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Author
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Topic: Meet the Lone Loser in MoviePass Hitting 1 Million Members
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 03-28-2018 08:58 AM
quote: Justin Hamaker
Using this same data I was also able to extract credit card snack bar purchases from our POS transaction history. From this I found that MP customers accounted for 0.56% of our concession sales. Obviously this number goes up when you consider some of them will have paid cash, but it is still a small number.
Justin, the stories I've read about MP insist the cards are loaded specifically for theatre admission. I understand how you can track their cards for the ticket purchase, but I'm curious as to how you could use that information to pull those same people out of concession purchases. If the current "rules" are followed, my impression was they'd have to use a different form of payment for their snacks. From what I've read, attempting to use a MP card at the snack bar could get the subscriber booted from the service. If that's true, that might be part of the low percentage.
On the other hand, I also read that MP customers generally pass by the snack bar, because they believe they're basically getting the movie for free, so why spend a lot of money on popcorn?
When I offered the discount (25 years ago), my $5 carload customers did much the same thing. They brought a lot of beer in, but didn't spend much on snacks.
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Harold Hallikainen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 906
From: Denver, CO, USA
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted 03-31-2018 01:00 PM
http://www.omaha.com/go/plus/omaha-theater-partners-with-moviepass-one-of-the-first-in/article_95b65f13-b2ff-5b6b-8165-6caa1d406a43.html
Omaha theater partners with MoviePass, one of the first in the country to do so publicly
By Micah Mertes World-Herald staff writer
Update: MoviePass has raised its monthly fee to $9.95 again since this article was first published.
It’s the deal that seems too good to be true for moviegoers: For $6.95 a month, you can watch a movie a day in theaters at no additional cost.
The NYC-based movie subscription service MoviePass has been around since 2011, but it was only last year that the company became a major player in the movie business, going from 20,000 subscribers to nearly 3 million in a little more than a year.
The service works at all theaters in the Omaha area, though it works at one particular theater more than others: Aksarben Cinema recently entered a revenue-sharing partnership with MoviePass in hopes of driving up attendance. Locally, it’s the clearest vote of confidence yet for a company that’s shaken up the movie industry seemingly overnight.
In August 2017, the analytics firm Helios and Matheson acquired MoviePass, and the service soon after lowered its cost to $9.95 a month. Membership grew rapidly after the price drop, and growth continues as MoviePass has continued to slash prices.
MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe said he expects the company to top 5 million subscribers by 2019.
The business model of MoviePass has been met with no small amount of skepticism. The question, namely, is this: How does it make money?
AMC Theatres, the largest theater chain in the U.S., has been MoviePass’ most prominent and vocal critic. Last summer, upon learning of MoviePass’ price drop, AMC Theatres issued a statement that ripped MoviePass’ model as unsustainable: “From what we can tell, by definition and absent some other form of other compensation, MoviePass will be losing money on every subscriber seeing two movies or more in a month.”
And yet as MoviePass has skyrocketed in popularity, it’s become more clear how the company plans to make money.
One way is data. The MoviePass app is culling data from its ever-growing user base with plans to monetize that data. According to MoviePass, more than half of its users are millennials.
In fact, questions of the company’s data-tracking capabilities recently have come under fire. MoviePass had to backtrack on comments that Lowe made about the app’s location-tracking abilities following an outcry that MoviePass was following users’ whereabouts too closely.
Another way MoviePass plans to make money? Making pacts with the theater chains themselves.
Simply put, here’s the deal: Theater partners give MoviePass discounted ticket prices or a cut of their revenue in exchange for priority placement in the MoviePass app, along with in-app e-ticketing and seat selection. MoviePass will still work at theaters that are not partners. But only at partner cinemas can subscribers purchase their tickets before coming to the theater.
MoviePass says it has entered revenue-sharing partnerships with more than 1,000 theater screens and several major studios. But so far only a few MoviePass partnerships have been made public.
This past week, MoviePass announced a partnership with Mark Cuban’s Landmark Theaters, which operates 53 theaters in 27 markets. The only other publicly announced partners are Studio Movie Grill, Los Angeles’ two-screen Arena Cinelounge and, now, Main Street Theatres, the Omaha-based chain with eight theaters, including Aksarben Cinema.
Main Street partnered with MoviePass in January, and its number of MoviePass subscribers has since more than doubled. MoviePass subscribers accounted for about 5 percent of Aksarben’s ticket sales in February, said Mike Barstow, director of analytics and business development for Main Street.
“It’s definitely encouraging for us to see that growth,” Barstow said. “There’s definitely some proof that the partnership is working for us in Omaha.”
MoviePass, he said, tends to give a movie legs. Maybe you want to go see “Black Panther” a second or third time. Maybe you want to take a chance on a movie that’s getting mixed reviews. If you have MoviePass, you’re more likely to do those things because it’s no longer any additional cost.
Where theaters perhaps stand the best chance to benefit from the MoviePass arrangement is at the concessions stand, Barstow said. This is where theaters have historically made the highest profit margin, as the studios take a sizable bite at the box office.
“The average person goes to movies five times a year,” he said. “If you get that guy who comes to movies five times a year, and now with MoviePass he comes to 10 movies a year, that’s an extra $30 a year from him at the concessions stand.”
The idea is that it’s easier to justify buying popcorn, soda or chicken strips when you don’t have to pay for the movie ticket. That moviegoers will be more likely to partake in the amenities, in a time when theaters are doing everything they can to get butts into their increasingly cushy recliner seats.
