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How Does MoviePass Make Money?

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Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#61
post #58
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “If you get a trailer right now for Spiderman on Facebook, Facebook can’t tell if you ever actually go to the movie. We can,” he told Wired. “We can tell if you look at 'Spider-Man' and look at 'Wonder Woman' and 'Mission: Impossible,' we can tell you exactly what movie you went to out of all three trailers.” Oh bull. So many people tag themselves in Facebook posts when they go to the movies. Facebook absolutely ha…

Maybe for your friend group, but absolutely not mine (20-25). That market is huge for advertisers. Thar said I can't imagine their losses ever being recouped in ads.

Maybe I am mistaken, but I find it hard to believe that if people in that demo are on Facebook enough to see movie trailers there that they wouldn't then post about the movie they just saw.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#62
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where in the US have you been watching movies? I’ve never experienced this. The worst I’ve seen (and it bugs the heck out of me still) is people clapping when something big happens, but that is still quite rare. I’ve seen films in upstate NY, SF, SD, LA area, and beautiful New Hampshire.

That was in the Bay Area (SF, Mountain View, San Mateo...)

I've noticed a huge difference between movie behavior based on city. It makes sense that it would vary by regional culture. In Los Angeles, clapping was semi-common, particularly during the early days of a big new release; it seemed to vary in direct proportion to how many people were in the theater. I consider that extremely obnoxious. I've almost never seen clapping during a movie anywhere on the east coast however.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#63
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that data that valuable though? Its not that unique, off the top of my head there are several companies that have similar datasets, Every movie theatre chain, every online movie booking service, every movie review site

Yes, because: - the theatre chains only have mostly generic datasets (the audience for movie X is mostly young white males) while MoviePass can do far more detailed analysis (and, in theory, could pass detailed questionnaires after you watched a movie, thus gathering more personalized data) - online movie booking services (at least in my social bubble) are only used for movies where people think they don't have a cha…

I agree with this mostly. However, the data coming from MoviePass may be flawed. I'm much more likely to see a movie I would never normally pay to see with a MoviePass subscription.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#64
post #53

I wonder how much longer the theater experience will command such a high premium. Beyond a true IMAX experience, the theater doesn't seem to add much value for average movies. One possible pivot for MoviePass would be to partner with Netflix, Amazon, HBO, or Hulu to run exclusive "members-only" premiers of their content in theaters. I could see some value in the community aspect of the theater for some of the more po…

For me, a movie theater is subpar to my apartment. I would much rather watch new releases on a streaming site than shlep to a theater, fight the desire to waste money on bad snacks, and sell my viewing history to god knows who.

I have a big screen 4k HDR TV, a 7.1 Dolby Atmos system, and very comfortable recliners.

But I would never consider a movie theater a subpar experience to my condo for any movie worth seeing on the big screen.

Maybe I'm just lucky that I live in Tinseltown and we know how to operate good theaters here, but every major-chain local theater has laser projectors, massive sound systems, and reserved reclining seats. The concession stands offer beer, wine, and cooked foods. Security regularly patrols the theaters during screenings to make sure that people aren't on their phones or talking.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#65

> Helios and Matheson, an analytics company which has a majority stake in MoviePass This here is the juice: Big data. The more customers they have, the better - they have validated full names, birthdates, addresses and CC numbers (and most likely also ethnicity) linked with the data when they visited what movie and even if the customers repeatedly visited a movie. MoviePass has, effectively, four distinct customers:…

> vast amount of adtech/big data/consumer analytics companies for which this data is a goldmine Don't credit card companies already have this data?

Credit card companies and the banks behind them do not see which movie a customer went to, only that they went to see some movie.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#66

> Helios and Matheson, an analytics company which has a majority stake in MoviePass This here is the juice: Big data. The more customers they have, the better - they have validated full names, birthdates, addresses and CC numbers (and most likely also ethnicity) linked with the data when they visited what movie and even if the customers repeatedly visited a movie. MoviePass has, effectively, four distinct customers:…

Their data is useless. They have no way to tie purchases to the movie viewed. I just pick the first thing it’ll let me check in for, not the movie or time I want, and it always works.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#67

> Helios and Matheson, an analytics company which has a majority stake in MoviePass This here is the juice: Big data. The more customers they have, the better - they have validated full names, birthdates, addresses and CC numbers (and most likely also ethnicity) linked with the data when they visited what movie and even if the customers repeatedly visited a movie. MoviePass has, effectively, four distinct customers:…

Doesn’t something like Fandango have that info too? I use their service and I’m assuming they are profitable.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#69
post #66

> Helios and Matheson, an analytics company which has a majority stake in MoviePass This here is the juice: Big data. The more customers they have, the better - they have validated full names, birthdates, addresses and CC numbers (and most likely also ethnicity) linked with the data when they visited what movie and even if the customers repeatedly visited a movie. MoviePass has, effectively, four distinct customers:…

Their data is useless. They have no way to tie purchases to the movie viewed. I just pick the first thing it’ll let me check in for, not the movie or time I want, and it always works.

> I just pick the first thing it’ll let me check in for, not the movie or time I want, and it always works.

This... is a great idea...

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#70
post #46

How do so many other companies like this make money? For example, HQ: the live trivia game show app that gives away a few thousand dollars multiple times per day. There's no ads, and no in app purchases. Besides burning through VC money like it's 1998, what's the business model?

HQ gets 1m+ people to watch to same thing with 100% attention twice a day. They can cover that costs with ads easy. Will people keep tuning in? Maybe. But their burn is a lot less than movie pass.
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