MoviePass - will it die a premature death or is it here to stay

Huh. Well i probably saw my last movie w them last night anyway.

My year sub doesn't end until December so I'm ridin' this thing 'til the wheel fall off. That said, if I was a monthly subscriber being forced to go to $14.99 with all these new BS rules I'd probably quit.

Looking through my MP history, it probably does trend more to escapist fare.... I guess? I've seen a lot of 'classic escapism' and older blockbusters/b-movies/genre stuff - Wages of Fear, Blood Simple, Liquid Sky, China Syndrome, Rosemary's Baby, Ms. 45, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, etc. etc. I've also seen a fair bit of contemporary Serious Films In the Conversation like 3 Billboards, Fantastic Woman, Florida Project, Sorry To Bother You, and so on. The 'toughest' thing I've watched with it was probably yesterday's screening of Barbara Loden's Wanda. Things like Barry Lyndon, Antiporno, Girlfriends, Maitresse, might be 'difficult' in some sense but are still an 'escape' in a way.

But... idk how much this matters. To me the mild hassle of dealing with the app (when it's not as dysfunctional as it has been this week) don't really add much on top of the basic scheduling thing of keeping track when all this stuff is screening. And that's worth it for the chance to see this stuff on the big screen.

What's the worst movie experience so far that being on moviepass let you shrug off as no big deal?

Super Troopers 2

Either The Foreigner or Proud Mary. Or maybe when a repertory screening turns out to be a really shitty, washed-out pink print, where it's like "that would have looked better on streaming." OTOH being with an audience is always worth something. I saw the Hong Kong action-comedy Aces Go Places a couple months back and it looked like absolute hell but it was enhanced by the big gags getting big laughs.

I saw Uncle Drew and there was screen disruption so I got another free ticket from the movie theatre itself

insult to injury

xp lol I went to go see Uncle Drew and the A/C went out before the movie started. got a free ticket, still haven't seen Uncle Drew...

How do you even watch 79 films from only seven countries?

in breaking news, America makes lots of films

my worst is a fight between Proud Mary, the first Deadpool (at a Hecklevision screening), Infinity Baby and Set It Off.

Fair enough. I guess we still only get to see a fraction.

fwiw only 24 of my 62 moviepass swipes have been for films in their initial theatrical run. in nyc at least you could easily watch a film every single day all year and it never be a new american movie. so watching x number of films from y countries isn't particularly weird. if you think sic's doing it wrong, you should check reddit, where everyone's still sore about not being able to see "infinity war" five times, and branching out to an "indie" means seeing the horrifyingly-reviewed Gotti movie with John Travolta that moviepass was pushing a while back.

36 of mine were new US films from 2017/18. (other new releases were from China, France, Russia, the UK and Australia.)

in nyc at least you could easily watch a film every single day all year and it never be a new american movie

I suspect that NYC is the only city on the planet where one could do this, with Cinefamily and the New Beverly closed in LA. in six days there in June, I felt like crying with wonder every time I looked at Moviepass.

the reddit is incredible, swarms of ppl self-righteously cancelling their service bcz they couldn't see Mission Impossible for free on Thursday. and shouting at anyone who points out that they'd still save money if they only see one movie a month.

wait no, you could still do it in LA with American repertory and three-day runs of new imports in a glorified screening room.

I'm surprised no enterprising hucksters with a couch and a projector have opened "theaters" for the express purpose of gouging moviepass.

I went to AMC A List this morning

Under a dime. I am surprised they haven't thrown in the towel.

Jordan Belfort will rescue them

Maybe ILX can pitch in to buy them out.

The list of available movies curated by Morbs

Morbs’ taste may not be catholic but it probably isn’t bad so that could work out

Half the day's screenings of the available movies are disappeared from the app today, even at a theatre with only two sessions.

Xpost it actually wasn't a jab lol

I appreciate sic’s updates itt because they are like the journal entries in a space horror game where someone is describing reality crashing down around them

hahahhaa

The pattern over the past few days has been wobbly showtime appearance/disappearance during the day, then a total voiding ("there are no more showtimes") around 6 or 7 PM. Get them tickets early! They really should change the message at least - it just invites hostility to see a multiplex with dozens of shows as "there are no more showtimes." But the whole enterprise is a doomed mess: they're slashing showtimes to save dough by reducing use, while trying to sell themselves to theaters and distributors as a powerful force that puts tons of people in seats.

interestingly, the "no more showtimes" has been happening about 6-7pm on the west coast too, despite eg their helpline historically operating only on NYC time

