MoviePass

[Flyers99]

Originally Posted by Unknown450

I don't have time to look through it right now, but Mitch Lowe is doing AMA on reddit right now.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comm...moviepass_ama/

Highlights are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoviePassCl...ies_10_am_est/

Better than sifting through the actual AMA

[steve_dave]

It’s important to remember that we’re still a startup. As a startup, we have to make changes to our product and offering in order to find the sweet spot where we’re sustainable and still have a product that offers a great value.

They’ve been a startup since 2011?! Bullsh... The company before Lowe came on shifted prices, shifted the product, its been seven years. Its not a startup anymore, it is now a disruptor since the $10 price point. But you can’t call your company startup at this point.

Even Uber and Lyft stopped calling themselves a startup even with the controversies. Mitch Lowe needs to own that the changes are to intentionally drive down usage. They can’t use the startup excuse especially after partnering with I Heart Radio and financing films.

[Destinys Memory]

Mitch Lowe?

Lying about MoviePass?

[W]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

They’ve been a startup since 2011?! Bullsh... The company before Lowe came on shifted prices, shifted the product, its been seven years. Its not a startup anymore, it is now a disruptor since the $10 price point. But you can’t call your company startup at this point.

Even Uber and Lyft stopped calling themselves a startup even with the controversies. Mitch Lowe needs to own that the changes are to intentionally drive down usage. They can’t use the startup excuse especially after partnering with I Heart Radio and financing films.

The first thing Mitch Lowe did when he was put in control was raise to my price from $30 to $99. Those "random test prices" was trying to drive down usage two years ago.

[Poya]

The plot thickens.

[atomicreplicant]

Originally Posted by Flyers99

Highlights are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoviePassCl...ies_10_am_est/

Better than sifting through the actual AMA

This is a much better AMA than I expected

[BKavett]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

You will see the surge cost after clicking check in or reserve ETicket.

According to the AMA, this is incorrect:

Q: Surge pricing is something many users are dreading, as its goes against the entire point of paying one monthly fee. How will we be warned about surge prices - when we look in the app will we be able to see all showings that have surges for that day? Will we be able to see exactly what the surge rates are? Will surge rates be for all new releases or just major blockbusters?

A: Peak Pricing actually allows us to maintain our low monthly fee! Before you leave your home to go to the theater, you will be able to view which films and showtimes are currently experiencing peak pricing and which ones will likely have it by the time you get to the theater.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by BKavett

According to the AMA, this is incorrect:

I was going by the Facebook post/email which is being contradicted by Lowe. As is the usual business practice for Movie Pass.

Under this plan, if the combination of demand for a title, date or part of day is higher, subscribers may be asked to pay a small additional fee depending on the level of demand. You can avoid this peak surcharge by choosing an alternative date or film.

Which I interpreted as happening when you check in/reserve an eticket.

[MileHigh AI]

Originally Posted by Flyers99

Highlights are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoviePassCl...ies_10_am_est/

Better than sifting through the actual AMA

Reading through the comments of that and some of the questions......it is clear many aren't aware of how long MoviePass has been around, their history, or knew that AMC had been planning their subscription before the $9.99 MP deal (Someone here on the forums let that be known ages ago).

As a moviepass subscriber since 2012 it's easy to see how the peak/surge pricing can be manipulated beyond just "blockbuster/popular" movies.

We'll use American Animals & this weekends films as an example. It's had a relatively small release. Say it went Nationwide in every major theater across the country this Friday.
What's to stop MoviePass, if surge pricing was already in affect, from making it for the entire weekend and start of next week that every showing of Sicario 2 and Uncle Drew were under surge pricing. Only "new release" unaffected happens to be American Animals, which MoviePass Ventures has a personal stake in.


MoviePass from 2012-mid 2016 was great. $29.95/34.95 a mo/ unlimited movies (still only one viewing of each movie) support was easy to reach via phone. Only hiccup was the 24 hour time clock they implemented which they did eventually get rid of. But once Mitch got involved Summer of 2016 everything changed and has been changing every couple months. Do I love the $9.95/mo pricing now? Sure, Mitch Lowe put me in the $100/mo testing group, which I immediately told MP to go &%$@ themselves after that, so $10/mo as basically their way to get me back worked.
Did I like for a bit we could see things multiple times? Of course. But I'll be honest, surge pricing is bullshit. You need to raise the monthly fee do it. Yeah people are going to be upset but Moviepass has a horrible track record of saying something is going to work one way and it work entirely different. Surge/peak pricing will (there is no "we'll see" about it) piss way more people off than going $14.99/mo, $19.99/mo, or even back to original $29.99/mo flat out no games/gimmicks would.


Personally, I wish Cinemark would do better than their Movie Club thing as AMC completely ruined the two Carmike cinemas out here so AMC will never get another dime of my money.

[Destinys Memory]

Originally Posted by MileHigh AI

As a moviepass subscriber since 2012 it's easy to see how the peak/surge pricing can be manipulated beyond just "blockbuster/popular" movies.

We'll use American Animals & this weekends films as an example. It's had a relatively small release. Say it went Nationwide in every major theater across the country this Friday.
What's to stop MoviePass, if surge pricing was already in affect, from making it for the entire weekend and start of next week that every showing of Sicario 2 and Uncle Drew were under surge pricing. Only "new release" unaffected happens to be American Animals, which MoviePass Ventures has a personal stake in.

