unlimited movies for $10 a month

[lamboguy]

because i quit betting on horses i needed something to occupy some of my time. i am going to take up movie watching with this deal

https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/15/moviepass-unlimited-movies-10-dollars-a-month/

[davew]

I looked into moviepass last month, and would need to get a much fancier phone than I presently have. Also a couple big theater chains are resisting.

[reckless]

because i quit betting on horses i needed something to occupy some of my time. i am going to take up movie watching with this deal

https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/15/moviepass-unlimited-movies-10-dollars-a-month/

lambo.... I know $10 is chicken feed to you, but just d-load Kodi. The set up is very easy and you'll be able to watch 1,000s of movies at your leisure. Plus some live stuff too, like Pac 12 sports; BYU broadcasting network and other gems.

[JustRalph]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-13/movie-a-day-deal-dubbed-as-wacky-is-overwhelmed-with-orders

Overwhelmed with orders

[barahona44]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-13/movie-a-day-deal-dubbed-as-wacky-is-overwhelmed-with-orders

Overwhelmed with orders
As one of the executives was quoted, at this price the idea is unsustainable.Selling consumers "habits" to make up for the revenue seems to have a limited market.What habits can they perceive the moviegoer to have other than whether they purchase Milk Duds or Junior Mints at the concession stand?

[JustRalph]

I give it 18 months tops.

But if they can make It Work? Who knows. I just don't see a viable revenue stream. It's going to bleed heavy ......

[Dave Schwartz]

lambo.... I know $10 is chicken feed to you, but just d-load Kodi. The set up is very easy and you'll be able to watch 1,000s of movies at your leisure. Plus some live stuff too, like Pac 12 sports; BYU broadcasting network and other gems.

Kodi is just a media center, albeit a pretty good one (so I have heard).

The issue is still getting content.

Although I do not personally download movies from pirate platforms, the few that I have seen with friends had horrible quality (compared to the theater) and no surround sound.

If you like TV shows, do not think you will get ALL the episodes of ANYTHING in a TIMELY manner.

You are limited to whatever the streaming services have available.

There is no free lunch to be found.

Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[vegasone]

Kodi itself is legal but the addonns are not. They have been cracking down on those supplying boxes with the extra software because it is illegal to use it, at least in this country. You are able to add the extra software yourself but it is still illegal to use it.

[PaceAdvantage]

Kodi is just a media center, albeit a pretty good one (so I have heard).

The issue is still getting content.

Although I do not personally download movies from pirate platforms, the few that I have seen with friends had horrible quality (compared to the theater) and no surround sound.

If you like TV shows, do not think you will get ALL the episodes of ANYTHING in a TIMELY manner.

You are limited to whatever the streaming services have available.

There is no free lunch to be found.

Regards,
Dave SchwartzI don't know where your friends are going but you can get whatever quality level you want on those "pirate platforms." Not Kodi necessarily, mind you...I'm talking about the places where you actually download the entire movie.

Hell, they have 4k versions of movies up for download these days.

While the average (non-4k) downloads won't approach Blu-Ray quality, they are nowhere near "horrible quality."

[davew]

I give it 18 months tops.

But if they can make It Work? Who knows. I just don't see a viable revenue stream. It's going to bleed heavy ......

They will run it as a loss leader for awhile, until they get subscriptions up - then will raise prices.

I remember when PAYPAL and Netflix streaming was free....

[davew]

it might be getting closer to raising prices or shutting down


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6000593/MoviePass-ran-money-afford-pay-tickets.html

[JustRalph]

Reports it shut down last night

[cj]

Reports it shut down last night

They ran out of money. Got a 5 million dollar loan and are back today, but that can't be a good sign.

https://www.slashfilm.com/moviepass-shut-down/

[Actor]

Judging from what plays at my local cinema the movie industry puts out about 2 movies per week. Most of those I either am not interested in seeing or not interested in seeing again. The system is overloaded with super heroes, remakes and sequels. I rent DVDs and BluRay and most of those are classics. The really great movies would not get green lit today.

[boxcar]

Judging from what plays at my local cinema the movie industry puts out about 2 movies per week. Most of those I either am not interested in seeing or not interested in seeing again. The system is overloaded with super heroes, remakes and sequels. I rent DVDs and BluRay and most of those are classics. The really great movies would not get green lit today.

Wow! We actually agree on something. :jump::jump:

I do my movie watching on the cheap. I have no TV piped into my TV. I do streaming from Netflix and Amazon Prime and I rent DVDs and BDs from Netflix, and I get to watch everything I want to see. And Netflix has a very decent library of classical movies.

