Jump to content

Eric Dylan

Moviepass and its Impact on the Box Office

Recommended Posts

Posted

With the recent decision by the MoviePass team to cheapen the service down to about $8 a month, a lot of people have wondered how this impacts moviegoing and the box office. Today, Deadline published an article detailing the service's impact on the November box office, and there are some interesting findings. To paraphrase:

 

Quote

Many inside distribution and exhibition have wondered how MoviePass will make money in the long run; and part of the company’s financial plan to offset those losses will come from marketing partnerships with studios and distributors.

To date, one MoviePass collaboration was with Bleecker Street’s Thanksgiving stretch release The Man Who Invented Christmas which the ticketing agency reports that they “realized a further 48.3% lift to ticket purchases for the title against a statistically relevant control group which was not a part of the marketing campaign.” To date, The Man Who Invented Christmas has grossed $4.3M at the domestic B.O.

 

Lionsgate/Amazon Studios’ Last Flag Flying. MoviePass reports that they “realized a further 53.3% increase in ticket purchases for the title against a statistically relevant control group, which was not a part of the marketing campaign.” Last Flag Flying has not been one of Amazon’s successes this season earning less than $1M.

 

–MoviePass’ ticket purchases accounted for 13.21% of the opening B.O. ($62K) for Sony Pictures/Columbia’s Roman J. Israel Esq.  “This represents more than a 6x increase on the average 2% of the box office that MoviePass contributes to nationwide,” says the company.

–MoviePass’ ticket purchases repped 10% of the opening B.O. ($322K) for Fox Searchlight’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. 

–Moviepass repped 1.78% of domestic box office for Warner Brothers’ Justice League  — that’s $1.7M off an $93.8M opening. “Even as the domestic box office for the film shrunk to nearly 27% of opening weekend box office for the second full week MoviePass’ ticket purchases actually climbed to 2.17% of domestic box office total during that same period.”

–For Disney’s Coco, MoviePass’ accounted for 1.34% of the pic’s opening B.O. of $72.9M or $977K.  Coco‘s ticket sales eased close to 50% in weekend 2 with MoviePass’ percentage contribution to the domestic box office upticking to 2.18%.

–On Universal’s The Snowman, MoviePass fueled 3.54% of the pic’s $6.6M opening weekend or $233K.

Within the list, what's interesting is that the limited releases, like Roman Israel and Three Billboards, have a bigger percentage of the OW pie than mainstream films like Justice League and Coco. Coco also had the lowest MP percentage, though that's probably because of famlies, who will likely have at most one or two people able to use the service.

 

At the very least, MoviePass seems like a blessing for limited films, as it allows people to see more movies and see films they likely would have waited to watch on Redbox or Netflix.

 

What say you?

  • Like 2


Posted

I can't see moviepass being viable in the long run if it's essentially buying full price tickets and selling them for less. Compared to subscription schemes here in Europe where they are offered by the cinema itself and therefore there is no loss.

Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, CoolEric258 said:

With the recent decision by the MoviePass team to cheapen the service down to about $8 a month, a lot of people have wondered how this impacts moviegoing and the box office. Today, Deadline published an article detailing the service's impact on the November box office, and there are some interesting findings. To paraphrase:

 

Within the list, what's interesting is that the limited releases, like Roman Israel and Three Billboards, have a bigger percentage of the OW pie than mainstream films like Justice League and Coco. Coco also had the lowest MP percentage, though that's probably because of famlies, who will likely have at most one or two people able to use the service.

 

At the very least, MoviePass seems like a blessing for limited films, as it allows people to see more movies and see films they likely would have waited to watch on Redbox or Netflix.

 

What say you?

Right now, it's delivering the same amount of box office per movie (roughly) which greatly aids limited and small releases/budget movies and provides a nice little blip to blockbusters...as more and more get the service, it will be likely that a "floor" will be had for all movies, since folks seem determined to get "value" out of the passes...

 

And as I mentioned, family movies will be the only ones to hurt b/c families won't pay full price for tickets and won't have Movie Pass for kids...and those families with adults and MoviePass will ask why they are paying $15 for a kid ticket when they themselves could see the movie for $2 (if they see 4 movies/month)...

