $9.95 monthly. Considering that movie tickets cost $10 to $12 depending on the movie and time, and movie pass gets NO discounts. Even seeing just 1 movie a month you break even. Actually, you still save money. Please explain how it is greed? It's about as close to getting something for nothing as you will ever get short of being free.
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They're selling your personal information in order to make up the difference. This isn't a charity.
 
Viper87227 said:
WTF are y'all talking about? Moviepass is hemorrhaging cash right now, tens of millions of dollars a month in the red. You can't be greedy or "double up on making money" when you aren't actually making any money... or even anywhere near it. This is nothing more than a way for them to try and get an extra couple months to reach their long term goals before going under.

Moviepass is an exceptional value for frequent movie-goers, and and extra $2 for big releases doesn't change that. And it only affects the month-to-month subscribers anyway, who are free to walk away at any time if they are no longer happy with the program. Annual subscribers won't have to pay extra.

It astonishes me the things people can bitch about sometimes.
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Surge pricing is a bullshit tactic.

If you are losing money (they aren't) then raise the price a la Netflix.

Don't beat around the bush.
 
Figures... I literally just signed up 2 days ago. Oh well... cancelling it now.
 
Master_shake_ said:
That's fucking bullshit.

Greed is greed don't try to pull the wool over people's eyes
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This isn't greed. This is them trying to improve their value proposition.

MoviePass isn't so much a B2C as it is a B2B business. The subscribers are the product. The more subscribers they have, the more influence they have. If they can prove to theaters they have enough influence, theaters may create contracts with them.

The way this particular change works is like this:

- Surge pricing is applied to hit new releases, movies that theaters would already be selling out. MP's market influence offers the theater no value here.
- If MP can deter enough customers and entice them to go during the week or a few weeks after opening, they can prove that they have the market control to push a significant customer base into more advantageous (for the theater) time slot. That theater chain is much more likely to agree to share some revenue in that exchange.

The way a movie release works is that the first week or two is highly weighted towards the distributor (theaters make the least per ticket during this time). It could be as much as an 80/20 (dist/theater) split, slowly scaling down as the movie stays open in it's run. Theaters make the most per ticket during the time that you're likely to find 3-5 people in a showing.

MoviePass's value proposition is that it raises concession revenue (more foot traffic). They're now trying to make it so that they can raise foot traffic for times where the theater operators make the most money on the ticket sale or have slower times.
 
Master_shake_ said:
Surge pricing is a bullshit tactic.

If you are losing money (they aren't) then raise the price a la Netflix.

Don't beat around the bush.
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They are losing money like crazy. Horrible and unsustainable losses. I'm ok if they want to charge $2 for preferred films on ... let's say, opening weekend or whatever. I do not like the slippery slope, I admit. I paid $100 for a year's membership, and have easily covered that much benefit in the last 45 days.
 
wizdum said:
They're selling your personal information in order to make up the difference. This isn't a charity.
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Really? What personal information is that? Oh, my address and phone number.. they are all in the phone book. My email address? I dear god, what am I going to do if my spam filter catches one more piece of junk mail, oh wait, my email address is nearly 20 years old.. I think Anyone who wants it, has already got it I am sure, not to mention it ins't worth more than a penny. I am also equally sure I have nearly every one of those companies already in my spam filter.


However, they don't sell it, and even if they did, they couldn't get enough money to cover their loses, not even a fraction of it.

Maybe, just Maybe you should have chosen the other pill in the Matrix to see reality.
 
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Joust said:
They are losing money like crazy. Horrible and unsustainable losses. I'm ok if they want to charge $2 for preferred films on ... let's say, opening weekend or whatever. I do not like the slippery slope, I admit. I paid $100 for a year's membership, and have easily covered that much benefit in the last 45 days.
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Ditto. While I might not like the slippery slope, only idiots didn't expect it. Losing $20M/month, and having a stock chart that looks like an ICO can only go on so long.

I hope that they can get it figured out - if it's still a good deal by then, great. If not, I won't hold anything against them - they can surcharge right on up to parity if that's what they need to do.

How people can pay $10/month for all the movies they can watch and then bitch about this change is a mystery to me. There are plenty of things to get angry over; saving money isn't one of them.
 
Master_shake_ said:
Surge pricing is a bullshit tactic.

If you are losing money (they aren't) then raise the price a la Netflix.

Don't beat around the bush.
Click to expand...

Best I can tell, they only plan to charge surge pricing at peak times (aka opening weekend for big releases). It's a way to make a few extra bucks for people who can't wait, but also try and push more customers into the theaters during their off-peak times (thus, in their eyes, increasing their leveraging power with theaters by filling normally empty seats).

Also, if your convinced Moviepass isn't losing money, it's clear logic has become clouded by some sort of unreasonable dislike for their service. They have been losing around 20M a month since last year, and recently that number is more like 40M a month. That's including any information they may be selling, the movies they have released, etc. They are losing money quickly and their entire business model is predicated on them staying afloat long enough to take over enough box office sales to strong-arm theaters into cheaper pricing arrangements. They had hoped to sell stock to bring in capital, which now isn't worth shit. So they need investors, which is a tough sell with a company that might not ever make money. They need to slow the rate that they are bleeding cash, or else speed up their timeline for being able to hold some influence over theater chains. Surge pricing, if it works, has the potential to do both. Like everything else in Moviepass's deck of cards, it's a big risk, but they clearly need to do something.

Feel free to educate yourself: https://bgr.com/2018/06/21/moviepass-stock-price-up-cash-burn-vs-amc-stubs/
 
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