I wonder how many app programmers they have left, and if they are making payroll

https://www.reddit.com/r/MoviePassClub/comments/951e7o/official_press_release_moviepass_launches_new/

The new model, starting mid-month: still $9.95/month, BUT limited to three movies a month, BUT without "peak pricing." Movies beyond the 3 get upcharged. People on annual plans still enjoy their old terms until renewal time. Essentially they're trying to massively cut down the cash burn by reversing the entire "see a movie every day!" angle but that was always preposterously unsustainable. It's now only severely unsustainable so hey... So long as this is enough to keep them afloat (or restore some shred of confidence so they can sell their currently worthless stock), and so long as they don't purge the arthouse and indie options, I'm pretty happy with this.

I'd still take it. $10 for 3 movies is better than the alternative, full price. The peak pricing was a major hassle for my friends on the monthly plan. Also, at least I'll get the full service until my yearly runs out.

Problem is them shutting off all off the showtimes by 7 PM every weekend for the past two weeks, which is pretty infuriating.

They don't have daytime showtimes available either, so it only currently works for cinemas that sell tickets in advance, and that you're also able to visit eight hours before the session.

I assume they have no employees left because how else would they make payroll at this point

in nyc at least you could easily watch a film every single day all year and it never be a new american movie

I suspect that NYC is the only city on the planet where one could do this

never been there, but Paris, maybe?

I believe my taste is pretty catholic; commercial Hollywood stuff didn't reach 95% garbage, imho, til the last 10-15 years, and i like plenty of 20th-century 'mainstream' movies.

Paris was my assumption for runner up but I have no real idea how broad subtitled and repertory exhibition is amongst their famously numerous theatres

You know what they call a Moviepass in France?

in nyc at least you could easily watch a film every single day all year and it never be a new american movie

I suspect that NYC is the only city on the planet where one could do this

never been there, but Paris, maybe?

Counting repertory theaters you could do this in Copenhagen as well and probably in every other European capitol there is.

In today's limiting of available sessions, they have left off the revival house's 7pm screening of Goonies, which costs $10 on the door, and left on the 9:30pm Goonies, which costs $1.99.

I've already jumped to AMC A-List and like it 300 times better. yeah, it's more expensive ($19.95), the being limited to only AMC theatres sucks, so there goes any art theatres or theatres closer to me, but you get 3 movies a week free, and that includes premium showings like IMAX. plus you can buy/reserve the tix in advance, and earn rewards/etc. Also you can see multiple movies in one day (I did last night!). and you get your own dedicated concessions line, which is good for impatient people like me.

not going to replace the free showings at the local art theatre and means I'll be paying out of pocket more often for movies at other theatres but hey I'll take it.

xpost This is staggeringly common - matinees blocked when later, costlier shows aren't. What I'd expect is that the later show will *also* disappear later on; the running paranoid crank theory is that MP has rigged the app so that it'll always *look* like it's working, with some smattering of shows, but by purging shows as the day goes on, reduce the likelihood that anyone gets tickets, since only a minority of users are willing and able to go get tickets early in the day even if they realize the showtimes are likely to disappear. Characteristically, the CEO has indicated their intentions to stabilize the listings and end all this, but that's not to happen until at *least* when all the monthly subscriptions have finished the rollover to the new plan mid-September.

this might be the case, cos we were going to see Teen Titans the other night and it was in the Moviepass app seemingly up until the time we got to the theatre 30 minutes prior to show time.

P much all daytime screenings have been unavailable for a week, except yesterday. The 21:30 Goonies definitely won't be available bcz the theatre doesn't open until 18:30, and by the time the early screening is running, everything will have gone from all theatres in the app.

this place doesn't do physical tickets, either, so in the stub verification era we had to take a photo of their computer screen. (if you pre-order online, they just have your name on a list at showtime.)

has anyone on ilx been asked to re-verify their ticket stub or been questioned about it?

Neanderthal, above

as far as I can tell he got the email about it, but then proceeded to take pictures of random junk with no repercussions!

the email counts as a question

my flatmate got follow-up messages a week or two after not bothering to verify a stub, too

so they're not completely asleep at the wheel, but verification is definitely a slipshod business

Workaround for evening-only shows -- show up for intended time, activate moviepass for later showing, buy earlier time ticket, take picture of ticket with thumb obscuring the show time.

I haven't used Moviepass as much as I hoped, but the first time I was asked to verify a stub I did and the second time I totally forgot, and so far no fallout (or maybe I broke the company).