[lansdale]

This is a bit verbose, but if you skip to the lower half, sounds like they'll be raising the price to $15 per mo.. Supposedly this is being marketed to $$-challenged young people sick of watching big-scale action movies etc., on their IPads. Since nearly all of an exhibitor's profits come from concessions, just getting bodies in the theater is the goal.


https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/how-much-longer-will-moviepass-last

[cj]

My wife and I do a thing through AMC (A-List) that is $20 a month each and we can see three movies a week. We like going to movies so we get more than our monies worth. There are no restrictions at all. We can do IMAX, 3-D, reclining seats, whatever. There are plenty of Regal cinemas in the area so I have no complaints at all.

Of course they do this to get you in the door and spend money on other stuff, but other than an occasional popcorn we don't bit.

[davew]

My wife and I do a thing through AMC (A-List) that is $20 a month each and we can see three movies a week. We like going to movies so we get more than our monies worth. There are no restrictions at all. We can do IMAX, 3-D, reclining seats, whatever. There are plenty of Regal cinemas in the area so I have no complaints at all.

Of course they do this to get you in the door and spend money on other stuff, but other than an occasional popcorn we don't bit.

I am considering this, because you can see all 3 movies for the week in 1 day if you wish ... maybe I just need to upgrade my sound system to enjoy my Netflix more.

[Dave Schwartz]

For Christmas we got a 90-day MoviePass (https://moviepass.com) similar to what CJ described. After that it is $9.95 per month per person.

For us it was all but worthless because we almost always go with friends. Every theater in our area is now reserved seat. It is impossible to reserve our seats (using the service) and their seats at the same time, so, we wind up sitting across the theater from each other.

[lansdale]

My wife and I do a thing through AMC (A-List) that is $20 a month each and we can see three movies a week. We like going to movies so we get more than our monies worth. There are no restrictions at all. We can do IMAX, 3-D, reclining seats, whatever. There are plenty of Regal cinemas in the area so I have no complaints at all.

Of course they do this to get you in the door and spend money on other stuff, but other than an occasional popcorn we don't bit.

Sounds like you have the best of worlds there. Since the movie-theater experience can vary widely depending on what's available in the local area, the over-25 audience is often an outlier -- not many people over that age want to go to a theater where people area yelling back at the screen and talking constantly on their cell phone. Also re concessions -- these have become more crucial to exhibitors as studios started to front-load -- take a bigger percentage of the early weeks of big releases -- driving theater chains to raise prices on concessions to compensate. 75% of the audience will hit the concession stand. This is all part of an ongoing battle between the studios and exhibitors over the declining audience for theatrical films and with promotions like these, it seems like audiences should continue to benefit if the business model is viable.

[lansdale]

For Christmas we got a 90-day MoviePass (https://moviepass.com) similar to what CJ described. After that it is $9.95 per month per person.

For us it was all but worthless because we almost always go with friends. Every theater in our area is now reserved seat. It is impossible to reserve our seats (using the service) and their seats at the same time, so, we wind up sitting across the theater from each other.

Although I haven't run across it much, I know the reserved-seat thing is becoming more common and I'm not a fan of it either. I know Arc-Light in L.A. has gone this way and AMC in NY. With large groups though, it seems to me you're in a tough spot whenever you want to go to a popular movie, or sometimes any movie in the early weeks of release -- even with general admission, you're probably not going to be able to sit together.

[davew]

they changed their minds again after complaints about rasing price from $10 to $15/month. Now they will limit to 3 movies per month, with couple week delays before seeing new blockbusters.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6032015/No-price-hike-new-caps-MoviePass-discount-tix-plan.html

[Dave Schwartz]

Although I haven't run across it much, I know the reserved-seat thing is becoming more common and I'm not a fan of it either. I know Arc-Light in L.A. has gone this way and AMC in NY. With large groups though, it seems to me you're in a tough spot whenever you want to go to a popular movie, or sometimes any movie in the early weeks of release -- even with general admission, you're probably not going to be able to sit together.

Agreed.

The other issue we had with this service is that you cannot order your seats online. You MUST physically walk into the theater on the day of the movie to buy the tickets.

From a practical standpoint, this means two trips to the theater on the same day! That's not insurmountable for us because we don't have a lot of traffic congestion in Reno. Still, it is certainly 30 minutes extra to buy the tickets.

I also read an article about a year ago about how Movie Pass had failed in their earlier attempt because the pricing model demands $23 per person, per month to be sustainable. That is NEVER going to fly in this age.

(The company admitted that the $9.95 was a temporary price and that it would go up.)

[davew]

FTC fined the closed company for invalidating passwords of heavy users.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/moviepass-operators-agree-to-settle-with-ftc-for-invalidating-passwords-of-frequent-users-11623189194