Netflix Co-Founder's Crazy Plan: Pay $10 a Month, Go to the Movies All You Want (bloomberg.com)

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.

Comments

Ten years too late?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> subsidize our film habit

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).

Re:Ten years too late?

[Zak3056]

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.

How much do I pay...

[mapkinase]

... to kick out all teenagers and people with small kids?

Re:For me this isn't worth it

[bazmail]

Yes but to the average dipshit on the street who can't do the math his idea will seem awesome.Personally I have no problem with the current ticket prices either, its the movies that suck.


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.

Who goes to the movies daily?

[known_coward_69]

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

Which theaters participate?

[Jfetjunky]

Their website calls it a "Theater Network", which immediately conjures up the idea that it doesn't work everywhere. But there's no way to see in advance (that I could find) which theaters participate in their service. The FAQ has this specific question listed, but it just tells you to go back to the main website, where there is no apparent way to find this info without signing up for the service.

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.

We live in a subscription world...

[MikeDataLink]

Recurring revenue is all companies can think about and it is destroying things

Re:We live in a subscription world...

[MikeDataLink]

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.

Re:Hollywood is dying

[bobbied]

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.

$$ POPCORN $$

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:For me this isn't worth it

[bondsbw]

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.