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MoviePass is running out of money and needs to raise $1.2 billion
- Thread starter Kaeden
- Start date
So these guys just started a company without doing the maths about ticket prices?
You can do this?
You can do this?
We will be given complimentary tickets to Gotti and various pieces of Gotti merchandise.
I'm gonna keep using it until they close shop. It blows my mind that they've had this long to try and figure out how to make it profitable and still haven't. They probably could've had steady growth and figured out how to make a profit if they didn't drop it in price so quick.
Survive on VC funding for as long as you can before you pivot and monetize? That's literally every tech startup ever.
I just can't see how it could be sustainable with their current pricing model. Even if it was limited to once a week, seems a huge risk. Honestly very surprised it's been around as long as it has.
This seems to have been the trend for a hot minute now.
I've saved sooo much money and pay month to month so I'm certainly not complaining but this sucks. Time to sign up for sinema or the amc thing or whatever it's called. One thing is for sure - the subscription service is here to stay and ther only be more options moving forward.
Probably thought it would be like Netflix where people would sign up, never use it, and forget about it.
Probably went along the lines of "if people can't be bothered to even use a service that is on every device in their home, then there's no way they'll actually drive to a physical movie theater!" and didn't account for the problem that the only people who would sign up for movie pass are people who are serious about going to see lots of movies.
Shares now down to $0.22 each, down 29% just today.
Their business model is absurd and unsustainable.
Their business model is absurd and unsustainable.
So weird to me that cinema chains don't already run their own card schemes in the U.S.
I get that Moviepass is super cheap but in the UK most of the major chains have had loyalty cards for years and in the case of Cineworld over a decade.
Can't see why Moviepass and its awkward booking system would succeed if the likes of AMC can offer a no bullshit service where you don't need to be within 300 yards of the cinema or some crap.
I pay £17.99 a month in the UK and have no restrictions, can book weeks ahead from the comfort of my home etc.
I get that Moviepass is super cheap but in the UK most of the major chains have had loyalty cards for years and in the case of Cineworld over a decade.
Can't see why Moviepass and its awkward booking system would succeed if the likes of AMC can offer a no bullshit service where you don't need to be within 300 yards of the cinema or some crap.
I pay £17.99 a month in the UK and have no restrictions, can book weeks ahead from the comfort of my home etc.
Yeah, I wonder this too. It feels like they just failed to do their due diligence before starting.
I mean, everyone had to know this who looked at their business model.
The information they got from consumers seeing movies just wasn't valuable enough, since most of those metrics were already measured. Especially when you consider people will watch just about anything for $10 a month. It just had zero value to advertisers / marketers.
The information they got from consumers seeing movies just wasn't valuable enough, since most of those metrics were already measured. Especially when you consider people will watch just about anything for $10 a month. It just had zero value to advertisers / marketers.
They did, it's just that when they started, it was at way too high of a cost. They somehow hoped that lowering the price would bring in enough people who didn't use it to make up for it kind of like a gym membership program. Turns out though, people actually LIKE going to the movies though.
Hope a bunch of people sign up and never use it. $10 is just low enough that a fair amount of folks would either neglect to cancel or forget about it altogether, not unlike how people neglect their gym memberships. Since movie pass only pays for the tickets when subscribers see movies, that is the only way I could think of that they thought they could sustain it.
Edit: other posts in the thread point out that gathering and monetizing viewer data is another aspect. Makes sense in an information economy where businesses are always trying to scrape up every penny possible.
MoviePass is really just a glorified loyalty program. It's super simple to emulate on a chain by chain basis - I'll bet AMC's service becomes the norm for theaters moving forward. Or, if they're not offering "X number of movies per month," there will be other incentives. Most people stick with one or two chains anyway (with an art house thrown in the mix occasionally), so you're not really missing out if you stick with a single chain.
$1.2 million would probably only buy them another day, if that.
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Never joined it but I'm happy they came around so AMC can put out A-List at $20.
When MoviePass dies, let's see how long that price last.
When MoviePass dies, let's see how long that price last.
Apparently the parent company has had massive issues in other countries with bad business practices and decisions.
Yeah I live within 10 minutes of 2 cinemas - one's a multiplex (where I have my unlimited card) and the other covers all my art-house needs, which I go to maybe once a month. I guess I spend about £300 a year on movie tickets (unlimited sub + art-house tickets) but I see like 120 movies a year so it works out damn cheap (about £2.50 a ticket).
I more than got my money's worth while it lasted considering how often my wife and I got to the movies and we both have subscriptions to the service. It was always too good to be true.
I think the cost of going out to the movies has risen so much along with a decline in interesting movies that people were forced to be more selective about the films they went to see versus the films they were willing to wait to hit streaming services / digital / disc and MoviePass interpreted that as people really didn't care about going to the movies and wouldn't use the service that often but it would be cheap enough that they'd keep the subscription running "just in case". Instead, people really are interested in and enjoy going to the movies but the cost per movie outing is outrageous and this solved that issue for many people.
I honestly haven't been to a movie theater in 7-8 years and this would have gotten me back in the theater but I never signed up for it because of the negativity surrounding it here at ERA.
Either that or they thought someone would buy them before they had to figure out their own system. I think the subscription model will be a thing but not before people stop going to the movies again. There's not even an AMC theater in my state so I've gained nothing from this currently.
I honestly haven't been to a movie theater in 7-8 years and this would have gotten me back in the theater but I never signed up for it because of the negativity surrounding it here at ERA.
Either that or they thought someone would buy them before they had to figure out their own system. I think the subscription model will be a thing but not before people stop going to the movies again. There's not even an AMC theater in my state so I've gained nothing from this currently.
Damn, what a ride
The value for a mere $10 per month as a movie watcher was incredible, like how was it possible levels of good.
Turns out it wasn't, just barrowed time, but thank you movie pass for existing.
The value for a mere $10 per month as a movie watcher was incredible, like how was it possible levels of good.
Turns out it wasn't, just barrowed time, but thank you movie pass for existing.
Makes me wonder how much "box office is on fire" is attributed to these folks basically giving tickets away for a year
Sad but inevitable. My wife and I both subscribed. We have saved so much money on ticket sales, but truthfully it got us to go to the theatres again. Something we stopped doing regularly years ago. I will probably go back to seeing 3 or 4 movies a year once they close shop.
It was priced too high when they started ($30, I think?) and then they priced it too low to get people to sign up en masse. It is a fantastic service while it lasts, and I think it demonstrates that people want to go to the movies more than they do, but ticket prices are too high. I'll end up with the AMC plan because that is my closest theater, but Moviepass had a better service (if not business model, though I'm interested in how AMC will weather it, because at a higher price I'm really going to see every movie possible and I never buy concessions).
I think it was to be a combination of things. Like, get enough customers that they could strong arm movie theaters to give a part of profits from all the extra they sell in addition to just ticket sales ("see how many people we are getting to the movie theaters more, without us you'll lose a ton of money" or something like that), gather user data they can sell to interested parties and such. Of course movie theaters were collectively all "no thanks, bro" and I'm not sure how sought after their data is.