Moviepass and its Impact on the Box Office

[AniNate]

I wonder if this may be a strong arm strategy to force a revenue sharing deal. If MoviePass singles out AMC theaters in dense, high competition areas all the passholders are going to go to other theaters and AMC will lose a LOT of customers.

[TwoMisfits]

10 minutes ago, tribefan695 said:

I wonder if this may be a strong arm strategy to force a revenue sharing deal. If MoviePass singles out AMC theaters in dense, high competition areas all the passholders are going to go to other theaters and AMC will lose a LOT of customers.

A lot of reasons they could be doing this...

1. These are the most expensive theaters, so dropping them lets MP keep their price without bleeding as much money...

2. Tweaking AMC since AMC has tweaked them since the beginning...

3. Looking to show one of the other chains how much business they can bring to their chain...MP now has a group "test market" to show the increase in business to other (probably not as nice) theaters from patrons who now don't go to these high priced theaters...maybe MP.com is looking to make a deal and become some theater's subscription service (now Borders went this path, making Amazon their books/movies/CD/DVD deliverer...and then Borders went out of business...but you know, different industries:)...

[Arlborn]

This has the potential to be a very interesting development this year. I hope to see this thread remaining active throughout the year, I'm pretty curious.

 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Arlborn

[Rumpot]

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/1/25/16934344/moviepass-amc-theaters-support-tickets?utm_campaign=bcbishop&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

 

Think telling people you reserve the right to remove their theaters at any time is a good tactic for Moviepass?  Twitter full of people raging at them...not smart to anger your customers at the most popualr theaters in the largest markets I would think.

[AniNate]

6 minutes ago, Rumpot said:

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/1/25/16934344/moviepass-amc-theaters-support-tickets?utm_campaign=bcbishop&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

 

Think telling people you reserve the right to remove their theaters at any time is a good tactic for Moviepass?  Twitter full of people raging at them...not smart to anger your customers at the most popualr theaters in the largest markets I would think.

 

I think people will be able to put up with a lot if they still get dirt-cheap movies out of it. Plenty of other theaters they can still use it at.

[Eric Prime]

http://variety.com/2018/film/markets-festivals/sundance-moviepass-the-orchard-buy-american-animals-1202675489/

 

MoviePass Ventures just bought distriubtion rights for the movie "American Animals" with The Orchard.

[Rumpot]

17 minutes ago, tribefan695 said:

 

I think people will be able to put up with a lot if they still get dirt-cheap movies out of it. Plenty of other theaters they can still use it at.

Guess we will see.  If you see the large series of rants that include @moviepass on Twitter it seems many feel scammed

[MattW]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-long-can-moviepass-keep-burning-cash-1078098

Quote

“We’re signing five contracts a week with independent theaters where we get a lower cost on tickets and that will ultimately lead to a piece of concession sales, and we have a team in L.A. striking deals with studios,”

So they are aiming to make money from concessions, which would add a big piece to them staying afloat.

[Barnack]

12 minutes ago, MattW said:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-long-can-moviepass-keep-burning-cash-1078098

So they are aiming to make money from concessions, which would add a big piece to them staying afloat.

Are they getting cheaper group/bulk movie ticket deal or I understand their wording wrong ? This was expected to happen, I guess it was always the plan to become big enough to be able to make theater reduce their ticket price, just needed to survive long enough.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Barnack

[EmpireCity]

I said this months ago, but Moviepass is not going to last through the year in their current form.  They might not even make it through May.  

 

Theaters hate it, know it won't last and will come out with their own versions and kill them off.  

 

Goodnight, sweet prince.  

[EmpireCity]

18 minutes ago, MattW said:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-long-can-moviepass-keep-burning-cash-1078098

So they are aiming to make money from concessions, which would add a big piece to them staying afloat.

Only the most desperate theaters will work with them, and more than likely not a single major or even mid-major theater will go for any of this.  

 

This was always their ploy, make a splash, grow the subscriber list to huge levels, show a box office impact and then use that as a threat against the theaters to negotiate a better deal and cut of their profit.  

[The Panda]

2 hours ago, EmpireCity said:

I said this months ago, but Moviepass is not going to last through the year in their current form.  They might not even make it through May.  

 

Theaters hate it, know it won't last and will come out with their own versions and kill them off.  

 

Goodnight, sweet prince.  

Yeah, I was giving them the benefit of the doubt for about a month, being skeptical but thinking “maybe they have a plan!”

 

But yeah, they’ll either change their model or go under before the year’s end.  They’re bumbling around and burning money on nothing.

 

If I’m a theater, why do I give MoviePass a chunk of my concession money (as well as lower ticket prices)?  The service MoviePass provides is something theater chains could supply themselves (at low cost to them) through subscription deals.

 

They can’t financially support a large base with their model, but they need a large base to have leverage to get deals with theaters (the only way they’ll be profitable).

 

This ultimately looks like it’ll be a failed attempt at trying to take the Spotify/Netflix model to cinemas.  I think there’s merit to that model, but it’ll only work if it’s supplied by the theaters themselves.

