movie theater

moviepass

It might surprise you to know that MoviePass will hit its one-year anniversary mark in just over a week.  Over the last few months, MoviePass has been making the news, and not in a good way.  They’ve experienced some pretty serious issues related to growing their service.  Which, of course, is directly related to the services that they’re providing.  Last year, the service started by offering users unlimited movies for just $9.95 a month.  That’s right, for that low price, you could see up to 30 movies per month.  What was the catch?  No catch whatsoever.  Just a flawed business model that is now causing the company grief.

MoviePass recently sent out an email to its users where they admit some of their failures – including Peak Pricing and Ticket Verification.  Both of these has caused a lot of grief for users and many have jumped ship because of it. Can you blame them?  But, with a full year under their belt, MoviePass is looking for forgiveness by way of offering some new features.  What’s the catch now?  Well, they will be able to have a sustainable business model, and give users what they want – more movies.  But is that what the people really want?

What will MoviePass be offering its customers?

  • Under the new plan, MoviePass members will be able to see up to three standard movies a month for $9.95 and be given up to a $5.00 discount to any additional movie tickets purchased. Today, 85 percent of MoviePass members go to three movies or less per month, so these changes cater to the majority of their movie-going community.
  • The new plan will include many major studio first-run films, however, there will be some exceptions (note that theaters with e-ticketing will include all movies and showtimes with no restrictions).
  • They will be suspending Peak Pricing and Ticket Verification requirements for all members in the new plan described above.
  • Over the coming days, MoviePass members with a monthly subscription renewing on or after August 15th will be given the option in the MoviePass app to transition to the new plan. Quarterly and annual subscribers will not be impacted until their renewal date.

Is this enough?  I think it shows a couple of things.  To start, it shows that they are listening to their users, but will this be enough to keep members?  Maybe.  The fact that they’re reducing the number of movies that you can watch to three a month is interesting.  On one hand, it does support the idea of a sustainable business model.  Because 30 just wasn’t sustainable.  But is this enough for the members?  MoviePass is saying that 85% of its current members watch three or fewer movies a month.  So, if that’s the case, it’s catering to 85% of its base.  What about the other 15%?  Well, they’ve got a choice to make.  They can either cut back on the number of movies they’re watching in a month, or they can cancel their subscription altogether.  If they cancel, though, where else are they going to go?

Yes, there are some companies who are trying out a similar model, but the price point seems to be a lot higher.  I think that this shows some good will on MoviePass’ part, so I am confident that they will be successful.  If they make any sweeping changes again, I think members aren’t going to be so fast to forgive.

One thought on “MoviePass Has Made Changes Again – But This Time it Might Work”

Comments are closed.