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Most MoviePass Subscribers Have Gone To a Movie They Normally Would've Ignored (exstreamist.com)

Extremist surveyed 1,311 current self-reporting MoviePass subscribers and found that 82% of subscribers have gone to a movie they normally would have ignored. 13% of respondents said "No," while 5% were "Not Sure." From the report: While theaters are only reporting a slight uptick in foot traffic since MoviePass got popular, there is no denying that there are now more butts in seats of movies that otherwise might not get as much foot traffic. Perhaps the real winner in a world with MoviePass is the box office rake for "bad" movies. If you are a MoviePass subscriber, have you noticed yourself attending movies you otherwise wouldn't pay directly to see?

45 comments

  1. When you get your whores at 5 for a dollar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    you don't get too choosy.

    1. Re:When you get your whores at 5 for a dollar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not as choosy as I am thrifty, where'd you find this bargain

    2. Re:When you get your whores at 5 for a dollar by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      [When you get your whores at 5 for a dollar] you don't get too choosy.

      I avoid them because they're diseased (MPAA).

      Stop spreading MPAA-gonorrhea. This strain is antibiotic resistant and virulent. It even causes gangrene of US copyright law and brain-syphilis among US lawmakers. It's spreading across the planet via US trade policies and treaties and causing societies the world over to rot like week-old fish.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    3. Re:When you get your whores at 5 for a dollar by JMJimmy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Jokes aside, this is revealing. It indicates that the price of a ticket is keeping the majority of people away from the theatre for all but the truly "must see" movies.

    4. Re: When you get your whores at 5 for a dollar by jandrese · · Score: 1

      So the message to the theatre chains and studios is clear: more gimmicks and higher prices.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    5. Re: When you get your whores at 5 for a dollar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I say bring back $5 matinées on the weekend and see what happens. I'd also love to see old movies on the big screen again. Got tickets for 2001 in 70mm Cinerama! Yay!

  2. Multiple MoviePass accounts for family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In my family's case, this is completely accurate. We are definitely going to movies that we would have otherwise passed over. I can also confirm this is the case for the five other friends that I know who use MoviePass.

    1. Re:Multiple MoviePass accounts for family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, of course. You're paying for it so you figure that you better go and use it as much as you can.

      That's also the reason why Movie Pass hates you and will probably go out of business soon.

  3. Enjoy the almost free ride while it lasts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's almost over. Businesses are like any other entity, their input must at least equal their output or they will cease to exist.

    1. Re:Enjoy the almost free ride while it lasts by EzInKy · · Score: 1

      So true, the stock has gone from $38.00 to $0.40 per share. Apparently they are losing $22 million a month, and down to $43 million in the bank.

      https://finance.yahoo.com/quot...

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    2. Re:Enjoy the almost free ride while it lasts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. They also started screwing around with the terms and conditions and making it a royal pain, but I already got my money out of it, so when it crashes I'll be bummed but not out of any money.

  4. MoviePass is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Netcraft confirms: MoviePass is dying.

  5. Well Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's free (after payments)
    Use it or lose it.

    1. Re: Well Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is basically an example of the sunken cost fallacy.

      Once you have paid, you'll settle for meh movies you'd never see because otherwise "you are losing money".

    2. Re: Well Duh by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      There are other factors too. Movies prices for good movies are the same price for bad ones. There are a lot of movies I would say wait for it to get released on DVD and I’ll rent it on Redbox or when it gets to Netflix. I may want to see the movie but not at the ticket prices. So for a wait to see movie may be more appealing if you have a subscription service to watch it.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re: Well Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Itâ(TM)s also an argument that lowering prices would maximize profits for theaters and Hollywood. Current ticket prices are keeping people out of theaters; the movie pass systemâ(TM)s lower price drew them back in to theaters.