[jimisawesome]

1 hour ago, New Year New Panda said:

 

This ultimately looks like it’ll be a failed attempt at trying to take the Spotify/Netflix model to cinemas.  I think there’s merit to that model, but it’ll only work if it’s supplied by the theaters themselves.

 

Neither of these companies are profitable with their streaming subscription services either.

9 hours ago, Rumpot said:

Moviepass removing/blocking some theaters with high priced tickets - focus of article on a few AMCs including Empire being removed.  http://deadline.com/2018/01/moviepass-lack-of-amc-theatres-coverage-1202269412/

And this is exactly why AMC was right when Moviepass went to 10 dollars.  How many people are going to attempt to use Moviepass at AMC and believe its AMC fault instead of Moviepass? 

[junkshop36]

I’ll ride with it till it either works or doesn’t. 

[Porthos]

10 hours ago, Rumpot said:

Moviepass removing/blocking some theaters with high priced tickets - focus of article on a few AMCs including Empire being removed.  http://deadline.com/2018/01/moviepass-lack-of-amc-theatres-coverage-1202269412/

 

10 hours ago, tribefan695 said:

MoviePass no longer working at big market AMCs

 

http://deadline.com/2018/01/moviepass-lack-of-amc-theatres-coverage-1202269412/

 

Yeah, they were probably bleeding money from those theaters. Long as it still works at the Regal Independence and Nightlight theater, though, I'm not complaining

 

[Rumpot]

10 hours ago, EmpireCity said:

Only the most desperate theaters will work with them, and more than likely not a single major or even mid-major theater will go for any of this.  

 

This was always their ploy, make a splash, grow the subscriber list to huge levels, show a box office impact and then use that as a threat against the theaters to negotiate a better deal and cut of their profit.  

I figured this would happen, but thought they would execute with a little more tact.  They tricked a bunch of people into getting a year subscription and then without any notice pulled their theaters within days/weeks (some of those effected hadn't even used it yet). It seems many planned movie nights with friends and didn't learn their pass wouldn't work until they got to the theater.  Their customer service is horrendous so as people reach out they are getting nowhere beyond an obnoxious bot message. Lastly Mitch Lowe's quote in every article suggesting a theater can randomly be pulled at any time without notice in the future should scare even those who haven't lost their favorite theaters yet.  

[AniNate]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moviepass-cuts-ties-with-amc-theaters-in-battle-for-revenue-share-2018-01-26

 

Quote

“I’m 1,000% ready to do battle,” Ted Farnsworth, chief executive of MoviePass’s majority owner Helios & Matheson Analytics Inc. HMNY, -4.26% told MarketWatch. “Hollywood is definitely paying attention to us, now we have to start pulling levers. We have to say to AMC, ‘look you don't want to deal with us, fine, but we’re not going to keep giving you free money’.’”

 

MoviePass has been trying to bring AMC around for a while, Farnsworth said. The company has struck deals with close to 1,000 independent cinemas, in which it gets a roughly $3 cut on ticket sales and/or 25% of concessions sales.

 

Farnsworth is confident that MoviePass can ax AMC and still satisfy subscribers by promoting other theaters, such as Regal Entertainment Group Inc. and independents.

MoviePass has tested its ability to do so, Farnsworth said. About 50% of the time members drive by closer theaters to go to one MoviePass has promoted via the app.

Edited January 26, 2018 by tribefan695

[TwoMisfits]

1 minute ago, tribefan695 said:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moviepass-cuts-ties-with-amc-theaters-in-battle-for-revenue-share-2018-01-26

 

The company has struck deals with close to 1,000 independent cinemas, in which it gets a roughly $3 cut on ticket sales and/or 25% of concessions sales.

 

That's a lot more than a couple already...that's 20%ish of them, right?

[The Panda]

6 hours ago, jimisawesome said:

Neither of these companies are profitable with their streaming subscription services either.

And this is exactly why AMC was right when Moviepass went to 10 dollars.  How many people are going to attempt to use Moviepass at AMC and believe its AMC fault instead of Moviepass? 

Spotify’s in a position where it’s large enough to make demands, which I think is what MoviePass was trying to do (they just did it incompetently, and there’s not much they can offer that a theatrical subscription service cannot)

 

They also tricked investors into getting on board, so I reckon they’re fine to start trying to figure out how to shrink those kids margins.

 

Netflix isn’t very transparent about costs, but I actually believe they’re doing well on the margin. Add to the fact, most of their new content is self-made, they’re turning into a more conventional TV Channel model.

[Rumpot]

16 minutes ago, tribefan695 said:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moviepass-cuts-ties-with-amc-theaters-in-battle-for-revenue-share-2018-01-26

 

I'm confused because being a moviepass customer (until now when they removed my theater) I have no idea how they are tracking concession sales.  They don't track anything - in fact many on reddit admit to using the moviepass itself to purchase popcorn and drinks.