Slashdot Mirror
MoviePass Will Increase Price, Limit Availability of New Movies (theverge.com)
After running out of money and shutting down for a night last week, the movie ticket subscription service MoviePass will increase its price to $14.95 a month within the next 30 days. Furthermore, "first-run movies will only be viewable on a limited basis during the first two weeks of release, unless the company has a promotional deal with a given film," reports The Verge. From the report: MoviePass' statement claims these changes are being made "to enhance discovery, and to drive attendance to smaller films and bolster the independent film community." In a widely reported all-hands meeting at the company, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe cited the upcoming Christopher Robin and The Meg specifically as films that would not be available to subscribers. More broadly, MoviePass hopes to make smarter decisions about potential partnerships with studios and brands in the hopes of turning a profit, though no specific details were shared at this time. This new price increase is in addition to the already-announced plan to implement surge pricing for popular movies.
I'm probably the reason they're in trouble, because, "I see everything." Not really, I don't go to the ones that are "Too stupid for words." That would be stuff like "Dumb and Dumber" or this current thing with the Abba songs, "Mamma Mia." The trend toward female-centric movies where the men are either idiots or irrelevant are a turn-off and that's one of 'em. The biggest notable disappointment in the last year was the Star Wars flick with all the important positions being female, and the males were mostly idiots or irrelevant. Having battle commanders being female, pretty much all of 'em, isn't even believable - the gals just don't aspire to such positions in sufficient numbers to turn out to be the best at it and be placed in command over guys who have studied / play-acted it / and aspired to it ever since the could go forth sans diapers.
But anyway, I'm going to have to pay for the major movies? What else is new, I see those mostly as IMAX and/or 3D anyway which isn't covered and never has been by MP. I see all the new movies as they open, and probably achieve a state of having seen everything that's playing in town by Monday. So, they are not going to be as lucrative as they were? 'Sall right, I made my $105.35 yearly subscription back in about 6 weeks of admission prices I didn't pay. If the yearly had been $400, I'd still be making $$$, and I'd probably still have bought it. Maybe MP should have several tiers of usage, with people like me paying more, and those not paying more being limited to, say, 2 non-IMAX, non-3D movies a week and for a higher $ than $105.35 / yr. I actually saw all this nonsense coming, and got the yearly since lots of stuff they're doing to the monthly people would be a violation of the contract for yearly people. I've been much less affected as a result.
So, this last January, when all the oscar-hopefuls that officially opened in December hit the local theaters, I spent $85 in admission to movies. Yeah, I track that stuff. $65 the next month. MP is going to be a savings for me pretty much no matter what they do, and if they are paying for movies like "Bad Samaritan" that came thru last month, was there for maybe a week, and almost nobody saw, but was absolutely excellent and scary as hell throughout, and I saw twice, I'll still be "winning." Just hope they can hang on.