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MoviePass' Low Subscription Price Just Got Lower (hollywoodreporter.com)
In a move to lure new subscribers, MoviePass has dropped the price of its monthly subscription service from about $10 per month to just under $7. From a report: The company said for $6.95 per month, new subscribers will get one movie ticket per day, a minor catch being that users must pay for a year up-front. There is also a one-time $6.55 processing fee. It's the umpteenth time that MoviePass has changed its price since launching six years ago at $40 per month (before raising it to $50), most significantly eight months ago when it was cut to just $9.95. The change had the desired effect, as subscribers swelled from 20,000 then to nearly 3 million today. Still, MoviePass is not without its critics, as some theater chains -- most notably AMC -- have criticized the service for allegedly cheapening the moviegoing experience. Also, industry executives worry that MoviePass cannot survive (it pays mostly full price for the movie tickets its subscribers use) and wonder if users that are left in the lurch when it folds will ever want to pay $9 (the average price in the U.S.) per ticket again.
They track where you go and what you do before and after the movie. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
To use this app, you basically give them more info about you than your doctor, therapist, and the IRS combined.
Turn off background refresh for their app, and they can't track anything when the app isn't running (on iOS at least). I did this 30s after I installed it.
- Vincit qui patitur.
I started going to the movies again because of moviepass. It has allowed me to remember how annoying people at the theater can be. Even if everyone has their cellphones quieted, they still talk to one another when I'm trying to listen to the movie. Also, the snack prices are all more than I paid to see the movie. So I have a strong incentive to eat beforehand and NEVER eat movie popcorn/candy/sodas. If something happens in a movie, someone will yell out: "Hah!" It's more annoying than you might think. I'm not sure I will renew for the next month. (I used the phone app which allowed a monthly subscription instead of annual.)