Netflix Co-Founder's Crazy Plan: Pay $10 a Month, Go to the Movies All You Want (bloomberg.com) 274
Mitch Lowe, a founder of Netflix, has a crazy idea. Through his new startup MoviePass, he wants to subsidize our film habit, letting us go to the theater once a day for about the price of a single ticket. From a report: Lowe, an early Netflix executive who now runs a startup called MoviePass, plans to drop the price of the company's movie ticket subscriptions on Tuesday to $9.95. The fee will let customers get in to one showing every day at any theater in the U.S. that accepts debit cards. MoviePass will pay theaters the full price of each ticket used by subscribers, excluding 3D or Imax screens. MoviePass could lose a lot of money subsidizing people's movie habits. So the company also raised cash on Tuesday by selling a majority stake to Helios and Matheson Analytics, a small, publicly traded data firm in New York. [...] Theater operators should certainly welcome any effort to increase sales. The top four cinema operators, led by AMC Entertainment, lost $1.3 billion in market value early this month after a disappointing summer.
Ten years too late? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not sure I have a "visit theatre" habit anymore. I thought about going to see a couple of movies this summer but the cost/hassle/commute wasn't worth it, so I'd have to say the last time I set foot in the theatre was for Star Wars commando movie, and even then it was the full 3D experience (because otherwise why bother).
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Why Drive-In Theaters Are Making A Comeback - The Odyssey Online
https://www.theodysseyonline.c... [theodysseyonline.com]
Sep 27, 2016 - Drive In Theaters are making a comeback as teenagers and families are beginning to return to the screens under the stars.
Drive-In And Chill: The Unlikely Comeback Of The Drive-In Movie
uproxx.com/movies/drive-in-revival-comeback/
May 30, 2017 - The Franklin, West Virginia theater had been in operation for 62 years, built during the drive-in boom of
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Yeah, all my memories of drive-ins are from when I was a fairly young child, but they're not fond. When I finally went to an "indoor" theater after the drive-in in my town closed, it was a MUCH better experience.
Granted, I guess the drive in is more "private", but if you're just wanting to get it on with your significant other just staying at home seems to be a better option - why bother even going to a movie you're not gonna watch?
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Like, I've always liked drive-ins, but I never found myself going to them routinely. It's nice to chill in your car and watch a movie. I get why they aren't as big as in the past though.
Drive ins can be fun (Score:2)
I personally don't understand the appeal of a drive-in, maybe its because I'm slightly tall @ 6'1" but cars aren't relaxing to sit in and the windshield doesn't provide great vertical visibility.
My car is more comfortable to sit in than most movie theater seats. Plus at a drive in you're less likely to be disturbed by your annoying neighbor and his noisy spawn. Vertical visibility doesn't matter unless you are sitting right under the screen. As long as you can see the entire screen who cares if you can't see above it?
That said, the same is true for the theatre, no leg room and rarely can you get one of the good seats in the middle of the theatre.
I don't consider being in the middle of the theater consequential to it being a good seat. I just want a seat which is comfy, has adequate leg room, where I don't feel crowded or d
Re:Ten years too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
We have a drive in outside of Knoxville, and it's fantastic. If you don't want to sit in the car, then park facing backward and sit in the bed of your pickup, or bring those canvas fold-up chairs to sit in. Bring whatever snacks you want to from the outside world, or use the theater's snack bar, where a diner style cheeseburger costs $4.00 rather than spending $8.00 for popcorn at the regular theater that tells you you can't even bring your backpack in because you might have a bottle of water of some candy in it. See two movies (one of which is often a new release... I remember they had Avengers on opening day) for $7.00 a head.
Best movie experience I've had in decades.
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The only way I would do this is if I also get access to a porta potty and am given the choice to hand-pump my own water. While wearing a caveman costume.
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I frequent the local drive-in all the time. First, if you're staying in your car, you're doing it wrong. I typically picnic right outside my car. Second, there are many reasons to want to go to a drive-in.
1.) You can freely bring in your own food.
2.) Kids are typically free.
3.) You can bring kids without worrying about them ruining the movie for everyone else.
4.) Two current movies for just $10 per person? Count me in!
That being said there are obvious disadvantages such as:
1.) Inevitably the guy parked two
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You have to go to the drive-in to "get it". It's not just the movie - it's the atmosphere. When I lived in Indiana there was a drive-in outside of Bloomington. Imagine seeing a movie with your friends, with a grill, your own chairs, whatever food you want, etc. The sound sucks, as a given. But it's a cultural experience kind of like tailgating.