“Movie theaters have never been better,” said Bernadette McCabe, senior vice president of exhibitor relations and business strategy at MoviePass. “It’s the perfect time for us to have more people visiting theaters more often. That’s the premise of our company. We think the movie theater is the best place to see a movie. A circuit like Main Street Theatres, they want to do things that are going to increase moviegoing in their communities. They’re a perfect partner for us to have on board.”
Though Aksarben might be benefiting from its MoviePass partnership, subscribers will continue to use the service at other theaters in Omaha, too. MoviePass works at every theater in the area (and at 91 percent of theaters in the U.S., according to the company).
There are no punitive measures to theaters that aren’t MoviePass partners. But a recent move by the company shows what that might look like.
In January, MoviePass pulled support from 10 of AMC’s busiest locations (none in the Omaha area), deepening the animosity between the two companies that had already been at odds for months.
Not every movie exhibitor has such a contentious relationship with MoviePass, but chains big and small are invariably seeing more patrons use the service.
Casey Logan, deputy director of Film Streams, which runs the Dundee and Ruth Sokolof theaters, said each location is seeing an increase in MoviePass users and that they expect the number to grow.
“We haven’t really experienced any major issues with it so far,” Logan said in an email. “But the strategy now emerging of MoviePass expecting a cut of ticket sales from cinemas, and potentially even calling for a share of concession sales, seems like a slippery slope.”
Film Streams has long had its own membership program, which offers discounted admission, along with other benefits. In the nonprofit’s recently released annual report, executive director Rachel Jacobson said that membership has grown significantly in the past year. It’s up to 3,400 households, up 66 percent over the previous year.
Is this the future? Will subscription-style moviegoing models one day be the norm? And if so, what would that mean for studios, theaters and the movies themselves? More specifically, just how big a deal will MoviePass become?
Most of the movie industry appears to be taking a wait-and-see approach. In the meantime, MoviePass grows.
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How MoviePass works
1. You sign up for MoviePass on MoviePass.com. The site is currently offering a prepaid annual subscription that amounts to $6.95 a month, plus a one-time $6.55 processing fee.
2. You get a debit card in the mail and create an account with the MoviePass app.
3. You open the app and find theaters nearby. You select the theater you want and search for showtimes. (MoviePass works only with standard films, not 3D or IMAX showings.)
4. Once you’ve chosen the movie you want to see, you go to the theater. MoviePass won’t let you check in for a movie until you’re within 100 yards of the theater. The app uses the GPS on your phone to track this.
Note: On the MoviePass app, subscribers can get tickets and select seating before coming to the theater if the theater is an exhibitor partner such as Aksarben Cinema.
5. Once you’re there, you select your showtime on your phone and check in, and MoviePass will transfer the price of the ticket to your debit card. You pay. You watch the movie. You can can see up to one movie a day through MoviePass.
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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 04-05-2018 11:53 AM
MoviePass acquires MoviePhone.
Yahoo News
quote: Yahoo News
Helios and Matheson Analytics, which already owns movie ticket subscription service MoviePass, has acquired Moviefone.
Despite the old-school name, Moviefone is now a digital media business with trailers, movie information and ticketing via Fandango — it says it reaches 6 million unique visitors each month.
Moviefone was previously owned by Oath, the Verizon subsidiary formed from the merger of AOL and Yahoo. (Oath also owns TechCrunch). AOL acquired Moviefone for $388 million back in 1999.
The deal includes a $1 million cash payment, as well as stock that could bring the total value up to $23 million, according to Variety. That means Oath now has a stake in MoviePass . It will also continue sell Moviefone's digital ad inventory.
MoviePass, meanwhile, allows customers to pay $9.95 a month (or less) to get one free movie ticket per day, albeit with inconveniences like the need to physically buy your ticket at the theater. Acquiring Moviefone is supposed to help the company expand into content and advertising.
"This natural alignment between MoviePass and Moviefone will help us grow our subscriber base significantly and expand our marketing and advertising platform for our studio and brand partners,” said MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe in the acquisition release. “Moviefone has been a go-to resource for entertainment enthusiasts for years, and we’re excited to bolster its presence and bring this iconic platform into the entertainment ecosystem of the future.”
Hopefully, they will improve the MoviePhone app, which leaves a lot to be desired.
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Rusty Gordon
Film Handler
Posts: 33
From: Fairview, Tennessee USA
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 04-26-2018 02:45 PM
Surprise, surprise. It appears all-you-can-watch movie theater service MoviePass will no longer be offering an unlimited option, according to the company’s CEO. MoviePass hasn’t formally announced the change, but CEO Mitch Lowe downplayed the possibility of its return when asked about the change.
The company stopped offering the option back on April 13. The new offering is being labeled as a “promotion” but MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe says he doesn’t know if the old unlimited option will ever return, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The new plan includes iHeartRadio All Access, which is typically $9.99/month.
“Do you think you will go back to a movie a day?” THR asked Lowe at CinemaCon in Las Vegas late Wednesday. “I don’t know,” he responded.
MoviePass allowed users to pay a flat $9.95/month to watch unlimited standard movies at the movie theater, as long as the movie theater supported the app. Now, the company is limiting that to just four movies a month, which means you can only see one movie a week for a month, four movies in a single week, etc.
In the past, MoviePass ran promos, but those promos included the full unlimited MoviePass experience. Such a move will likely see a steady decrease in monthly subscribers as high usage users are looking elsewhere.
On the bright side, four movies a month is still cheaper than buying four individual tickets for yourself. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out as the lust of ‘unlimited’ dies out (sound familiar?).
Lowe has had a few outbreaks in the past, going as far as saying that the company openly tracks users, only to later take back what he said.
What do you think? Are you a MoviePass subscriber? Let us know in the comments below!
https://9to5mac.com/2018/04/26/moviepass-removes-unlimited-subscription-option/
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