    4. Re: Well Duh by Reaper9889 · · Score: 1

      Not really. The sunken cost fallacy states that you should ignore past cost paid when making decisions. I.e. it would only apply here if you went to a movie with movie pass you normally would not have gone to EVEN if it was free. The even part is important.

    5. Re: Well Duh by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Not really. The sunken cost fallacy states that you should ignore past cost paid when making decisions. I.e. it would only apply here if you went to a movie with movie pass you normally would not have gone to EVEN if it was free. The even part is important.

      It can be both. If you pay for an all-you-can-eat buffet, you eat as long as there's a marginal benefit to eating. If you go past that and over-eat to improve or justify your decision to order all-you-can-eat then it's the sunken cost fallacy. Humans are quite prone to do that so it's quite possible that some would use their MoviePass to watch movies they didn't really care for or didn't really have time for in order to maximize their "value". Life is short and there's an opportunity cost to everything, even if it's free and harmless. If it was free to watch any time it'd be different, it's the "use it or lose it" opportunity for something that normally costs money that encourages this behavior. Of course there's many opportunities you should take, but don't buy junk only because it's on sale...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  6. I'm jealous by Cederic · · Score: 1

    I'd love MoviePass in the UK. At university our cinema society had 70mm projects and put on films almost every night. I'd nip upstairs from the computer lab, take money at the door then go in and act as the door guard during the showing.

    Meant I got far more leg room, sitting by the aisle, rarely got interrupted and got to see a lot of films - many of which I'd never had paid to see.

    If you love cinema it's a no brainer. Sure, there are a lot of films that just aren't that good, but there are plenty that are very good and when you encounter something brilliant it's just awesome.

    Stuff like Scent of a Woman, Mad Dog and Glory, Naked Tango, Nikita.. not things I'd have sought out.

    It's taught me to watch films that aren't my normal genres, so I watch 2-3 new films every week on TV and get a mix of hollywood, indie and foreign films, and get to discover and enjoy things like the Park Chan Wook revenge trilogy, the works of von Trier, tearjerkers like Never Let Me Go and the films that I wanted to see anyway like Blade Runner 2049. Although I saw that one at the cinema.

    I wouldn't pay to go to the cinema and see things like Starred Up, Gone Girl, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Pawno or The Silver Linings Playbook. In hindsight I'd have loved to seen them at the cinema, and something like MoviePass would greatly increase my chances of doing that.

    Instead I spend less on cinema tickets than the cost of MoviePass and mostly just wait for films to reach TV.

  7. Not Just Bad Films by mentil · · Score: 2

    These people aren't necessarily going to 'bad' movies (whatever that means). Friends get together and want to do something. Hey, why not see this movie, at no additional cost since you all have MoviePass? Or, SO wants to see this RomCom which you have NO interest in but decide to go if it's free and you get brownie points with the SO. Or, you're totally unsure about some film that's polarizing or only for a certain kind of person (Oscar bait, genre-busting films etc.) and you figure for the low cost of free it's worth maybe checking out. Or you were normally just gonna wait for the home video release, and figure it's actually cheaper to see it in the theater.
    The issue's moot since they're likely to run out of cash in the next month unless someone invests in them/buys them out for some crazy reason. The MPAA might have enough sway to resurrect the concept in exchange for negotiating vastly-reduced ticket prices, otherwise I don't see it being profitable. And that's unlikely to happen until movies stop breaking sales records every single year. Unless Marvel manages to Guitar Hero itself, I don't see that happening in the near future.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  8. 9-11 the musical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's all true! This isn't boolshiat news! I just watched Deek Jackson's musical about 9-11-2001. Especially liked the songs "Born to be lied to" and "Bombed by the USA"

  9. Basically legal piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sro instead of pirating a movie online people are seeing movies “for free” in theaters.

    1. Re: Basically legal piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everyone gets paid what they are asking, so no.

    2. Re:Basically legal piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Sro instead of pirating a movie online people are seeing movies “for free” in theaters."