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perfect for holiday giving (Score:4, Insightful)
what is the max they will cover? (Score:2)
the basic full price of each ticket can be $13-$14 before added costs.
How much do I pay... (Score:5, Interesting)
... to kick out all teenagers and people with small kids?
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Near me, the premium for such movies is around $4/ticket.
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... to kick out all teenagers and people with small kids?
1. Go to theaters that serve alcohol.
2 Pic odd times to see movies.
3. Don't go on release weekends
The last movie I saw in a theatre was Guardians 2 and there was maybe 6 other people in the theatre. That was a mid-week afternoon about 2 weeks after opening.
Theatre's that serve alcohol also have better seating, but the temptation is to buy food and drink and they will get you there.
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1) there are a grand total of zero theatres in my city, or any surrounding city, that do this
2) the odd times are the ones more likely to attract kids
3) if you're willing to wait for a movie anyway, why go to the theatre? the viewing experience is far better at home.
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This. I pretty much only go to the theater for movies where I feel the immersion and the huge screen will be worth it. I was watching TV the other day and a trailer came on and my first thought was "I can't wait for that to come out on DVD"...
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>Go to theaters that serve alcohol.
I do not want to go to such theaters.
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>Go to theaters that serve alcohol.
I do not want to go to such theaters
Try not being so knee-jerky. The Cross Point cinema, Lowell, MA, for example, has a bar. They are very careful about carding people, and I have yet to see anyone get more than 2 drinks over the lenght of a movie. Given the prices, it's hardly the place you go to get drunk; and you have nowhere to sit other than in the theatre, which is a long walk from the bar.
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... to kick out all teenagers and people with small kids?
Go during school hours.
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I kind of assumed that kids and teenagers were the primary audience for the theater experience, because to them three months is an eternity.
It's not about the wait, it's about going out and doing something outside the house.
Who goes to the movies daily? (Score:5, Insightful)
I bet the business model is to make money on the people who will rarely use this and hope the devil customers don't sign up in droves. Figure by next year they will start implementing limits like a lot of these crazy unlimited services do
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Frankly I say I'm going for the newsreels to keep up on current events but I'm really there for the Looney Tunes shorts... I like Bugs Bunny.
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No, places that have cheap passes usually end up being hang outs for teens and young adults. In my little town there is a skating rink, swimming pool, and the YMCA all you can buy passes to and all are teen hang outs with as many or more kids than our free community center that has indoor basketball courts, gym, and public computers with internet access. I dare to say even without a cheap passes our movie theater is one of the few evening hang outs for teens and is still always packed on Friday and Saturda
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My local cinema offers a monthly pass for about $15. You can see as many movies as you like, the only stipulation being that you have to go outside peak times for popular films. Nothing in the first week of release for the biggest releases.
They fill otherwise empty seats I suppose.
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I suspect the way they renegotiate this will be with the theaters rather than with the patrons.
Theater seats make money for the theater but they spend the majority of the 24 hour day vacant. Packing people into those seats could be a lot of additional revenue even if done at low prices. Heck, even sitting someone in the seat for $0.00 can be profitable with snacks and advertising, provided you don't have to pay a huge amount for the film you're screening (enter Netflix, producer of cheap original content.
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I bet the business model is to make money on the people who will rarely use this and hope the devil customers don't sign up in droves. Figure by next year they will start implementing limits like a lot of these crazy unlimited services do
I can see it happening for something like a gym membership, even if you've hardly used it quitting is like officially recognizing you're not going to get in shape and building one more barrier between where you are and where you'd like to be. But a cinema card, are you going to just sign up for entertainment and let it collect dust without canceling it? I suppose they exist but I'd imagine most of those aren't looking to get bulk discounts on cinema screenings anyway. And best case you get $10/months for a
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Going to a gym to lose weight does not work most of the time anyway.
Rather do some martial arts, like BJJ, Aikido, Karate or chineese stuff.
But I gather that Dojos are super expensive in the US, so a gym might be cheaper.
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Introduce noise to the data by purchasing tickets to see Emoji movie, but actually seat yourself in the War for the Planet of the Apes auditorium.
Doesn't seem realistic (Score:4, Interesting)
They're hoping to collect marketing data. I am skeptical that the marketing data is worth that but even so it strikes me as a bad deal for everyone.
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I agree, although for somewhat different reasons.
I mean, Netflix keeps shedding third-party content - which is being made available after its theater run - because they say it's too expensive to license. If they can't even manage that for ten bucks a month, how is this new plan supposed to be even marginally realistic?