 

So, the biggest danger is this whole program leads to no kids heading to theaters and a crash in the audience in 10 years b/c they forgot to make "family versions" of these passes to keep families coming...

 

EDIT: And these family movies know it...right now, I can get 3 Ferdinand tickets for the price of 1...unheard of for reserved tickets before release...

Edited by TwoMisfits


Posted (edited)
On 12/11/2017 at 12:15 PM, CoolEric258 said:

Within the list, what's interesting is that the limited releases, like Roman Israel and Three Billboards, have a bigger percentage of the OW pie than mainstream films like Justice League and Coco. Coco also had the lowest MP percentage, though that's probably because of famlies, who will likely have at most one or two people able to use the service.

 

At the very least, MoviePass seems like a blessing for limited films, as it allows people to see more movies and see films they likely would have waited to watch on Redbox or Netflix.

 

What say you?

That was sure to be the case imo, movie pass were mostly bough by the frequent movie goers (the 14 movie a year type group) they always were a bigger proportion of non mainstream movies than mainstream movies.

 

What is the most interesting value and hard to tell is how many of those movie pass ticket would not have been bought otherwise, is it a relevant amount...

 

sentence like those:

“realized a further 53.3% increase in ticket purchases for the title against a statistically relevant control group, which was not a part of the marketing campaign.” Last Flag Flying has not been one of Amazon’s successes this season earning less than $1M.

 

Are hard to put in context without looking at the movie they used

Edited by Barnack
  • Like 1


Posted
On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 12:15 PM, CoolEric258 said:

At the very least, MoviePass seems like a blessing for limited films, as it allows people to see more movies and see films they likely would have waited to watch on Redbox or Netflix.

It's mostly a blessing for Oscar contenders. While the limited releases that are (Lady Bird, Three Billboards, The Shape of Water, Call Me by Your Name, etc.) have been doing great, the ones that aren't (Breathe, Wonderstruck, Last Flag Flying, Wonder Wheel, etc.) have been struggling.



Posted

Stealing from the Buzz & Tracking Thread:

 

http://blog.moviepass.com/your-top-25-movies-of-2017/

 

25. Ferdinand

24. Jigsaw

23. Geostorm

22. Downsizing

21. Shape of Water

20. Pitch Perfect 3

19. A Bad Moms Christmas

18. Happy Death Day

17. The Foreigner

16. Wonder

15. Daddy's Home 2

14. American Made

13. The Greatest Showman

12. 3 Billboards

11. Lady Bird

10. It

9. Kingsman 2

8. The Disaster Artist

7. Blade Runner 2049

6. Jumanji

5. Orient Express

4. Justice League

3. Coco

2. Thor: Ragnarok

1. Porg: The Movie

  • Like 3


Posted

It’ll only help the box office and theaters, my only question is how MoviePass stays profitable long term.  It’s impossible for them to maintain a profit with price that low.



Posted
17 minutes ago, New Year New Panda said:

It’ll only help the box office and theaters, my only question is how MoviePass stays profitable long term.  It’s impossible for them to maintain a profit with price that low.

 

It won't. They will gradually hike the price and lose customers

  • Like 4
Posted
10 minutes ago, Chewy said:

 

It won't. They will gradually hike the price and lose customers

I reckon that’s what will happen.  You can’t sustain $8 a month subscriptions for movie tickets, not unless you get cut out deals with the theaters or something like that.



Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, CoolEric258 said:

Stealing from the Buzz & Tracking Thread:

 

http://blog.moviepass.com/your-top-25-movies-of-2017/

 

25. Ferdinand

24. Jigsaw

23. Geostorm

22. Downsizing

21. Shape of Water

20. Pitch Perfect 3

19. A Bad Moms Christmas

18. Happy Death Day

17. The Foreigner

16. Wonder

15. Daddy's Home 2

14. American Made

13. The Greatest Showman

12. 3 Billboards

11. Lady Bird

10. It

9. Kingsman 2

8. The Disaster Artist

7. Blade Runner 2049

6. Jumanji

5. Orient Express

4. Justice League

3. Coco

2. Thor: Ragnarok

1. Porg: The Movie

I originally posted - thanks for finding the right thread:)...

