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

Is there any way someone's using this as a way to do some halfassed money laundering or they're wheeling money out the back door?

There's no conceivable way it'd ever work as pitched and I kind of assumed there's a shell game going on that we're not privy to. Maybe there's a fake theater in their system and a bunch of false accounts that keep "seeing movies" there?

I mean people had assumed it was the user data that was valuable and not the movie ticket scheme. I never used Moviepass but I did trade hmny a lot last year. I've been out of it for some months though.

unless they figured out a way to magically harvest a lot more user data than it seems, there is absolutely no way they'd make any money. the amount of cash outflow, even if people did only see two movies a month on a $10/month plan, is ridiculous!

Xpost Spouse also traded it and quite frankly made a killing.

Meanwhile I’m just glad I could score an e ticket to eighth grade for tonight.

would either of you like to invest in my company? we sell magic beans

It depends, how many subscribers do you have to your magic bean menagerie?

The premise - after the big price drop last year - was essentially twofold:

1) acquire millions of subscribers and turn this fact into money somehow. The big hope was to be able to say to the major chains, look, we direct millions of people to your theaters, cut us in on the popcorn. Or: through targeted advertising and incentives within the service ("peak pricing") we can direct people to particular movies (appealing to distributors) or underpopulated showtimes (appealing to exhibitors), so please cut us in on cheap tickets and some of that sweet, sweet popcorn money. This didn't work for a number of reasons, most obviously that the theaters don't need help getting people to go see hit movies, and for non-hit movies, the MoviePass users are coming anyway because the ticket is effectively free to them. Something similar applied to hopes that their data would be useful in and of itself; probably they imagined they could be a Netflix Algorithm of Movies, and find a buyer for "people who watched Atomic Blonde were more likely to see Red Sparrow, especially after we pushed an ad for it to their phones," or something. But it's not clear how useful such data would ever be, particularly when everyone knows this is data for the subset of people who are paying $9.99 a month and can see literally any movie they want, and common sense already suggests that people who watched a bunch of superhero movies were statistically likely to go watch more of them. Even if that was worth something, it would never be worth enough to offset paying full retail price for every ticket.

2) at the same time, gradually reduce the bleed (while maintaining that tempting subscriber base) by introducing changes to the service that aren't severe enough to drive everybody you've hooked, but still make it better than buying dozens of full-price tickets (potentially) for a single $9.99 fee. They did implement some of these changes, and some of them were reasonable (if buggy) particularly requiring photographic ticket verificiation and limiting you to seeing a given movie only once. Both of those limited scalping of MP tickets, and Marvel zombie repeat viewing. Frankly, they should have implemented them right along with the price drop, instead of suffering months and months of "I saw Justice League four times on MoviePass!" They'd still have been losing money hand over fist for a year, but not as badly. Other features, like the "peak pricing" system, came too little, too late, and the laughable rollout (and sad attempt to make it look like an algorithmic "peak" rather than just charging you arbitrarily for whatever movies they felt like) made them look desperate. Hell, they could have done the price drop with an overhaul to "see one movie a week" and still gotten huge subscriber numbers - and probably way more 'gym membership' effect as people's weeks get busy and they let that particular week go by with no movie.

So basically, as written, the $9.99 version of MoviePass was almost always doomed, but its creators whipped up a vague cloud of potential that sounded interesting enough for some "disruption" minded investors to throw a fortune at it and watch it turn out to fail. In the meantime the masterminds got paid - that's the real scandal, if you're looking for one! I prefer to see it as a year-long period in which an app intended for world domination of the movie business instead served to transfer a whole lot of cash from sucker venture capitalists to theaters, and at least some of those theaters were scrappy repertory and art-house operations. Not the worst thing ever to come from Silicon Valley.

quincie, right on, it's a good film! be sure and screenshot the e-ticket QR code (or write it down if it's an alphanumeric code) in case the app is taken down today or something.