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Well, Netflix doesn't have advertisements to make up shortfalls in cash; the MoviePass plan is to track your viewing habits and sell the information to advertisers. Of course, it still makes no sense - you're not a captive audience to MoviePass the way you are to Netflix which, if they showed advertising, would lose every customer immediately. How are those advertisers going to target you? If they answer is they require some app on your phone, or they require to be able to flood your email inbox, then no
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My sentiments exactly - I might only see one (break "even") or two (come out slightly ahead) movies a month, but I know people who would go virtually every day - I do not think they can recoup that money in advertising.
1. Offer unlimited movies per month for $10 while still paying the theater full ticket price.
2. ????
3. Profit!
Only this time the ???? is clear: make a pile of money off the IPO, then sell it off immediately and watch the company crash and burn.
what about places like Hollywood Blvd that have 1 (Score:3)
what about places like Hollywood Blvd that have 1 food item minimum??
and if this takes off then what happens when that 1 food item minimum?? starts at $5-$6 for say an small popcorn or $4.50 for a coke?
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Exactly.... there are a couple of movie/dinner places around here. The seating is limited to account for the space people need to eat. I'm nor surprised a place like that would require some minimum purchase. I wouldn't know - I've always just gotten a meal there (well, for the whole family), because otherwise we'd be going to a different theater.
Which theaters participate? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, you get a 1-month trial just like Netflix did/does, but I'd still like to see in advance if it's even worth pursuing.
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install their app and put in your zip code and it'll tell you what theaters near you participate, if you don't want to install then ask on the chat on their website. Their website alleges 91% of theaters nationwide
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As a wild guess, I'm betting that the app requires all kinds of access to your phone/personal data that it probably doesn't need in order to tell you which theaters nearby are "in network".
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We live in a subscription world... (Score:5, Insightful)
Recurring revenue is all companies can think about and it is destroying things
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This isn't taking away the option to pay yourself, and honestly recurring revenue isn't always bad for the consumer because it's a very predictable item in a budget. For metered items sometimes you have to adjust how much you're spending on this (ie, I live in the south. During the summer I can pretty much just assume that my power bill is going to be $70-100 more per month than during the winter due to the air conditioner). If something is flat rate, I know exactly how much something is going to be and
Re:We live in a subscription world... (Score:5, Insightful)
recurring revenue isn't always bad for the consumer because it's a very predictable item in a budget. For metered items sometimes you have to adjust how much you're spending on this
That's true until you have to have 15 subscriptions for competing services to see the content you want to see. HBO for Game of Thrones, Neflix for Victoria, Disney for Star Wars, etc. This isn't what consumers are asking for.
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Recurring revenue is all companies can think about and it is destroying things
What really bothers me about it isn't the recurring revenue, but the fixed pie. Looking at streaming media services, as an example, we now pretty much have a fixed pie in the music world. It's a zero-sum game now. If I make a dollar with my music, someone else doesn't. If 5 extremely good albums come out this year, people will spend no more on music.
Ultimately, this is the problem with a system like this. If a couple of really good movies come out, that means that everybody else will simply make less (
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Unless they require some kind of app that tracks you otherwise.
Even if they could use that information, though, I still don't see how advertisers buying this data can possibly cover the expense of paying theaters full price for every movie seen.
$$ POPCORN $$ (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember folks, theaters make very little if nothing on ticket sales. Most of that goes directly to distributors & media companies, (and middlemen).
Where theaters really make their money is concessions. So hey, why not let in a bunch of people for basically free (nets the theater zero$), in the hopes you'll triple the amount of popcorn & sugar water sales!! To the average Joe they have just 'saved' thirty bucks on tickets & may drop the same into local establishment's fun-food instead. Really.
seeking in food is easy (Score:2)
seeking in food is easy
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I am afraid if Netflix will throw in free popcorn for extra $10 a month, public health advocate groups will be really pissed.
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I don't see the point (Score:2)
$20 a month for a couple to have 4 "date nights" seems like a good deal but how is that any better than $10 for a month of Netflix and chill nights? Especially when your choices are far more limited and you have to deal with annoying crowds.
(full disclosure - I pay extra for IMAX)
The gym membership model (Score:2)
good for theaters (Score:2)
My current understanding is that the theaters make the great majority of their revenue on concessions and almost nothing on the films. My recent experience is that for a family of three, tickets and refreshments are roughly the same cost. (Refreshments may be a little more depending on what we get.) A sharp reduction in ticket costs is very attractive.
