MoviePass lowers annual subscription price to $6.95 per month
MoviePass is the new unlimited subscription service for going to the movies for less than the price of one ticket, now just $6.95/month. Considering the cost of a movie ticket usually exceeds $10, it seems almost to good to be true that you could watch up to 30 movies per month, but you actually can. There’s a few things to note about MoviePass and this new offer. First, you have to pay a full year up front at $89.95, which includes a $6.55 processing fee. Second, you can only watch 2D movies and are limited to one per day, no repeats, no sharing.
The annual $6.95/month plan is available for new MoviePass subscribers only. MoviePass works at over 91% of theaters in America. MoviePass, with over two million subscribers, contributed during recent opening weekends 17% of box office to Paramount Picture’s Annihilation, 10% of box office to Orion Picture’s Every Day, and 9% of box office to Fox Studio’s Love, Simon.
Once subscribed, movie tickets are reserved through the MoviePass app money is loaded onto a debit card provided by MoviePass that is used at the theater to swipe-to-pay for your real tickets. Then you just enter the theater just like anybody else.
So what’s the catch? MoviePass gets your data. They learn your preferences, for example what movies you attend and at what time. They also think you’ll spend more at concessions and are angling to get a cut of that. MoviePass also expects to advertise you stuff like movie soundtracks, nearby restaurant offers, and even the latest movie trailers. Ultimately, MoviePass wants to become the clearinghouse for all in-theater movie consumption and get more people in the habit of going to the movies.
The $6.95/month price is obviously a teaser price to get you hooked. When MoviePass first launched it was priced at $50/month. Then they cut prices to $10/month. Now at $7/month it’s hard to resist. But everyone knows these prices aren’t sustainable. MoviePass reimburses the theater for the actual cost of your tickets, so they lose money if you attend more than one movie a month. What they’re betting is average use will level off after an initial binge period, and they can make money in various ways around the movie day experience.
MoviePass has gained momentum in diversifying its revenue streams due to a series of marketing agreements with studios and distributors, as well as partnerships with a number of theater exhibitors. This recent success in forming relationships with studios, exhibitors, and marketing partners has encouraged MoviePass to offer an even more attractive deal to consumers.
“Our vision has always been to make the movie going experience easy and affordable for anyone, anywhere,” said MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe. “With the current growth and support that we’ve seen within the last several months, our studio and exhibitor revenues and other marketing partnerships have motivated us to lower the price once again, offering movie lovers greater access to MoviePass.”
“We believe our business will succeed by granting the public greater access to see movies how they were originally intended to be seen – in theaters,” said HMNY’s Chairman and CEO Ted Farnsworth. “As the leading movie theater subscription company, we want to bring better value to our MoviePass fans. With this new annual plan, MoviePass is bringing cinema back to the masses.”