      Instead of MoviePass I invested in a VPN to do my pirating.

      And I can watch a movie without sneezes, without the ruckus that the sugar-junkies make and I don't have 60 cellphone screens lighting up my face.

  10. Everyone's a (MoviePass) Critic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My brother has it and definitely goes to movies he wouldn't have before. "Just because I can," he says. More interestingly though, he says he doesn't watch movies the same way anymore, whether he would have gone or not. The wider exposure has started him thinking about the quality of aspects of movies too, plot, character development, etc., not just the entertainment of it. He's a much more informed movie goer and critic or describer of the movies. It's not just good or bad anymore, but nuanced and informed about what's good and bad in each movie. Plus he usually buys a beer or two at them, which he definitely would not have done in the past.

    1. Re:Everyone's a (MoviePass) Critic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point with moviepass, is it discounts the ticket if you go often enough. It suggest that movies should be cheaper to get the audiences back in to see more movies just for regular date-night/ buddies night-out-entertainment rather than a *special* night out to see a *specific* movie.

      But the theatres can discount themselves and achieve this. Moviepass sells the passes at a loss, its just an artificial subsidy on the tickets, and isn't useful, the theatres don't need MoviePass, anymore than restaurants needed Groupon to offer discounts.

      They can just do it.

    2. Re:Everyone's a (MoviePass) Critic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're just about right with one missing piece: the studios. I've been frustrated with people I worked with (in product ownership no less ironically) because they don't even see where the studios fit in. The problem with theaters running specials is that the studios won't let them. I think Movie Pass wants to mediate this relationship. But, they aren't offering anything to the studios, not even a good plan for how this will make them more money. They don't even have a business plan. Why would the studios work with them? Makes no sense. Like you say, if the studios think they can squeeze more money out by a business model with discount ticket prices, they can pursue that with the theaters. Movie Pass isn't even offering any value to the studios.

    3. Re: Everyone's a (MoviePass) Critic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you mean distributors won't let them?

      Even that I'd find surprising as a whole bunch of our competition law comes from cases involving studio-owned theaters from mid-20th century.

  11. What they are missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    is that I would buy more concessions if I had a movie pass. Now I pay admission and think twice about buying popcorn. If I went with a pass, I would more often buy popcorn and a soda, or beer being as I am in Germany!

    Usually I go every two months to the cinemas. I would like to go more, but at between 10 and 14 Euro a ticket, I mostly decide to watch something on streaming or rent it from the library for free instead. If I could pay say 100 Euro a year and go as often as I liked, I would probably go twice a month and buy popcorn every time... cause I like popcorn (and can't sneak it in like M&Ms). Net would be more money spent my me.

    Just saying...

    1. Re:What they are missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Net would be more money spent my me.

      I really doubt you'll spend more than the $20-28/month you admit to spending now. If you are the user example for success at Movie Pass, you should be able to see why this is failing. You THINK you will spend more, but you wouldn't. You would spend $10/month on Movie Pass (assuming the price came up to $10/month), and I really doubt your average concessions spending would be $10-18/month on average. Sure, some months you'll spend that much, but not most. Plus, in the current scheme, they don't have to give you any tangible items (no beer or popcorn) and sometimes (I can tell) you buy the popcorn anyway, because you like it can can't sneak it in. You think you are arguing for the Movie Pass business model, but, in reality, you're a perfect example for why it won't work.

    2. Re:What they are missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fair enough. But I see it this way:
      I spend 14 Eur every two months (assuming 3D on the weekend, which isn't usual) = 84 Eur per year. Say every other time I buy the 10 Eur popcorn/drink combo, which is overestimating = 30 per year.

      If I pay 100 Eur for a movie pass = 100 Eur, go twice a month and buy popcorn/drink every other film = 120 Eur per year.... thank makes my estimate 114 Eur per year currently, vs 220 Euro per year with Movie pass. They get nearly twice the money, I get 4x the films and eat more popcorn. Win win? Probably I meet my friends there more often too. My friends always drink beer and spend more than 10 Eur per head during the film.

