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Struggling MoviePass Kills Off Its Annual Plan -- Even If You Already Paid For It (nypost.com)
Slashdot reader nolaguy quotes the New York Post:
Movie subscription service MoviePass has pulled the plug on annual subscriptions, telling those subscribers that they will have to adhere to the same terms as monthly subscribers. The service made the announcement Friday in an email to those members and offered them prorated refunds if they want to cancel their annual memberships.... Until Friday's announcement, subscribers to the $89 annual plans had been able to see a movie a day.
CNET reports that MoviePass "is now forcing you onto its monthly three-movie-a-month plan -- effective immediately...and you'll receive up to a $5.00 discount on any additional movie tickets purchased." They're plannning to apply the $89 annual fees toward the $9.95 monthly fees, but.... To add insult to injury, MoviePass says you'll only have until Aug. 31 -- a week from today -- if you want to get some of your money back in the form of a prorated refund, which you can only get by canceling your plan. And just to make things more ridiculous, MoviePass is preying on your FOMO by saying that if you do take the refund, you won't be able to sign up for MoviePass again for nine months.
CNET's article ends with a link to their list of "the 11 times that MoviePass altered the deal," adding "This is getting sad. And a little shady."
CNET reports that MoviePass "is now forcing you onto its monthly three-movie-a-month plan -- effective immediately...and you'll receive up to a $5.00 discount on any additional movie tickets purchased." They're plannning to apply the $89 annual fees toward the $9.95 monthly fees, but.... To add insult to injury, MoviePass says you'll only have until Aug. 31 -- a week from today -- if you want to get some of your money back in the form of a prorated refund, which you can only get by canceling your plan. And just to make things more ridiculous, MoviePass is preying on your FOMO by saying that if you do take the refund, you won't be able to sign up for MoviePass again for nine months.
CNET's article ends with a link to their list of "the 11 times that MoviePass altered the deal," adding "This is getting sad. And a little shady."
it probably is. I'm having a difficult time feeling too sorry for members.
They obviously do not want to file for bankruptcy. However at this point it looks like the best action to stop the suffering.
Their business plan relied on people not using their service. However it being "too good to be true", people actually wanted to use the subscription to the fullest. If you let people to watch one movie every day of the year, there would be people who would want to watch one movie per day. Not everyone is a family with kids with very little time, and can only go to theaters a few times a year. Many people, do have the time to go to the movies.
Sorry but your plan would have never worked, it failed miserably in the real life. Just accept it.
Two words: class action.
Absent the right clauses in TOS, this is the kind of case class actions were made for—many people were wronged and large amount of financial damage has been inflicted, but individual suits do not make financial sense.
You high? They'll be shuttered in a week and you're behind a very long line of creditors.
I don't understand how someone could ever think this could work.
They were depending on people like me. See, I subscribe to Netflix...but I watch approximately 20 hours a year, so Netflix makes a solid profit margin on me. There are probably enough Netflix subscribers like me where the binge watchers are subsidized, and it all evens out because both of us want to pay a flat rate.
The problem Moviepass had was that they lacked balance. People like me weren't going to sign up because the half-a-dozen times a year I go to the movies is about the same cost as an annual Moviepass subscription - I'd have to go to the movies more often to justify it. The people who were going to jump on the deal were the people who were already going to the movies very regularly, so selling them movie tickets for less than half of what they were already paying just wasn't going to go their way.
Moviepass could have fared better if they limited themselves from the beginning - "$10 for 10 movies a month, but while you pick the days, we pick the show times". They could have partnered with the movie theaters to better distribute crowds during off-peak showings and banked on making up the balance at the concession stands, or at least having the seats available during prime time for full-priced customers. It would help limit the exposure of the theaters, it would set an expectation, and could be beneficial for everyone involved.
I'm unsurprised that the service, as advertised, ended up here.
Why does this company get so much media attention? The second I heard about what it was offering and at what prices I immediately began thinking "90's tech boom bullshit". Remember the company that wanted to make a business out of home delivery of pet food and even aired super bowl commercials? Movie Pass just seemed like more of that to me.
I mean, unlimited movies a month for the price of one movie of month? Guess who's going to sign up for that! People who see more than one movie a month or want to. Guess who isn't going to sign up for this? Everyone who doesn't or doesn't want to. The only way this was a money making enterprise is if they got a lot of people to sign up who didn't watch movies very often and most people just aren't that stupid.
Anybody who put money in any long term manner into such a ridiculously conceived business is too stupid to deserve the money they lost. They might as well have given it to a Nigerian prince.
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AMC Stubs A-List. If you aren't familiar, it is AMC's own version of a subscription plan, and at more survivable pricing. $20 a month for 3 movies a week, for yourself only, with no blackouts or limits on the type of movie (3D, Imax, etc). If you watch even 2 movies a month it should break even, and anything more nets you a savings... while it isn't so dirt cheap that it will kill AMC. I would love it if they'd add an upgrade for another, say, $10 a month that would allow you to use the 3-per-week to cover others (as long as you were with them)... but that may be more niche than they want to go, or it might not be justified price-wise. If I take my family to the movies, AMC still gets a lot of month (wife + 3 kids) even if my ticket is already covered under the A-List plan. Plus any food we buy. I don't think AMC would have come up with this idea if it weren't for the competition from MoviePass.
William George