Page 1 of 1

How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 3:51 am
by JSchlansky
Anyone on here try it out? Anyone have any trouble with it?

Re: How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 4:51 pm
by Luna6ix
Never heard of it until today, but I checked it out and it looks like it's pretty cool. You can use it in all three theaters in my town. I have a hard time believing that if moviepass pays full price for tickets and subscribers only pay 9.95 per month that they're going to go out of business pretty quick unless they come to some agreement with theaters.

Re: How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 7:10 pm
by Mentaculus
OK - So I HAVE tried it for about a month and a half now. And I don't have enough good things to say about my experience.

The deal is, they send a Credit Card that you then link to an app on your phone, that uses GPS/Location Services to make sure you are the one really using the card. Once you get within a certain proximity of the theater where you want to use it, you tap the time/screening on the app and Moviepass loads the money for the ticket (only you, and only one ticket, no 3D or IMAX or anything fancy) to your card. You can see one film every 24 hours, so realistically, you could see 29-30 movies a month. I live in Los Angeles, so using the card once already made up the cost of the monthly subscription.

And since I live in L.A., I have used this at second run theaters (the New Beverly, the Egyptian), as well as mainstream like AMC and Regal.

I agree that if they don't find a way to make agreements with theaters people like me will break the service. But, to their point: I do find myself buying beer and concessions more readily than I normally would, since I am getting a deal - so the theatrical distribution companies win. I also find myself going to see movies I would not normally go to, which looks good for the studios - so they win. I have a feeling that at least one reason why this has been a failure year for the box office is because the cost of seeing a movie in theaters has risen higher than the personal barrier of possibly seeing a crap movie. Moviepass levels the playing field, in a way, which may be the best thing for all parties if they can work out a sustainable arrangement.

Addendum: I live a block from LA's Downtown Independent and without anything to do one evening I decided to go and see what the film was. It turns out I stumbled onto a major screening series and restoration project from UCLA Archives. These films are so fascinating, I've gone to all of these screenings I can. It's $10 a ticket, or $50 a festival pass. I've used my Moviepass instead - the theater, and the project, have received more $ than the festival pass from my going to more than 5 festival screenings. Not only did I literally stumble off the street into a screening series I never would have encountered otherwise, but they get more money than they would normally.

Re: How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 7:21 pm
by jacobclark12
I have my card but haven't actually used it yet...but I did try once. I overestimated how many people would be seeing Thor: Ragnarok on its opening Saturday. Where I live (central Illinois), it's worth it if I can see just two or three movies a month, so when I'm on my semester break I'm going to tear it up like crazy.

Re: How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 1:51 am
by mattorama12
I was an early subscriber and I really enjoyed it. This was back when it cost I think $40 per month, so I needed to see 3-4 movies for it to be worth it. I ended up cancelling because I just have a hard time seeing that many movies in theaters each month just based on my personal schedule. I really liked it and I'm most likely going to sign up for it again now it's cheap enough to make economic sense with my viewing habits once again.

In addition to what others have said, I'd note a couple things:

It's a pain when it comes to seeing popular movies or going to busy theaters. You can't buy a ticket unless you're physically at the theater, so crowded theaters mean you have to go earlier in the day to buy the ticket or get stuck with a shitty seat. Note, I'm in Los Angeles where most of the multiplexes do assigned seating now. This probably wouldn't be an issue for first-come, first-served places where buying a ticket at the box office is the norm anyway.

When I was on it, you couldn't do 3D or IMAX. I don't give a shit about 3D, but I love IMAX. I thought that it should have worked by just putting the regular ticket price on the card, and then I could pay the difference for 3D or IMAX. They may do that now, as I constantly suggested that in the millions of surveys they asked me to take while I was on the service (and I'm the type that's happy to do those surveys to improve the services I use).

This is very specific problem that I can't imagine would apply to anybody else, but here it is anyway. The app was tied to your phone's device ID, which meant that you couldn't just get a new phone and sign in. When you get a new phone, you had to call customer service and have it manually approved. This makes sense to prevent fraud. However, I was (at that time, but no longer) very into trying out different operating systems on my phone every few months, which changes the Device ID and made it appear to the MoviePass app that I was using a new phone. So I'd have to call into customer service and get it approved. They then told me there was a limit on how many times they would do this, which I think was like 3 in a year or something. Obscure issue, but one I had nonetheless.

Finally, I think the policy then was that if you cancel the service, you can't restart within the next 6 months. I think that's fair, but just something to note.

All in all, I loved it and thought it was really, really great service for people who love movies. Plus you can earn theater reward points (I go to a lot of AMCs), and earn free points through it. In fact, I just talked myself into signing up again.

Edit: Apparently they've addressed the reserved seating issue. From the FAQ: At theaters where reserved seating is available, e-ticketing will also allow you to select your seat in advance. These theaters are indicated by a red chair icon.

Re: How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:58 am
by jacobclark12
So I've used it three times now, and I love it -- ESPECIALLY at my home theater that uses E-ticketing instead of buying at the box office. Friends of mine that use it where I go to school (no e-ticketing there) will go to the theater earlier in the day to buy their tickets for a later showing, which actually makes a ton of sense. I don't always have that luxury, so I'll be going to a lot of earlier or later showings, but that's fine by me. Being home for school breaks is making me really wish that more chains used E-ticketing, though: reserving my ticket at my house rather than in the parking lot right before my showtime makes the process a lot easier.

Re: How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:39 pm
by CosmicMonkey
Meanwhile, North of the border:

Image

Re: How Movie Pass Works

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 7:55 pm
by PrestoBix
I have it. It's excellent. Does exactly what it claims to do. So far I've paid them $20 and seen 8 films. I had gotten into a habit of watching most movies at home and only going to the theater a few times a year, now I'm going a lot and actively looking for re-releases of classics to see. It's changed the way I think about the theater.