      This is only hypothetical... but in my case the individual outlay of 14 + 10 Euro often stops me from going to see new releases. Real world is likely different than my thoughts, but hey, what isn't. Point being, I liked the idea of movie pass and wished it would succeed and come to Germany.

    3. Re: What they are missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you guys are also forgetting how the time you see the movie is critical to everyone in the current system. On opening weekend, theaters _need_ you to buy concessions due to the high percentage of the box office take that goes to distributors. A month later, the theater is keeping much more of the take, so even with many fewer customers, they can do fine with the same per-capita concession spending.

      I think MoviePass was fundamentally looking to form a differential pricing structure on the theaters, like airline tickets. When an airline gets 2x$ for a business traveler, though, all that dough goes to the airline. Any rational theater wouldn't bother- why would they piss everyone off who's used to flat pricing, just to send the bulk of that cash to the distributors?

      If MP could shift their customers' movie attendance two weeks later in the cycle, theaters could likely handle radically discounted tickets and still come out ahead, especially given how many potential customers avoid opening weekend at all costs due to perceived lack of good seats. Move 4 million people off that weekend, and suddenly those people (who've been seeing the ad blitz all week) might go on a whim.

    4. Re: What they are missing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the first logical argument I've heard for how Moviepass could make money. That could work, because your cash cow customers would never accept seeing the movie that late.

    5. Re:What they are missing... by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      is that I would buy more concessions if I had a movie pass. Now I pay admission and think twice about buying popcorn. If I went with a pass, I would more often buy popcorn and a soda, or beer being as I am in Germany!

      Usually I go every two months to the cinemas. I would like to go more, but at between 10 and 14 Euro a ticket, I mostly decide to watch something on streaming or rent it from the library for free instead. If I could pay say 100 Euro a year and go as often as I liked, I would probably go twice a month and buy popcorn every time... cause I like popcorn (and can't sneak it in like M&Ms). Net would be more money spent my me.

      Just saying...

      Problem is, ticket prices for new movies don't go to the theatres at all - it's basically 100% goes to the movie studios. The theatres make it up by selling concessions. As the weeks wear on, though the share of the ticket price that goes to the studios reduces (to make up for the lower crowd, and thus, lower concession revenue), which is why some theatres get pricing flexibility by offering discounted matinee showings.

      The cost for me means I only go to select showings, and they have to be better than what I can get at home - so it means it must have better sound (Dolby Atmos preferred), 3D, D-Box, and all the other fixings. Yes, most of those technologies are available for home, but some are pricey - a good D-Box home setup is in the 5-figure range.

      If you're going to offer me just a 2D showing with nothing special? I'll get it on DVD/Blu-Ray, thank you. Yes, that also means paying the higher rate, so if you want to offer me movie passes, they better allow upgrades.

      The problem with MoviePass is it goes about the wrong way. Assuming theatres have control over ticket pricing is stupid - they don't, at least for first run movies. Second, the fact that no one really wanted to partner up should be telling - for MoviePass to be successful, they need partnerships.

      Perhaps what MoviePass should've done is offer things that make the theatres money - concessions. Offering discounted tickets plus discounted concessions and you could make a very good partnership. It's why no theatre really cares about MoviePass and they're forced to pay full ticket price.

      Theatres don't control ticket prices for the popular movies. They do have control over concessions. Had MoviePass added discount concessions to the mix (all they have to do is raise the average per-person concession revenue), then theatres will be happy to partner to offer discount concessions, the only place they have true pricing flexibility.

  12. Never used MoviePass by oobayly · · Score: 1

    I did however use a Virgin cinemas pass when I still lived in Dublin. They sold a 4 or 8 week pass, with which you could see as many movies as you wanted. Can't remember the price, but it was worth it.