Good point, I will do that now!

oh ---- and a lot of ppl talked about it being like a gym membership, where you end up not going as much as you imagine, but the differences between the two things are so numerous that if nothing else the MP saga should become a parable for false analogies to gym memberships.

it was basically
1. offer an insanely good deal
2. build a gigantic user base
3. ???
4. profit

they pitched a lot of ideas for #3 but they were all insanely dumb

the one that movie companies actually paid for was promotion, but that premise -- which still didn't work -- was basically to put the squeeze on theaters by making it look like some films were getting more traffic than they would in a moviepass-less world, so maybe the theater holds on to your crappy movie for another week, or hoping that people go to movies based on box office receipts instead of reviews or word of mouth

it's basically the scam where books get on the bestseller list because the writer or the publisher went out and bought a shitload of copies of their own book

Most of silicon valley is a bro swindle.

the fact that one of the movies that paid for promotion was the Travolta John Gotti biopic that got abysmal reviews is a pretty good indicator of the viability of that scheme

I am trying to sit on my hands and not be tempted to buy some shares on speculation that they might be saved.

Yerac, EXACTLY

STOP BUYING INTO THE BRO SWINDLE STOCK

like every time you trade stock for a company that went public with no real profit model, all you're doing is jacking up rents in San Francisco and fucking people over

I was curious if the company started by someone I knew in high school went public and breathed a sigh of relief when I checked and determined it hasn't. I ran into him in town probably six years ago, when they'd been live a year or two, and he seemed completely uninterested in cashing out. Just wanted to build something that would actually be able to float on its own. Not saying he won't jump on that gravy train, but... man is he an outlier at this point

if we all pooled what we each spent on coffee and ice cream cones in a single day, ilx could become the majority shareholder

I guess it's maybe more ethical to buy stock in MoviePass's parent company than a guaranteed stable company like Raytheon or some shit, but bleh

I made a lot of money on it last year. It redbox and netflix ties. But it was also extremely low float when I was trading it.

I find the idea of "ethical" companies hilarious. Like if you sign up with Wealthsimple and see who they consider "ethical" (there's an option you can select to restrict you to stocks/funds designated as such) and then you drill down on what the funds are made up of, there's Amazon and Bank of America, etc. There are certainly degrees of evil, certainly, but by their very nature a company cannot prize ethics over profit.

brb moving my retirement fund into 100% bonds out of disgust

I don't know if there can truly be an ethical company. By virtue of going public, you have huge financial companies as bookrunners and you are serving investors first (over employees, clients).

a company can be ethical, a corporation almost certainly cannot

My employer was bought by a corporation several years before I started here, and even after a long time, the difference in employee viewpoints is a contrast from similar companies, partly due to the number of long-term coworkers who were here back in the 90s when it was still a private business. We were able to escape a lot of corporate shenanigans for a long time because some canny people in upper management were able to show it was more efficient and actually cheaper to do a lot of things in-house instead of outsourcing or contracting.

walked into the shutdown at 21:30 on Thursday night when I was trying to catch Blindspotting at an AMC multiplex on the way home from a 1930s screwball at the art museum. It was tagged as surge pricing, with a $6 fee, but wouldn't process that charge.

got in OK for the same 21:45 session on Friday night.

Saturday morning: evening screenings of lots of things were at surge, Mission Impossible was all greyed out. Planned for a 14:50 Eighth Grade at a Regal multiplex, left the house at 14:45, went to log in at 15:01 as I approached the theatre, and it had gone up to surge pricing after the official start time.

Sunday morning: surge pricing on most sessions all day, the 11:20 Eighth Grade was spared. Got in.