Couple this with other recent changes observed in local theaters (not upscale spendy places that happen to show films, but regular everyday theaters) -- as
Wrong name (Score:2)
"runs a startup called MoviePass"
They should have called it 'Korben Dallas Multipass'
Why the secrecy? (Score:2)
I know of at least a couple of retirees who would love to get to the movies a couple of times a month.
So let's see if the theater in their town is supported. No can do. If you want to know, you have to JOIN.
WTF?
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It's right there in the summary: "owe, an early Netflix Inc. executive who now runs a startup called MoviePass, plans to drop the price of the company’s movie ticket subscriptions on Tuesday to $9.95. The fee will let customers get in to one showing every day at any theater in the U.S. that accepts debit cards."
This has nothing to do with theaters - MoviePass is an independent third party that pays the movie theater full price for the ticket.
Of course, this is more the reason why it's almost certain t
Plan is simple, he will own them theatres (Score:2)
I'd pay $20/month for all their movies (Score:2)
Netflix has tons of DVD movies that should be copied to a SAN and made available to us viewers. I'd gladly pay $20 a month to access nearly every movie and TV show ever made. I'm not really interested in going to a physical theater to watch a movie. My home set up is quite nice and features a pause button for bio-breaks.
Maybe I'll consider it... if not (Score:2)
Hmm.. I would perhaps have been interested, except that all movies are shown in so called "3D". It is not possible to find a 2D show for most films where I live.
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3D is a sucky gimmick that is pretty much always unnecessary and pretty much always not done well - in fact, stereo imaging done well requires abandoning a century a movie making techniques that aren't compatible with it.
And then there's the price hike, and the stupid glasses. No thanks! If you're lucky, theatres near me will have one screen with a 2D showing per movie per day. I simply don't go to the movies as much anymore.
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Nothing special (Score:2)
Could be interesting. (Score:2)
The only theater in town closed down a couple years ago so unless I want to drive to the next town over.
So $4 in gas a trip loss of over an hour in drive time each trip so 3X a month i'll i've spent more in gas than the subscription then most likely many months there won't even be a movie showing I want to watch.
How it might work (Score:3)
I'm guessing that while it obviously won't work with the business model as publicised, they have plans to make it work. I can see two ways that this would work for them:
Partner with theater chains for a lower ticket price. The only part of this that is difficult is that there's no motivation to partner if they get full price if they don't, and members don't want to only have access to certain chains. Perhaps if they gain a significant share of the market, they could force it.
Partner with the studios to get them to subsidize it. They're getting most of the money back from the theaters, so they'll still make more money if they get more people in the seats.
Re:For me this isn't worth it (Score:5, Informative)
Comic book movies, movies about fucking wizards, remakes of shit that was a bad idea the first time around. Tome Cruise/Hanks, Adam Sandler etc. Its an endless stream of utter shit and piss.
So, in conclusion, fuck the cinema.
Re:For me this isn't worth it (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see many movies in theaters either, but if I had this service then I'd damn well make sure I got my money's worth. Someone out there is going to literally see a movie every day of the year just to do it.
I don't see how the business model is sustainable without making deals with the theaters.
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Yes there may be people see a movie every day, but why would you waste your time watching movies you don't want to see?
Isn't the point to maximize your enjoyment, not go to a lot of time and effort just to screw other netflix. It is OK if a small proportion of people do it as long as most people are sane.
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Yes but to the average dipshit on the street who can't do the math his idea will seem awesome.
I can do the math, and it seems awesome to me. My wife and I go on a date every week, and we go to a movie 75% of the time, so we see roughly 36 movies per year in theaters. $120 / 36 = $3.33 per movie. Not bad at all.
Until it goes belly up, anyway.
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You are wrong about the ticket prices. They suck.
I have two recent experiences in the theatres that just left a bad taste in my mouth.
The first was seeing a blockbuster movie on a week night (Tuesday or Wednesday, as I recall). Well, the ticket prices were as normal, but there was an extra $5 charge for a "nicer" seat made of leather. Who cares? When I got into the theater, the seats were not $5 worth of extra nice.
Also, a week ago, I tried to see "Valerian" on a Friday night. Yeah, popular night, but
$5 for the bigger room with dolby atmos + 3D (Score:2)
$5 for the bigger room with dolby atmos + 3D
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I might take the family 2 or 3 times a year as a family thing, usually going to one of the dinner theaters. When I was a teenager, I probably went with my friends at least twice a month on average, maybe more... and it was the standard date thing to do, too. For most people it's more about the social aspect then an actual "need" to see a first run movie. Of course, at the time we didn't have smart phones, the internet, and while Ataris were cool, they were no PS4 or XBox.