 

It is obvious the Movie Pass effect is getting more and more pronounced by the movie, since the top 6 Moviepass revenue movies were all Nov-Dec releases...

 

I find it amusing that Disney took the top 3 spots, even though those 3 movies were not the 3 highest revenue generators for Nov-Dec (although they were close)...also interesting how well MOE did with it...

 

And, we can see, as I mentioned before, solely kid focused movies, like Ferdinand, are not seeing nearly the positive Movie Pass effect as other movies...while opening one week earlier and easily outgrossing Downsizing in actual BO, Ferd actually got less revenue from Moviepass buyers in those last days of December... 

Edited by TwoMisfits


Posted
37 minutes ago, New Year New Panda said:

It’ll only help the box office and theaters, my only question is how MoviePass stays profitable long term.  It’s impossible for them to maintain a profit with price that low.

It is a bit mysterious, the company claim that they are selling movie habbit from the moviepass user to the studios and other interested, but it does seem a bit thin revenue and not scaling well by the clients base expand.

 

Look like a possible long term strategy could be to create a very low price movie going habbit to a large enough client base the industry feel will loose it they stop that they will achieve to get a rebate on the ticket prices.

 

They will put enough pressure on all price movie wise (selling a bluray to someone used to pay 2$ to see a movie in theater every week become harder) that the industry will need to buy them to stop them....?

  • Like 2


Posted

I guess the big question is what would it take for the bubble to burst. MoviePass' clientele continues to grow, and at the moment exhibitors are making more money thanks to them. Seems like it's just a matter of when their reserves dry up. 

 

They already have such a huge customer base that I think they'd prefer to place extra usage restrictions on film selections before jacking the price up, especially now with the annual subscription promotion.

  • Like 2


Posted
50 minutes ago, Barnack said:

It is a bit mysterious, the company claim that they are selling movie habbit from the moviepass user to the studios and other interested, but it does seem a bit thin revenue and not scaling well by the clients base expand.

 

Look like a possible long term strategy could be to create a very low price movie going habbit to a large enough client base the industry feel will loose it they stop that they will achieve to get a rebate on the ticket prices.

 

They will put enough pressure on all price movie wise (selling a bluray to someone used to pay 2$ to see a movie in theater every week become harder) that the industry will need to buy them to stop them....?

I do think it’s possible their strategy is to set their service up on a level where them going out of business would directly hurt theaters who are now getting sellouts for their smaller shows because of them.

 

They in turn can bargain for lower ticket price and then slowly up their own price to something like $12-15 a month.

 

It seems a little long-winded and a bit of a gamble, but it’s a possible strategy.

 

Then again, there’s nothing from stopping local theaters from creating competing subscription services on their own (similar to Europe) and then MoviePass is as good as done.

  • Like 1


Posted
20 minutes ago, New Year New Panda said:

Then again, there’s nothing from stopping local theaters from creating competing subscription services on their own (similar to Europe) and then MoviePass is as good as done.

Many do have them (at least in Canada), but at much higher price obviously.

 

At MoviePass price point, it would be hard to compete with it.

  • Like 1


Posted
On 12/11/2017 at 6:21 PM, Tree Billboards said:

I can't see moviepass being viable in the long run if it's essentially buying full price tickets and selling them for less. Compared to subscription schemes here in Europe where they are offered by the cinema itself and therefore there is no loss.

American chains will do the same if Moviepass doesn't go away.

  • Like 1


Posted
7 minutes ago, MrGlass2 said:

American chains will do the same if Moviepass doesn't go away.

Who will take a very expensive movie pass from the theater chain too ?

 

MoviePass impact will be to put a giant pressure on those price if theater chain want to put it away (could be cheaper to buy them out)

  • Like 1


Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Guidelines. Feel free to read our Privacy Policy as well.