Movie Theater Subscription Services

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W
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Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by W »

With the launch of AMC's A-List this morning as well as the recently announced Alamo Season Pass it looks like the subscription model for movie theater tickets is here to stay at least for a year (AMC has guaranteed the programs price 12 months). I was wondering if anyone besides myself has any experience with them. I was a Moviepass member a couple of years ago and started back up when they dropped their price to $10 a month. I just joined AMC's A-List this morning as today is the day it opened for enrollment. Let me give you a bit of insight from my experiences with both so far:

Moviepass: A service where you can watch one movie per day for the low fee of $10 per month. It covers about 91% of all theaters in the US (I think I saw this number the other day somewhere). You can only watch standard 2D films and you cannot watch the same film more than once. Tickets must be purchased the same day. You must take a photo of your ticket stub after purchase so they can verify you're actually going to that movie. They are instituting the ability to upgrade to 3D, IMAX, etc for a fee that's been said to be between $2 and $6 per ticket. They are about to start using surge pricing which will charge you an additional $2-6 per ticket if it is a busy time of day.

The customer service is abysmal. I haven't had to deal with it since the rejoin, but there are instances of them not getting back to people who've email them for up to three months.

Personal experience: I first joined MP mid-2015 at the $30 price point, it is extremely easy to use. You sign up and they issue you a Mastercard which they load money onto after you have checked in on the app. After checking in you have thirty minutes to purchase the ticket with the Mastercard. I saw a ton of movies during the ten or twelve months I was a member then the new CEO started and the next month the "randomly" selected the highest volume users and forced them to "test out" new plans which included a $50 a month plan where you were only allowed to see five movies a month and a $99 plan where you were subject to the same limitations as everyone else except you could see IMAX/3D/etc. That was the end of that experience.

When they dropped their price I joined back up under another email because over a year later it still effectively "banned" me because I wouldn't pay them $99 a month. As of now it is the same great, easy to use, service I had before (they added the ability to rewatch movies then a few months ago brought the restriction back). I've been with them since October and they've changed a bit here and there, but nothing that would make me cancel. Now they've added the "upgrade" of surge pricing which mean about half the movies I go to are going to have a secondary charge to them unless I change my schedule, putting me in the range of $20-30 a month.

AMC A-List: This is a service that starts today. At $20 a month you can see three movies a week in any format (IMAX, Real D 3D, Dolby, etc). They still do not allow stuff like Fathom events, some upcharged, fan screenings, and other upcharged titles. There is no restriction daily, so you can use your A-List three times in the same day if you'd like. You can reserve seats to a movie whenever the movie goes on sale and you can have three reservations at the same time. So if you want to grab tickets to Ant-Man IMAX 3D you can go ahead and do it today. The whole thing is app based and you must present ID when you check in so people can't share passes. It is technically another level of your Stubs benefit, so it has all the extras included with Premier. You do get points for the $20 monthly charge and any concessions/tickets you purchase, but do not get points on the free movies.

Personal experience: I haven't actually used it yet but I did join and have tested the new features out. It's very simple. It's just their regular app but when you check out it gives you the ticket for no charge. I set up a reservation for my kid and I to see Ant-Man in 3D next Thursday and only had to pay for the child ticket. I plan on loading the account up with discounted gift cards so when I purchase a ticket for someone going with me (or concessions) I can get them for 25-30% off (actually loaded $75 on there today for like $57).

Sinemia: Plans start at $4.99/month for 1 2D movie per month and top out at $14.99 for 3 any format viewings. These are billed annually. If you have a family you can go on the family plan, which basically just lets you add multiple tickets to it. So a family of three plan $14.99 plan would cost $45 per month and you can buy 3 tickets each time with it. They say these are promotional prices and the original prices are much higher. Sinemia also offers advanced ticket purchasing and app based ticketing. It is available at "every major theater."

Alamo: Alamo is testing out their own service starting in Yonkers New York. Nothing is known about what this entails at the moment.
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BanksIsDaFuture
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by BanksIsDaFuture »

I've been with MoviePass since the price drop last year. It's worked well for me, I only dislike that you cannot reserve seats online/app. Because of that, I typically only go to the movies during the week or off hours on the weekends.

For big movies, I've had to pay out of pocket because there was no way there was going to be empty seats on opening weekend (Infinity War, Black Panther, Solo, Deadpool 2).

I love MP, I've only had to use their Customer Service once and they were quick and easy - they refunded a ticket of mine in about 5 minutes.

I would sign up for AMC A-List in a second and drop MP (12 movies a month is more than enough), but the closest AMC is a 20 minute drive (and I'd be passing 3 Regals and a Cinemark on the way).

I like our new Alamo here, but I don't go very often because their rewards programs pales in comparison to Regal/Cinemark. And I also end up buying at least $10-$15 of food whenever I go, so I'm not really saving any money. I'm tempted by their sub simply for the movie parties and throwback screenings.
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W
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by W »

I must live in AMC country or something. I live in the country-ish, so driving is pretty much a way of life, but have an AMC across the street from my work. It's a 30 minute drive from my home to work/AMC. Within an hour I think there are like 6 AMCs (one with Dolby that they're currently renovating) and one Regal. If I want to drive just a bit further there are two IMAXes, both AMC. So they're relatively everywhere around here.
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transformers2
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by transformers2 »

You're not alone W. There's about 15 AMC's within 45 minutes of where I live, which is about 20 minutes north of Boston in a relatively populated area. Outside of Showcase, I'm not even aware of another chain that has more than a couple of locations in Eastern Massachusetts.
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JohnErle
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by JohnErle »

I was going to say that no programs like this exist in Canada and blame the Cineplex monopoly for that, but then I did a quick Google and learned that Sinemia launched here a few months ago.

