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How Does MoviePass Make Money?

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Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#71

Post by lsc »

schizoidboy wrote: post #11
libertine wrote: post #6

I still remember when movie theaters provided a different experience - and I'm in my late 20's, so it was not that long ago. Movie theaters became just another living room - people go there chat, comment and eat during the movie just like they were at home. It became such an obnoxious experience, where people are shoved into a room and door is closed. This goes to say: movie theaters had a lot of distribution costs r…

If the main business model works (see my other comment), then theaters' margins needn't be reduced. I guess MoviePass thinks they deserve a cut of concessions since they're saving theaters - which might be true - but theaters control the end product, so I doubt they'd share revenue. They're more likely to compete against MoviePass if the plan works.

>but theaters control the end product, so I doubt they'd share revenue. They're more likely to compete against MoviePass if the plan works.

This seems the most likely to me; I mean, if I were to buy a ticket subscription, I'd want that at the theaters that I go to often; I am happy to pay full price when I go somewhere unusual.

This means there's almost no network effect... my favorite theater could put up a subscription service that only worked at that one location, and it would instantly have more value than MoviePass that might or might not include access to that theater next month. Even better would be a regional service, but in this case, at least on the customer end, I don't think making the service national adds very much value at all.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#72

Post by rhino369 »

neovive wrote: 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…

Part of it is seeing movies 3 months before DVD. Discount for delay happens in other entertainment industries--like video games.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#73

Post by mschuster91 »

alexwilde wrote: post #63
mschuster91 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I'm much more likely to see a movie I would never normally pay to see with a MoviePass subscription.

That is the exact thing that makes the data actually interesting: it removes the risk factor, aka "do I want to see a movie for $12/person and risk that it's trash?", from the viewer's decision process.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#75

Post by haily »

I think most people are missing the point here. MoviePass has many ways to monetize from begin to end. It currently has more then 1.5 million subscribers & growing very fast (fastest subscription service growth ever, even faster then netflix). Most people miss the opportunities MoviePass has. It will control the demand & distribution of movies through its subscribers. Movie theater goers have been declining year over year and MoviePass will help reverse this.

It currently makes money by

a) subscriptions $9.95/month b) $2-3 rebate per ticket contracts with about 1000 theaters (5 new contracts a week are signed) c) 20-30% of concession revenue with about 1000 theaters (5 new contracts a week are signed) d) Bought "America Animal" movie rights for North American release at Sundance Festival

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#76

Post by panarky »

mschuster91 wrote: post #29
utnick wrote: 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…

It's not about the data, at least not yet.

The goal is simply to burn cash to get big enough that they can threaten AMC and Regal to do a rev share.

That's it for now. If this works, then the data might become valuable. But for now it's just a race to scale up before the cash runs out.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#77

Post by calvano915 »

kogir wrote: post #66
mschuster91 wrote: post #16

> 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.

Do me a favor and turn off your GPS after purchase so the app doesn't track the viewing time of the movie you actually went to. Abuse of the service like what you're doing may force them to add restrictions. Not cool, IMO.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#78

Post by shaftway »

mschuster91 wrote: post #73
alexwilde wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I'm much more likely to see a movie I would never normally pay to see with a MoviePass subscription. That is the exact thing that makes the data actually interesting: it removes the risk factor, aka "do I want to see a movie for $12/person and risk that it's trash?", from the viewer's decision process.

There's a lot more interesting data to mine there.

I'm a lot more willing to walk out of a movie I didn't pay for. There's not really a way to capture this data right now, but the MoviePass system requires you to have an app on your phone, and check in shortly before the movie, at the theater.

If I was them I'd be looking at putting audio fingerprinting on the phone to determine whether people leave before the movie ends.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#79

Post by supreme_sublime »

cwyers wrote: post #55
sudhirj wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No ads doesn't mean your data isn't being used for ads. It's likely being sold to orthogonal adtech businesses. i.e. the company collecting the data is rarely the one using it, it usually just sells it.

And how well does that work out? My experience with ad targeting is that it's mostly awful. Amazon can track every book I purchase through them, and the ads for books to buy on my Kindle are awful. Facebook has oodles of information about me, and if I turn off AdBlock for a moment there, the ads I see are... diabetes test strips (I do not have diabetes) and something involving Brook Shields that I bet is a total sham…

I'm curious, does Amazon continue to recommend items you either just bought or are similar to something you recently bought? I get this all the time and it is annoying. It seems like the recommended stuff is related to my searches and doesn't get changed by my purchases.

I think the whole online ad industry is broken. I don't know why people keep pouring money into it. Most people have learned to ignore ads, or they use an ad blocker. I don't care to see an ad for something I already bought.

I doubt a system like this would actually work, but I'd explicitly tell them what kind of products I'm looking for if they asked. This passive "we can get into their mind through searches" doesn't work very well.

Re: How Does MoviePass Make Money?

#80

Post by bfuller »

shaftway wrote: post #78
mschuster91 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm much more likely to see a movie I would never normally pay to see with a MoviePass subscription. That is the exact thing that makes the data actually interesting: it removes the risk factor, aka "do I want to see a movie for $12/person and risk that it's trash?", from the viewer's decision process.

There's a lot more interesting data to mine there. I'm a lot more willing to walk out of a movie I didn't pay for. There's not really a way to capture this data right now, but the MoviePass system requires you to have an app on your phone, and check in shortly before the movie, at the theater. If I was them I'd be looking at putting audio fingerprinting on the phone to determine whether people leave before the movie…

the app requires a surprising amount of permissions also
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