A new subscription service is breaking open a new way to see movies at the theater: Moviepass will allow subscribers to see one movie per day in their local theater at the economic cost of $9.95 a month. Moviepass has been in existence since 2011, but a new CEO Mitch Lowe who previously worked with RedBox and Netflix has prompted the radical change citing the “risk of seeing a bad movie is high”. When you consider that just seeing a standard definition movie in the theaters is around $10 (and even more if it’s in IMAX or 3D) that price point is really a radical change that gives leverage to the consumer. It’s made convenient in the obvious form of an app on your phone. It’s available in the Apple store and Google Play. No one is paying me to type this, but it sounds like a something that gives you all the blockbuster for your buck.
Now there are limitations and maybe some unforeseen issues at this new eye-catching price. IMAX and 3D movies will be exempt right now, but Moviepass intends to roll out a separate subscription to let users see those movies in the future. You have to use a debit card on the service, which for some is annoying. Another critical caveat found by LifeHacker is that you can only get your ticket for an individual movie the day-of the screening you are going to see, so that may make it challenging to get tickets for the opening weekends to some more popular releases. The way Moviepass is limited could also change based on the theater chain you use it at like AMC, Marcus, or others.
Lowe in a CNBC interview you can watch above, states that Moviepass will give millennials and younger people a fresh reason to go to the movie theaters and let the theater industry be a “social experience” again. He noted during his tenure with Netflix, they saw users watching movies they would never watch before if they had to subscribe to them on Netflix. Think about about how many different movies you can see in a month? How much money you could save? How much more you would be willing to risk to go see that indie comedy that you are just not that sure about? The days of ‘ Oh, I will just wait for it on Netflix or Hulu’ are gone, because if you really want to see it, you could go see with less risk.
