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MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

money.cnn.com

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Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#141

Post by misterprime »

scarface74 wrote: post #115
wildpeaks wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Nerdwriter has a good video (short, just 6 minutes) about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w876zZZIb10 The gist of it is, they're hoping to grow so big that movie theaters will have no choice but to negotiate with them, to share part of the revenues they bring theaters from people who normally don't come watch movies on a whim anymore.

And the movie theatres just created thier own subscription service. Why should they pay a third party?

Being able to go to a different chain is nice. For example, near home there is Regal theater, but near where everyone hangs out there is an AMC.

I'm considering switching from MoviePass to AMC A-Stubs or whatever it's called, but will lose out on the opportunity to walk to my local theater for a free flick.

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#142

Post by organsnyder »

slivym wrote: post #114
acchow wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't charge less than the marginal cost, it doesn't make sense! It worked for Uber tho. And now they've raised prices in markets where they are established.

Uber has a network effect, so it's naturally monopolistic. Cinema passes have a network effect too (you only want the pass if the cinemas near you have it), but firstly it's much much weaker because you literally only need your local cinema, and secondly that's a network effect that helps the actual cinema, not a random middle man like moviepass.

Uber has a network effect, but it's not exclusive—hence the larger number of drivers driving for both Uber and Lyft. I don't see Uber's position as being very entrenched at this point.

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#143

Post by reaperducer »

legitster wrote: post #20

If I am a traditional 'tech' company - I can afford to lose money when I am investing it in my platform or technology. It's like borrowing money to invest in your assets. For MoviePass, they are losing money and passing it off to theaters - it's like borrowing money to buy more ingredients for a failing restaurant. You can't charge less than the marginal cost, it doesn't make sense! I am trying to wrap my head around…

An emergency loan with no change to the service whatsoever? They are really having a deer in the headlights moment.

Reminds me of a startup I worked with once.

The goal wasn't to make a viable product. It was to make a big splash and get bought.

  10 Start a product/service
  20 Make a big hype and get lots of publicity
  30 Get bought by some larger company that sees you as a threat/opportunity
  40 Founders get big cash payout, everyone else gets the shaft
  50 GOTO 10

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#144

Post by scarface74 »

listenallyall wrote: post #135
scarface74 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMC's subscription plan is especially attractive to high-volume users on which it will likely lose money, further, it encourages them to use their free tickets at peak times for the most popular movies in the most expensive formats. When an AMC subscriber in NYC reserves a seat for a Marvel film in IMAX on opening weekend, that's a $20+ ticket that AMC can't sell to a paying customer because the theater is sold out.…

The WSJ article says that's for standard 2D films. But A-List encourages subscribers to see 3-D, IMAX, Dolby, etc. It also says the studios aren't on board with the $8.99 figure and are seeking changes in AMC's calculations. https://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2018/06/25/amc-s... https://www.wsj.com/articles/hollywood-studios-fear-amcs-new... The studios are not going to sit back and accept just $5 per admiss…

I can’t find the numbers now, but Imax did make some kind of deal with AMC.

https://deadline.com/2018/06/imax-approves-amc-theaters-new-... By “wouldn’t affect the overall economics”, I assume they meant that AMC promised them that the offset in revenue would be made up by the number of people seeing IMAX or they would make up the difference. Not they are paying full cost.

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#145

Post by scarface74 »

uxp100 wrote: post #134
scarface74 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AMC doesn’t show 12 different movies in a month. At most, they probably have a turnover of 5-6 movies per month. As I said earlier, the price they pay for the studio for each movie a subscriber sees is around $4-$6. They still make a lot of money on high priced concessions.

I looked at an AMC I've been to. They have 20 movies listed as available to see today. Many only have 2 showings or something, but they have 20 screens, they seem to turnover more than 5 or 6 movies in a month.

I didn’t say they only have 5 or 6 movies showings at once. By turnover, I meant after you catch up on all of the movies they have now, you won’t find 20 new movies next month. Over the course of the year, they won’t have 156 movies in the theatre (52 x 3)

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#146

Post by Robin_Message »

martin_bech wrote: post #107
Robin_Message wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weaponizing customer data like that would literally be illegal in the EU, so doesn't seem like the best plan... Other ideas might work!

Moviepass is not available in the EU.

Oh okay, that's alright then /s

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#147

Post by reaperducer »

jacobush wrote: post #140
citrablue wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber also plans to cut costs significantly in the future w/ autonomous cars. May be a pipe dream, but if they believe in the successful widespread deployment of the technology, that means they just have to stay afloat until then. MoviePass could start to make their own movies, but that would require a substantial investment and isn't really comparable

Wow that would be something... what would happen if Universal Pictures stepped in with a subscription model (or whatever Moviepass does) for their movies?

Why build when you can buy?

Universal just has to buy MoviePass. Assuming it has the cash. From what I've read over the last few years, the big Hollywood studios are not cash-rich.

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#148

Post by gamblor956 »

ironjunkie wrote: post #104
clintonb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What leverage do they have to strongarm? If a theater is popular, that means MoviePass customers like the theater. MoviePass needs the theater more than the theater needs MoviePass. If MoviePass chooses not to pay for tickets at the theater, that’s a MoviePass problem.

If MoviePass represent let's say 50% of your customer and suddenly they remove your theater from the list, I will bet you will lose about 90% of those MoviePass customers, so you will lose about 45% of your customers. I have a MoviePass, and when they removed a big AMC theater around my place a couple months ago, I simply drove two more miles to the Century theater. I have zero loyalty to a specific theater//chain, I…

MoviePass' problem was that their biggest users were stingy as fuck. They would smuggle in their own snack and drink, instead of purchasing from the movie concessions stands.

This might not have been much of an issue (since MoviePass pays full price for the tickets), but they tried to make a play for all of a theater's concessions revenue rather than just the revenue traceable to MoviePass customers.

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#149

Post by lev99 »

clircle wrote: post #31

My wife and I are so frustrated by the movie going experience in the US. In Taiwan, everyone is permitted to bring food and drinks to the theater and that's pretty common. In the US I'm forced to pay an absurd amount of money for awful junk food. No thanks, I want to drink tea while I watch a movie. We always have to smuggle in drinks because the theater just doesn't provide any good options. None of the movies is th…

I want movie theaters to close.

I think people that do not attend movie theaters also do not mind. If they liked movie theaters they would attend.

I have a small apartment with a 70 inch screen in the living room. The three movies a year Hollywood produces I am interested in can be watched from the comfort of my own home in 4k surround sound for $4.99 a few months after they arrive in theaters. I can control the volume, I can pause when I want, I can eat/drink what I want, and I have control over the audience I watch the movie with.

The only advantage a movie theater has is that it receives movies a few months earlier. If movie theaters close that solves that advantage.

Re: MoviePass couldn’t afford to pay for movie tickets on Thursday

#150

Post by [deleted] »

crooked-v wrote: post #118
chrisseaton wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the studio gained audience but (excluding the MoviePass susididy) not any money so what’s the benefit of that? In fact they might be setting an expectation that film tickets should be lower in people’s minds! If you give me free tickets to the cinema I might go. If you say now I’m in the habit can you charge me $1? No thanks not worth it now.

The benefactee in this scenario is the theater chain, not the studio, as they make most of their real profit from concessions, not selling seats.

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