But really - I like superhero mov
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Yes but to the average dipshit on the street who can't do the math his idea will seem awesome.
Hi. We already have that in france ( at around 20 euros per month, bit less for 2 people - single price adult ticket being (I take the price in paris were I lived) 11.5€ ( +1€ if 3D, +1€ if booked seated ) . So it cost just over 1 movie per month.
And i can tell that it's not only about the price.
Sure, at the very beginning i was student - lot of free time - i was using my card to the max, so that made complete financial sense with about 4 movies a week. Then i ended up having no time f
Re:Hollywood is dying (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the issue is online entertainment is eating Hollywood's lunch. Netflix, AMC, et all, are out producing original content that is actually entertaining so you don't need to go to the movies anymore. It's the same issue broadcast TV is having.
That's not to say they are not putting out garbage. They are doing that too... I'm just saying that there is more to this issue.
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There's plenty of garbage on netflix. So I hit the back button and watch something else. Try that in the theatre after you've driven 20 minutes and paid $50 for the family to be there, not even including the food & drinks.
Ticket sales have NOT fallen (Score:3)
Tickets sales are WAAY down.
The actual evidence [the-numbers.com] says otherwise. Movie ticket sales have been a good approximation of constant for the last decade including last year. Revenues are up substantially as they are charging more per ticket.
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More the issue of
A : overpriced food and drinks, not letting you bring in your own,
B : crowds of sometimes ignorant morons.
C : Sound effects and background music so loud you can;t hear the dialog and no CC options
A and C are the biggest issues, the past 5-10 movies my wife and I, or my daughter and I have gone to see, even the kids movies, the crowds haven't been a problem, they were well-behaved...
Altho the "Turn off your cell phones" ads are getting more annoying than any person I've encountered in the th
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No, you're not. $9.95 is a great price point.
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Well it could work. This could lead to greater attendance at the cinema, I expect for this to work, it would probably need to be for movies that are a week old, so we are going to the cinema for under capacity shows.
We may like this, as we can go to the movies, without having to worry so much about budgeting.
Cinema would like this as there will be more people in the cinema, more people buying concessions.
Key problems that I see, would be the number of people you can bring with such a service. Normally peopl
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I just don't see how this would be long-term viable, especially since I'd create a new email address just fo
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The service will definitely lose money on me, IF my local chain buys in to it -- I just sent them an email inquiring. I've seen approx 75 movies in '16/'17. That would be $170 under their model. Let's call it an average of $12 a ticket, that's $900 in ticket prices, a savings to me of $730, ignoring concessions since we're just talking ticket prices. Add my wife in, and the savings are YUUUUGE.
AFAIK the rule for cinemas is that something like 90% of the ticket price goes to the company releasing the movie. Cineplexes make their money at the concession stands. From their standpoint, this is the perfect way to get more people into the establishment.
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I suspect they're relying on people getting on board and not using the service.. You'd be surprised how many services do well with non-participating members. Think gym memberships. ;)
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I'll admit that I didn't RTFS, so I was really confused. "Isn't that what Netflix is already doing?" Then I realized that they were talking about actually going to movie theaters, and I realized that I had sort-of forgotten that was a thing. Movies don't expire, and I don't feel the need to keep up with pop culture. I'll catch the good ones sometime in the next decade or so. Probably.
Overpriced garbage food, kids and teens, and lots of people dicking around on phones. I don't get why people go.
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It's a family outing every once in a while.... maybe two or three times a year. We go to one of the places that has dining, usually. Often we go Sunday afternoon, or during the week when it's not crowded.
As far as this MoviePass scheme goes, though, it makes no sense as a business model. All you have to do is see more than one movie a month, and they lose money because they are paying the theater full price. That they raised money to help cash flow doesn't make any sense, either - that money will dry u
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As this consumer it doesn't sound like a great deal, I would possibly see 1 movie a year, and that is probably because my kids force me. There are very few movies I would like to see. I even get free movie tickets from work, and I do use them, but only because they are about to expire not because I want to see a movie. To have this for my entire family it would be $50 per month.
I actually think this is a great idea from a business perspective, apart from having to subsidize the movies, but if the studios wh
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But unlike Planet Fitness, they've got a second cash-flow: Charge outrageous prices on cheap junk food to the people who actually use the service. And they might be more willing to pay for it because they got a "free" ticket. So I think this actually works out decently well for them.