I can't say their website fills me with confidence, and I read a few reviews about how frustrating and confusing their app is to use. They seem like a fly-by-night outfit, and my interest in what Hollywood cranks out is at an all-time low, so I'm not going to take a chance on their service any time soon, but it'll be interesting to see if it catches on.

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numbersix
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by numbersix »

I think the only subscriptions over here in the UK are based on certain cinema chains - only the multiplexes such as Cineworld which allow unlimited basic screenings (not 3D, etc) for about $25 a month.

None are near me so I just have a membership with my local Picturehouse, which is kinda like a Drafthouse, which offers discounts per ticket.

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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by Buscemi2 »

With Cineworld owning Regal now, I'm surprised they haven't attempted a subscription service. Oh, right. The studios want people to pay full price for things like Action Point and Show Dogs.

Meanwhile, I wonder what happened with that adjustable pricing thing that Regal talked about.
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by Chienfantome »

For once I think on this point France was in advance over the US.
It's been 18 years now that I have my Unlimited pass, which started as a pass for the UGC branch, but over the years they have allied with another chain and now most of the independent and arthouse cinemas take it too.
I pay 21€ per month and I can go see as many films as I want in any theater accepting the card (I'd say a good 50%, if not more, of Paris' cinemas accept it, and there are A LOT of cinemas in Paris, you can't even imagine). No restriction on the number of films, I can see 5 a day, 7 days a week if I want, and in UGC cinemas, the 3D is included in the cost.I can book my tickets online or with the UGC app.

I don't know how much money I've saved thanks to this over the last 18 years, but A LOT that's for sure.
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W
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by W »

It looks like Moviepass is dead. People aren't able to use the card and they got a $5 million loan at 24% interest to pay their debit card processor. They reverse split 250 to 1 bringing the price from 9 cents to $21 on Wednesday. The stock is down to $2.92 right now from that $21 price and is only going to tank harder.

Has anyone tries Sinemia? I'm thinking I may try it @ $83.88/1 year (2 Standard movies a month) next as a compliment to A-List. I'd be able to still hit the art house theater once or twice a month and it will be cheaper.
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by transformers2 »

Quick question for any A-list subscriber (I'm planning on signing up this week): Do you have go to one of the kiosks at the theater to redeem your ticket before you go to the ticket taker or does it strictly go through the app? The language in the FAQ (you need to present your ticket, virtual membership card and ID to redeem a reservation) kind of confused me.
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W
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by W »

transformers2 wrote:Quick question for any A-list subscriber (I'm planning on signing up this week): Do you have go to one of the kiosks at the theater to redeem your ticket before you go to the ticket taker or does it strictly go through the app? The language in the FAQ (you need to present your ticket, virtual membership card and ID to redeem a reservation) kind of confused me.
ID: The tickets print with big bold letters "ID" on them so they know to check and multiple people can't use the same account. I believe it says that when they scan as well.
Virtual membership card/Ticket: The only reason you need the virtual membership card is if you're booking there (or want points from concessions). The ticket taker doesn't need your membership card, just the ticket (physical or app) and your ID (assuming they ask for it).

Kiosk or Ticket Taker: Either. You can go to the kiosk or person selling the tickets and book it there or you can get it ahead of time. Sometimes (especially if they're busy) the ticket taker will just scan the ticket off the app as you walk in. Mine local one is a Classic so they don't have a person doing that.

The kiosk is easy enough. If you book ahead of time just click pick up tickets and scan your ticket QR code off the app. It's best to take a screenshot of the QR code after you book in case something happens with the cell service.

TIP: Turn the brightness up so it reads the QR code easier.

If you don't book ahead just go like you're going to buy a ticket and at checkout it'll say "Do you want to make this one of your A-List selections?" It'll make you swipe a card still and charge you $0.00.

What I Do: I always book ahead and scan at the kiosk. I like to keep my ticket stubs, get seats I want ahead of time, not have to swipe a CC, etc. If there's a long line typically the ticket person will shout that he can scan.
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by transformers2 »

Appreciate the in-depth answer W. As a collector of stubs, I'm glad they allow you to print off physical tickets.
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by W »

If you’re considering AMC’s program it looks like you want to join by the end of the year. A price raise may be in store. If you get in by the end of the year the $20 price is locked in for 12 months.
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by Buscemi2 »

I was at an AMC last week and it looks like people are getting their money's worth. I saw a guy taking full advantage of his three movies a week and free popcorn refills (he was not at either movie I saw but I did see lots of elementary school kids at Halloween).
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W
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Re: Movie Theater Subscription Services

Post by W »

Buscemi2 wrote:I was at an AMC last week and it looks like people are getting their money's worth. I saw a guy taking full advantage of his three movies a week and free popcorn refills (he was not at either movie I saw but I did see lots of elementary school kids at Halloween).
Is it not a good thing to watch three subscription-based movies a week? I know I've done four in a day (three AMCs and one Moviepass), but normally 2-3. I have my kid six out of seven days most weeks, so a couple of times a month I'm going an hour away where there are multiple IMAXes and Dolbys with recliners and a large selection of movies instead of the older theater in my hometown. There's also an art theater (which is where I use Moviepass). A lot of times it's feasible to hit my local AMC after work a couple times, but sometimes it isn't. I don't really see the difference between going multiple days a week like yourself and going multiple times once a week. Or is it something else you don't like about people using the service?
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