Today:

The Regal is IRL screening Eighth Grade, Equalizer 2, Hotel Transylvania 3, Incredibles 2, Jurassic Park 5, Mission Impossible 6, Mission Impossible 6 In 3D, Sicario 2, Ocean's 8, Identical Strangers Three, Skyscraper, and Won't You Be My Neighbour?
All Mission Impossible screenings are greyed out. I can't see if sessions are unsurged on Eighth or 8, because I've seen them already. Sicario only has one screening scheduled, at 21:25, and it is unsurged. The other seven films are not showing at all.

The AMC is IRL screening Ant-Man & The Wasp, Blindspotting, Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings, Hereditary, Jurassic Park 5, Mamma Mia! 2, MI:6, MI:6 3D, Skyscraper, Sorry To Bother You, Teen Titans GO! To The Movies, and Unfriended: Dark Web.
All Mission Impossible screenings are greyed out, as is Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings. I can't see if sessions are unsurged on Blindspotting or Hereditary, because I've seen them already. Unfriended has two sessions scheduled, neither are surged. The other seven films are not showing at all.

The nearby arthouse disappeared off Moviepass altogether two weeks ago.

The revival house has their 7pm Honey I Shrunk The Kids available, their 9pm Aliens is not showing up.

An indie to the south had every session on surge on the weekend; today their screenings of Three Identical Strangers and Sorry To Bother You are available, but Ant-Wasp and Mamma Mia are not showing up.

An indie-chain to the north yesterday had Mission Impossible and The Incredible greyed out, and The Catcher Was A Spy available. Today, MI is greyed out, Incredibles is available, and the Paul Rudd spy movie is not showing on the app.

forgot to add: Saturday's surge pricing had gone up to $8. still half of a full-price ticket.

Moviepass sent me a surveymonkey this morning about whether I would have seen Blindspotting without moviepass, whether the trailer on the app influenced me, if my movie companions included a non-subscriber etc, so they're still looking to leverage the data ongoing

App was ass today, started working miraculously around 9 PM. I went to go see a 35mm screening of Clint Eastwood's THE GAUNTLET. Good times.

Moviepass sent me a surveymonkey this morning

We are from the future and it is for toddlers

their new pitch to investors: "we're going to lose money slightly less quickly" : https://www.reddit.com/r/MoviePassClub/comments/93ekqe/official_press_release_moviepass_accelerates_plan/

but, amazingly, shit seems to be fully functional today, depending what movie you actually wanna see

short version of plan:

1. raise price to $15/month, keep on with surge pricing
2. morph into IndiePass by restricting access / focus on cutting deals with small theaters and distribs since obviously amc/regal are never gonna happen
3. something something data
4. ???
5. profit!

i am totally okay with this if it keeps the lights on. by far the biggest benefit to me is unfettered access to all the little art house and repertory options in nyc. they'll shed blockbuster nuts by the truckload but those are probably their most useless users for the long shot (imo doomed) plan of making themselves valuable in a "we can boost attendance and word of mouth for your $15 million film" niche.

I might get this for the two months I am in NY. But at the same time, it's such a chore to deal with movie theaters there.

how so?

I love running into Doc Casino at the movies, but I am not gonna carry a phone just for this precarious thing. I see enough films w/out it anyway.

If a movie is popular at all you need to get there at least 30 minutes ahead of time to get a decent seat. The closest movie theater to me is I think AMC about a 20 minute walk away, otherwise dealing with the subway just to see a movie is not my thing. Also, I might be slightly traumatized from seeing roaches on the wall of one in midtown and then a year later seeing that they had bedbugs.

Oh, although I used to love going to the Momi for movies when I was a member.