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Thanks - I hadn't totally wrapped my brain around that part. That's even crazier. It's like Planet Fitness but without owning gyms. Third party hoping that enough people sign up and don't use it that they turn a profit giving free access to another company. I bet good money they're soon going to have to put a * after unlimited and include some fine print about how often you can use their service.
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No, they're not using the Gym business model. I think people aren't understanding that MoviePass is independent of the theaters you go to... it would be like paying a third party $10/month to go to Planet Fitness, and then that third party pays Planet Fitness $10 every time you used the gym. Even if half the people never went, if everybody else went only twice per month, the third party would only break even (actually lose money due to overhead). The business model makes no sense.
Re:Nah. Fuck the cinema (Score:4, Interesting)
bazmail sneered:
Am I right?
For me? Yes, you are. But only because the movie-going experience so thoroughly and comprehensively sucks, here in the 21st century version of America.
Back when I was young, and we rode our pet dinosaurs to school (uphill both ways), going to the movies was a compleely immersive experience. No, we didn't have sooper-dooper Dullby sound systems, or especially convincing special effects, and the seats weren't nearly as comfortable as they are these days. But what we did have was a culture of respect for the experience. People might talk during the "Let's all go to the lobby!" concessions promo, but the absolute picosecond the newsreel started (yes, I'm that old), everyone in the theater shut all the fucking way up, and we all merged into that singular, collective creature: an audience.
There weren't any cell phones in those days, so, if you wanted to make a phone call, you had to go to the lobby to do it. There were theater employees called "ushers" (and usherettes), who would stand at the back of the auditorium (there was only one per theater back then - and, blelieve it or not, it usually had a balcony section to increase its capacity still further). Their job was to escort lobby-blinded patrons back to their seats, and to be on the lookout for "hijinks" and that most despised of all sub-human species, "talkers".
Talkers got ONE warning. That was it. Open your yap again, and you would be politely escorted out of the building. Get escorted out of the building too many times, and you would be banned from re-entering. Forever. And if you tried to pick a fight with an usher, well, there were plenty of aspiring knights-errant who were willing to lend him/her a hand in escorting you out of the building, only minus the "politely" part.
And that - plus the sheer size of the audience - made the experience an entirely different one that what modern movie-goers are subjected to. Everyone (except those hijinks-prone kids) was there to watch the movie. Not make and recieve a half-dozen phone calls, check their Facebook feed, chat with their posse, or carry on a shouted conversation with/exhortation to the characters on the screen. The screen was huge, the house was usually full, and the experience of seeing a movie with a room full of strangers, all raptly attentive, was satisfying in a way that watching the same movie in a theater today simply can't be. It wasn't a matter of degree. It was a matter of kind - an experience of a kind that simply no longer exists in the 21st century.
At least, not here, in the land of the free and the home of the entitled nitwit it doesn't. In other countries, YMMV - and it probably does. But in the USA, we've fully embraced out inner oaf, and the theater owners sit with folded hands and let their patrons progressively degrade the movie-going experience to the point where I, personally, would not go to the theater if you paid me to do so, because I just don't need the aggravation.
So, instead, I sit in my living room, with my 7.1 sound system, and watch (mostly pirated) movies on my modest, 40-inch flat screen. And, although I really miss the movie-going experience I remember so fondly from my youth (Just as a for-instance, I was lucky enough to live in Honolulu when 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered - it was one of only 6 cities in the USA which enjoyed the distinction of an exclusive, 6-week engagement - at the Cinerama Theater on King Street, downtown. It was a reserved-seat performance, and I was lucky enough to get a center seat, albeit in the third row, which turned out to be just a little bit closer to the screen than would have been optimal. When the lights went down and the curtain opened up, a hush fell over the audience. Which, y'know, was pretty normal for then. What was very different was that there was no concessions pitch, no newsreel, no previews of coming attractions. Instead, when the screen lit up, we were in
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This much is known, but really, are my movie viewing habits worth enough money to anyone to pay for this? I highly doubt it. They'll pay pennies for that information, not dollars.
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I think people aren't getting why a lot of us don't think this will work. If it were a particular movie theater, or a theater chain, then you might figure they make the money back on concessions, and obviously some of them do that, but that's not what this is at all...
MoviePass is an independent third party that pays the theater the full price for the ticket. Then you go into the theater and maybe buy concessions... that's more profit for the theater, NOT MoviePass. MoviePass hopes to make it's revenue s