The film industry wants (nay, needs) to find ways to bring audiences back into theaters. The box office tallies of 2014 aren’t nearly as dire as they were in years past, though summer’s blockbuster season didn’t live up to inflated studio expectations. Which is why, starting next year, at least one major theater chain will experiment with a program that could get more butts in seats on a monthly basis.
MoviePass, which has been in operation since at least 2012, is a movie-ticket subscription service that likens itself to Netflix. Users pay $30 a month to see as many movies as they’d like in a theater. You can go every day if you’d like. The company makes money off of the people who don’t take advantage of it daily. And Variety now says that the company is ready to step up its game through a partnership with a major theater chain in AMC Theatres.
The trade notes that the pilot program for MoviePass will begin in two cities in 2015 – Boston, for nine theaters; and Denver, for 10 locations. The program will "expand to other markets based on user interest," Variety reports. Essentially, subscribers will purchase the monthly pass for somewhere between $30 and $45, and then be able to see a movie a day. Given the fact that the average movie theater ticket at an AMC location costs $9.50, you can recoup the costs by seeing four movies in the course of the month. If you see 5 or more, you are saving money.
This dude explains it to you.
The fact that AMC Theatres now throws support behind MoviePass shows that the idea is gaining momentum. Variety notes that the chain was opposed to the idea of MoviePass initially because they allegedly believed that the existence of the service would damage ticket sales. The fact that there’s now a MoviePass Premium service, which accounts for 3D and IMAX screenings, might have helped sway AMC to the company’s side. And it will be interesting to see how the pilot program performs in Boston and Denver. If it succeeds in any way, you know rival chains like Regal will investigate whether it makes sense to partner with MoviePass in the coming months.
Variety says the new AMC MoviePass ticket will be available as an app. If it were available by you, would you take the plunge?