Idk about NYC but an increasing number of screening types at chain theaters in Canada have reserved seating options - not sure if those work w/ Moviepass though

yeah, the packed house thing is a real thing. honestly one of the best features of alamo and metrograph is that really only the very front row is too close to take in a pinch, and MG has the balcony for their bigger screen. (both also have reserved seats if you buy online, tho that's not an option with moviepass since they're not e-ticket partners). the quad OTOH has like 25% inhabitable seats per screen and the rake of the floor is so shallow that someone sitting down two rows in front of you can block the picture. their programming is fantastic though. virtually every seat in the angelika is, i believe, actually inside of a rumbling subway car. but overall morbs is correct, the main redeeming feature of nyc's theaters is discovering at the end of the movie that you've been sitting next to an awkward ilxor on a date.

also, totally off the moviepass radar, no reserved seating, but absolutely essential: film forum and spectacle.

my office temporarily moved really close to the film forum and i've been bummed they've been closed all summer

but i guess that ends tomorrow!

Going by yourself is easier, but yeah once you have people with you it becomes a whole stressful thing of getting there way too early to find seats together and the awkwardness of people saving way too many seats with jackets/bags.

yeah that's fair!

pic.twitter.com/xUevXXw9ck

— Nick Wiger (@nickwiger) July 30, 2018

went by the theatre at 11am to get a ticket for the 7pm Across The Universe

For anybody forced to verify ticket purchases, is anybody really looking at that shit?

I have forgotten about five times (cos it's not something I am used to), submitted the wrong ticket twice, submitted a picture of my right leg and my middle finger and no restrictions placed

That's clearly why they're going under, thanks a lot.

Last night i managed to successfully check into a theatre 5 miles away and use it to buy a ticket at another theatre which is the only way I could buy a Teen Titans ticket as Incredibles 2 was the only eligible movie

The idea was that the ticket stubs were being OCR'ed and auto-checked, and ones that failed that were going to people being paid an absolute pittance through Amazon's creepy "Mechanical Turk" program. It's possible that MP is no longer paying for the latter service and the stub verification is currently a sham.

The Regal is IRL screening Eighth Grade, Equalizer 2, Hotel Transylvania 3, Incredibles 2, Jurassic Park 5, Mission Impossible 6, Mission Impossible 6 In 3D, Sicario 2, Ocean's 8, Identical Strangers Three, Skyscraper, and Won't You Be My Neighbour?
All Mission Impossible screenings are greyed out. I can't see if sessions are unsurged on Eighth or 8, because I've seen them already. Sicario only has one screening scheduled, at 21:25, and it is unsurged. The other seven films are not showing at all.

The AMC is IRL screening Ant-Man & The Wasp, Blindspotting, Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings, Hereditary, Jurassic Park 5, Mamma Mia! 2, MI:6, MI:6 3D, Skyscraper, Sorry To Bother You, Teen Titans GO! To The Movies, and Unfriended: Dark Web.
All Mission Impossible screenings are greyed out, as is Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings. I can't see if sessions are unsurged on Blindspotting or Hereditary, because I've seen them already. Unfriended has two sessions scheduled, neither are surged. The other seven films are not showing at all.

The nearby arthouse disappeared off Moviepass altogether two weeks ago.

The revival house has their 7pm Honey I Shrunk The Kids available, their 9pm Aliens is not showing up.

An indie to the south had every session on surge on the weekend; today their screenings of Three Identical Strangers and Sorry To Bother You are available, but Ant-Wasp and Mamma Mia are not showing up.

An indie-chain to the north yesterday had Mission Impossible and The Incredible greyed out, and The Catcher Was A Spy available. Today, MI is greyed out, Incredibles is available, and the Paul Rudd spy movie is not showing on the app.

― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Monday, July 30, 2018 2:46 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

forgot to add: Saturday's surge pricing had gone up to $8. still half of a full-price ticket.

Moviepass sent me a surveymonkey this morning about whether I would have seen Blindspotting without moviepass, whether the trailer on the app influenced me, if my movie companions included a non-subscriber etc, so they're still looking to leverage the data ongoing

― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Monday, July 30, 2018 3:33 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I see stuff like this and is, like, saving a few bucks worth all this brainspace on going to the movies, an entertainment literally based in escapism?

there are expensive videogames that are less entertaining than figuring out how to get moviepass to work.