Hi, my name is Shawn and I'm one of these people who signed for MoviePass at $9.99 a month. Since I live in a "full house" these days it's better sometimes for me to blog rather than podcast, and being that it's a Wednesday night and my house has 5 people(and 1 dog) in it, I thought it'd be best to share my thoughts on this MoviePass deal via the written word. I'm not going to look up and reference anything so don't try and crosscheck my facts because I'm probably wrong. All of this will be off the top of my head.
Yesterday, while spending the day at Six Flags with my family, my Facebook was getting links and messages in regards to MoviePass lowering their price to $9.99 per month. MoviePass has been around for a few years. I've heard the basis of it, and thought it was a little overpriced. For a sum amount of money you can see one movie every day, but you can only see a movie one time. Example: If I see Spider-Man and I really liked it, I can not use my MoviePass to go back the next day(or any day) to see Spider-Man again. To me, the other big drawback is it's not "every" theater in the U.S. so chances are my closest theater won't accept MoviePass. However, one of the biggest theater chains in America, AMC, does accept MoviePass, and they are pissed.
They feel that by MoviePass lowering their prices astronomically it is a bad business plan that is doomed to fail, thereby hurting AMC's public image by being associated with MoviePass. From what I hear, MoviePass has to reimburse the theater for every ticket they sell, which will be way more than they'll get from memberships.
So in theory this all sounds like a bad business move right? Does anyone remember how Netflix started making money? They would ship you a dvd(sometimes 2-at-a-time) and then once you've watched it you ship it back. At minimum, from getting a dvd to getting another one would take maybe 3 days. So let's just say you got 2 per week, or 8 movies a month, but you only paid $7 for the subscription when it started. Sounds like they would go out of business right? How many days did you sit on your dvds, saying you were going to watch them only to keep them for weeks or months? MoviePass is banking on the same concept!
The average person goes to a movie maybe once or twice a month. Now, let's just say you go to the movie. You wants snacks right? Most movie theaters make their money off of popcorn and candy(which is why it's so expensive). That's money the theater gets every time you use your MoviePass. Also, most people don't like to go to the movies alone, so you want to bring a friend, and they don't have MoviePass. Well that's one full price ticket the theater gets, thanks to MoviePass.
For those who know me know I love movies(see this blog for reference). I try to see 2 new movies a week(whether in theater or on dvd). But I also spend a lot of time with my daughter. Add a job and the usual "normal stuff" and my only free time is 9pm-12am after my daughter goes to sleep and before I go to bed. I don't want to pay evening prices! Sure, I can go on Tuesdays to my closest theater when it's only $5-all-day, but some Tuesdays I just don't feel like going. MoviePass now allows me to go when I have free time, and for cheaper than the cheapest days. Another limitation is MoviePass will not work for 3D films. To that I say, "who still wants to see 3D movies, aside from maybe 1 or 2 a year?"
For the big movies(like Star Wars or Avengers) my wife and I buy our tickets weeks in advance, which MoviePass does not allow you to do. So every few months I plan on spending full price to go see the big films, but the other 90% of films my wife doesn't want to see I can go on my own for a good price.
Now, AMC I heard is trying to sue MoviePass or even get out of their contract with them. This news has made waves and MoviePass may be gone in a few months. And if it is, guess I'll just go back to renting movies from the public library. No worries. Like Netflix, MoviePass is banking on the laziness of the American people who say they're going to watch that dvd and send it back, or those people who plan on using that gym membership they haven't gone to in months. Also, how many more subscriptions has MoviePass gotten in the last few days that it didn't have last week; millions? Maybe AMC better calm down and think about how this might actually help declining ticket sales. I can also see that once so many people have MoviePass they raise the membership fee(Netflix did). For me, my cut off is $20 (4 x $5 movies a month)
No comments:
Post a Comment