MoviePass has already used this sort of manipulation. The weekend that Death Wish premiered, MP had a sponsorship with them, so they blocked purchases of Red Sparrow. But they didn't do it nationwide, only in certain markets, so you immediately had people running to MoviePass' defense, saying it was "just a glitch."

Then, MoviePass admitted they were intentionally blocking purchases. That's when they started the "We always encourage our customers to check the app before leaving home for the current available showtimes" garbage.

They then added that to their terms of service, in all caps and in bold.

YOU SHOULD CHECK OUR MOVIEPASS APP FREQUENTLY FOR CHANGES IN OUR SERVICES AND ALL OFFERINGS INCLUDING UPDATES ON THEATER PARTICIPATION.

At this point, if people are still believing what comes out of Mitch Lowe's mouth, then they are a lost cause.

[Samus Aran]

I opened my app today and it gave me a message about how I should turn on notifications. Whenever I press the option to continue without enabling, nothing happens. The only button that allows me to go to the next screen is the enable one.

Turning the phone off and back on bypassed it. I guess I could've just enabled and then disabled too.

[jacobsever]

Extremely pedantic, but I've seen several people and articles call MoviePass a "startup".

Is it really a startup company, when it's been in operation for 7 years?! Sure, it changed ownership/CEOs, and switched up it's price point, but that doesn't negate the multiple years of a functional business that came before it.

I feel like, yes, it would be a "startup company" had August of 2016 been the grand opening/first time of operation.

[MileHigh AI]

Originally Posted by Destinys Memory

MoviePass has already used this sort of manipulation. The weekend that Death Wish premiered, MP had a sponsorship with them, so they blocked purchases of Red Sparrow. But they didn't do it nationwide, only in certain markets, so you immediately had people running to MoviePass' defense, saying it was "just a glitch."

Then, MoviePass admitted they were intentionally blocking purchases. That's when they started the "We always encourage our customers to check the app before leaving home for the current available showtimes" garbage.

They then added that to their terms of service, in all caps and in bold.



At this point, if people are still believing what comes out of Mitch Lowe's mouth, then they are a lost cause.

oh I know they did which is why its amazing no one bothered to call Mitch out on it in the reddit. Hell like 4 of the questions in the reddit were the same damn question or just plain stupid questions.

[W]

Originally Posted by Destinys Memory

At this point, if people are still believing what comes out of Mitch Lowe's mouth, then they are a lost cause.

The month after Mitch Lowe was put in charge, Moviepass increased the price on heavy users of the service from $30 to $100 for the unlimited plan. They said it was temporary and they were randomly testing a new pricing plan, though for some reason it only went out to those who watched six or more movies a month. A year later I had to sign up with a new email because I still wasn't allowed to join when they lowered the price to $10.

I never forgot this and am now an AMC A-List subscriber.

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by jacobsever

Extremely pedantic, but I've seen several people and articles call MoviePass a "startup".

Is it really a startup company, when it's been in operation for 7 years?! Sure, it changed ownership/CEOs, and switched up it's price point, but that doesn't negate the multiple years of a functional business that came before it.

I feel like, yes, it would be a "startup company" had August of 2016 been the grand opening/first time of operation.

Yes it is still a startup. They are still needing investment money. Hell they only had around 10 employees last fall. I've worked at startups that had 100's of employees and were in business for a 5+ years. You can't get hung up on what you think "startup" means.

[jacobsever]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

Yes it is still a startup. They are still needing investment money. Hell they only had around 10 employees last fall. I've worked at startups that had 100's of employees and were in business for a 5+ years. You can't get hung up on what you think "startup" means.

A startup company (startup or start-up) is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a newly emerged business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable business model around a product, service, process or a platform.

I would argue that 7 years is not "newly emerged".

[shrex]

Originally Posted by jacobsever

A startup company (startup or start-up) is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a newly emerged business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable business model around a product, service, process or a platform.

I would argue that 7 years is not "newly emerged".

I would argue that this ain't viable lol

[MileHigh AI]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

Yes it is still a startup. They are still needing investment money. Hell they only had around 10 employees last fall. I've worked at startups that had 100's of employees and were in business for a 5+ years. You can't get hung up on what you think "startup" means.

They had more employees before Mitch Lowe took over, they also had way more subscribers before the Summer of 2016 as well. This is a company that was around for around 5 years then changed into needing that investment money due to Mitch Lowe's decisions that drove off employees and customers. You don't get to suddenly become a startup again just because the guy in charge says it is. That's not how it works.
He's only doing so as an excuse for all the shenanigans he is implementing calling them basically growing pains of a new business to find their footing.
Which is complete bull.

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by MileHigh AI

They had more employees before Mitch Lowe took over, they also had way more subscribers before the Summer of 2016 as well. This is a company that was around for around 5 years then changed into needing that investment money due to Mitch Lowe's decisions that drove off employees and customers. You don't get to suddenly become a startup again just because the guy in charge says it is. That's not how it works.
He's only doing so as an excuse for all the shenanigans he is implementing calling them basically growing pains of a new business to find their footing.
Which is complete bull.

It doesn't matter it wasn't a viable business model even back then lol.

Having people pay 9 dollars for unlimited movies even if you told them 1 a day and only during $7-$10 times you're still in the red after two visits lol

They either need to sort the analytics out and start selling our data to someone for big $, or they need to get bigger cuts of the pie from studios/ theaters but they don't have enough subscribers to swing that leverage they'd need 10m+ subscriptions to start to be able to throw that kinda weight around.

[SethRex]

All I'm looking forward to is when the Premium ticket allowance will commence.