Moviepasse bee

[robfosters]

just seen this on the BBC. This is absolutely crazy cheap. Pay around £7.50 a month and you get a specialised type of debit card to watch any film at any cinema. Just go on to the app and select which film, which cinema and day and the company load the card with the price of a single ticket. You can only watch one movie a day, but theoretically, that means you can watch 30 movies at any cinema and day of your choosing for £7.50!

The US' biggest cinema chain, AMC, is up in arms over it. They insist the pricing is completely unsustainable, whereby movie pass claim the cinema will make more money by increased numbers and higher sales of concessions.

My personal view is that I don't know if this is the right way to do it, but something needs to be done to help the industry. Lately, when I've been to the cinema, the place has been nearly empty. They must try something to remedy this. Much cheaper tickets seems the easiest way to start.

 

[robfosters]

God knows what happened to the title, can a mod just change it to Movie Pass please! TIA.

 

[SixTwoSix]

Yeah AMC have blocked card holders from using booking tickets, won't be long until other chains follow and kill the card.

Shame, great idea in theory for the end user.

 

[Scam]

How was this ever going to work without the cinema chains on board? Here Odeon, accept these coupons for your tickets. Err, no thanks.

 

[robfosters]

Yeah AMC have blocked card holders from using booking tickets, won't be long until other chains follow and kill the card.

Shame, great idea in theory for the end user.

I'm probably being stupid, but if the card is being loaded up with the full price of a ticket, and the cinema receive this, how can it be bad for the cinema? Tbh, I'm struggling to see how it works full stop really. Who are Movie pass and why are they happy to lose money on tickets.

 

[Steeps]

The new Moviepass cards use Mastercard so the cinemas cannot block them without refusing all Mastarcard transactions. AMC don't like the concept because once all regular users are switched to paying $10 a month (even though they get the full price of the ticket) Moviepass will want AMC to subsidise the price of the card supposedly from a rise in concessions sales to keep the cinema and Moviepass in profit.

This works for Cineworld because it is run with the cinema chain and they offer discounts on concessions to encourage extra spending

 

[i5aces]

I don't think the cinema can block the card as it it essentially just a MasterCard, I also don't see why they would want to, the cinema receives full price for the ticket and grater sales of food and drink.
it's moviepass that are loosing out, anything more than 1 film a month and moviepass are down.

 

[Hades]

I guess the cinema chains are worried that long term the control of tickets will move out of their hands and under moviepass control. Once established and people are used to moviepass they can threaten to block some chains unless they offer a cut of the profits on concessions.

 

[x-st]

I'm probably being stupid, but if the card is being loaded up with the full price of a ticket, and the cinema receive this, how can it be bad for the cinema? Tbh, I'm struggling to see how it works full stop really. Who are Movie pass and why are they happy to lose money on tickets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41197966
This explains the whole thing a bit more clearly. Essentially you'd pay that $10 fee and can potentially see 30 films over the course of a month....it's heavily reliant on supplementary sales such as food and drinks. I can't see how the company can remain afloat given that it's fronting the costs,especially if the average user goes multiple times.

 

[robfosters]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41197966
This explains the whole thing a bit more clearly. Essentially you'd pay that $10 fee and can potentially see 30 films over the course of a month....it's heavily reliant on supplementary sales such as food and drinks. I can't see how the company can remain afloat given that it's fronting the costs,especially if the average user goes multiple times.

OK, but the food and drinks are also sold at the cinema, so the cinema get the money for those too. IMO, Moviepass are obviously gambling on cinemas seeing their profits increase to a level whereby they feel it's a good business decision to subsidise Moviepass so that everyone makes a profit.

 

[Scam]

That's true, but surely Moviepass aren't getting any of that money ?

 

[Jokester]

That's true, but surely Moviepass aren't getting any of that money ?

Not at the moment. Basically this is a loss leader for them. What he's hoping is that come contract renewal time with the cinema chains that they'll have seen a big upswing in food+drink purchasing that they'll agree to give him a cut of that revenue.

I think it's bonkers, it's no different to say an Unlimited card direct from a chain.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I get unlimited, all i need is 2 films a month and I get my money back.

To be honest, there are not enough good movies a month to get me to go there twice a week. Some weeks I might go 3 times but i may not go for another 2 weeks. I can't imagine going every day for a month.

 

[Glaucus]

That's true, but surely Moviepass aren't getting any of that money ?

It's like Netflix, loss leader to get markets hate then you can leverage that to start turning a profit. These come down to how much funding they can get. I wish it was in the UK.

 

[Scam]

I think it's bonkers, it's no different to say an Unlimited card direct from a chain.

Well no but if people pay Odeon X amount every month for Unlimited then at least that money is going to Odeon. They are just hedging that a lot of people who pay for Unlimited won't actually end up using it much more than 2-3 times a month. Like Netflix... people subscribe but don't actually end up using it that much. Not to mention with Unlimited, those people are hardly getting in the way of 'regular' customers. So there's not much downside to the chain, they get a nice regular income.

 

[Jokester]

Well no but if people pay Odeon X amount every month for Unlimited then at least that money is going to Odeon. They are just hedging that a lot of people who pay for Unlimited won't actually end up using it much more than 2-3 times a month. Like Netflix... people subscribe but don't actually end up using it that much. Not to mention with Unlimited, those people are hardly getting in the way of 'regular' customers. So there's not much downside to the chain, they get a nice regular income.

But that's the point, hardly anyone has both a Cineworld and an Odeon card as both cinema chains show the same films, they don't have film exclusives tied to only one chain. All this is in effect is something that undercuts their own product and diverts cash to another company, why would they then agree to hand over even more income from food+drinks, when they could just offer the same contract free membership card at the same price?