    I saw a good few movies that I wouldn't otherwise have paid for, many of which I really enjoyed. It was about then I learned to ignore what the critics say.

    I think I used a similar thing in uni in London - I remember seeing a good few independent films.

    1. Re:Never used MoviePass by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      I saw a good few movies that I wouldn't otherwise have paid for, many of which I really enjoyed. It was about then I learned to ignore what the critics say.

      You don't ignore them, you use them like a newspaper. You take their biases into account, and decide what you will think of the movie based on how your tastes differ. That requires becoming familiar with a movie reviewer, but as long as they watch everything you're interested in, you only need to know one. Siskel & Ebert used to provide probably the best show for this purposes since they had different tastes, and they would point out each other's biases for you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  13. But They Didn't Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure, they saw more movies, but they didn't pay anything for those extra movies. If you give me a free movie ticket, I might go to a movie I wouldn't have gone to also. Again, where is the business model in converting their lucrative top 20% of movie goers into $10/mo payers instead. It takes out an enormous amount of revenue for the studios without any real plan for replacing it, let alone increasing the overall revenue.

    1. Re:But They Didn't Pay by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      If you give me a free movie ticket, I might go to a movie

      I wouldn't, necessarily. If I was bored and needed to kill 2 hours perhaps. But bothering with a theater at any cost is an unpleasant experience. This seems like something you might use for something you "kinda want to see", but you know is probably mediocre at best, or outright bad. Something best watched on some cheap DVD service, or borrowed from someone.

  14. I Haven't by rally2xs · · Score: 2

    Why? Because I saw almost everything anyway. My movie admission cost for January was about $85, when a lot of movies came out. Somewhat less in February, around $65 if I remember right. Moviepass is saving me a ton of money, but I don't expect it to last. I've got my annual $105.35 paid back already, and the rest is just gravy. I expect them to go belly-up in a few more months, the whole concept being impossible from the get-go. But I'll enjoy it while it last.

  15. Bad movies? Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just because you wouldn't have normally watched it didn't make it bad.

    Art museums help people look at art they normally wouldn't have seen, does that make the art bad?

    It sounds like the writer is a troll, or what we used to call a d-bag.

    1. Re:Bad movies? Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sounds like the writer is a troll, or what we used to call a d-bag.

      What it actually sounds like is that you're an idiot who doesn't understand scare quotes, or the context in which they were used, or the fact that the writer is quoting someone else's article, or the fact that neither the Slashdot summary nor the article it quotes is saying what you're projecting onto them.

      You are the reason we need laws against incest.

  16. Sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This says more about the people than the service. The movies they were ignoring didn't magically spring into existence due to the app. We are pathetic in the west, truly, and I wouldn't point to that metric with pride. Millennials need training wheels for literally everything thanks to their shitty parents, good job, guys.

  17. Well duh? by rjejr · · Score: 1

    I don't have Movie Pass, but I found a newly renovated theater near me that is only $5 before 6PM, most others on Long Island are $9 or $10 if they even have a matinee discount at all, so I've been going to see alot more movies than I usually would. I sued to only go once a year, now I go once a month. My kids almost never saw the inside of a theater so they are going a lot more too, $20 seems a lot better than $40 or more. So of course people are going to see movies they normally wouldn't.

  18. Paid advertisement? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm curious when slashdot will tell us how much moviepass is paying them to keep plugging their service.

  19. Monthly movie pass in the UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cineworld and Odeon chains both offer monthly passes £19.90 and £19.99 respectively, with cheaper options available outside London
    (Minimum membership 12 months)
    https://www.lovemoney.com/news/51487/odeon-limitless-cineworld-unlimited-cheap-free-cinema-tickets

    It is worth it to them to get the steady income every month. The major limitation was you couldn't advance book but I can't remember if there were any other restrictions.

    I'd be surprised if MovePass died completely but there's a proven market for that sort of thing.