I heard a lot this weekend about the woes that Moviepass is currently undergoing. I’m not personally a member of moviepass (I’ve got the AMC A-list, which I may do a review on at some point - but I do like it a lot), but it has been in the news quite a bit.
Apparently, there were a few issues last week. The stock had dropped to something like 8 or 9 cents. They were worried about the stock being delisted, so the CEO got approval to do a reverse stock split (250:1) which raised the value of a stock to around $21. As of this morning, it has already gone back under $1. Then, there was an issue Thursday evening where they had to get an emergency loan to pay their card processing company. I believe that loan was around $5 million - $6 million. Then, they blocked out Mission Impossible over the weekend so their customers couldn’t see it. Now, apparently, they are blocking out a lot more movies.
Given all of this, I’m wondering how much longer moviepass will last? Sounds to me like it’s limping very weakly on it’s last leg.
The company was an interesting idea, but clearly had an unsustainable model. On the one hand, I like that they introduced the concept of a subscription service for movies, as it let me to enroll in the AMC A List service. On the other hand, I have to wonder who was advising them to go with the model they did. They sold their service as the chance to see a movie a day for around $10 a month. That was clearly unsustainable.
I canceled last night. I subscribed last December. $10/month, any movie (including repeats) 1 per day, no 3D/IMAX. Too good to be true, but I gave it a shot. Then they got rid of repeat viewings. Then they started pushing EVERYONE to take pictures of ticket stubs to prove you went to the movie. Then they start peak pricing, and virtually every Thursday afternoon-Sunday evening show of EVERY film had peak pricing, then they decided to remove the ability to see blockbusters on opening weekend.
The talk has been that they’re trying to push toward an audience that mostly see small, indie films-the problem for me is that my little 6-theater cine doesn’t typically have a lot of indie films-blockbusters and schlock like God’s Not Dead and the Medea movies.
In small town USA, movies aren’t really that expensive anyway. 5-6 bucks for a matinee, 7-8 for a night show. And since virtually every weekend show is now peak pricing, and that’s when I’m usually able to go see movies, the price just isn’t worth it any longer.
They MAY last, but it’s going to be a far different model than they used to try to make the service mainstream.
Yeah, I had heard of them a few months ago, but I had also heard about some of the problems you were talking about. That’s the reason I was hesitant to join.
It was fun while it lasted and I saw a lot of movies I’d otherwise probably not have seen. Then they eliminated repeat viewing. Then they added surge pricing and literally every movie at every time on every day at the theaters in my town was surge priced no matter how long they’d been out. I cancelled my card last week. I think others are doing the same which will just hasten the implosion. I expect it to fold completely within the month.
LOL. I just opened up my movie pass app, though I’ve cancelled its good through August 8th.
First time in three days that it shows any movies available at my local theaters and shockingly not a one is surge priced yet. Too little too late though. I’m not uncancelling.
