You can now see a movie a day in theaters for under $10 a month, but the new subscription price point from the MoviePass service has caused one of the company's partners to consider opting out of the program.
MoviePass announced its new price point yesterday, allowing interested buyers to subscribe into the service for $9.95 a month. Users then download an app and are mailed a debit card, which allow users to check in to a movie at partnered theaters once a day and see one movie every day. (Effectively, the service now pays for itself with one movie viewing in many parts of the United States.) Those who already subscribed will automatically be adjusted down to that price on their next bill.
MoviePass app and debit card combo
The system initially launched in 2010, with AMC Theatres as a major partner. Standard prices for the service originally were as high as $45 a month, but, with the company now having a new majority stake holder Helios and Matheson, the entry fee has been drastically lowered. This change, according to Helios and Matheson CEO Ted Farnsworth told Bloomberg, is part of an attempt to bolster its customer base and then collect viewing habit data from them.
But the change has brought the ire of AMC Theatres, which released a press release noting that the company "is consulting with its attorneys to determine if or how AMC can prevent a subscription program offered by MoviePass from being used at AMC Theatres in the United States."
AMC cites the fact that, with AMC's average ticket cost coming in at $9.33, the company believes MoviePass will be losing money with every subscriber who sees more than one movie a month and is an "unsustainable" business model.
"While AMC is not opposed to subscription programs generally, the one envisioned by MoviePass is not one AMC can embrace. We are actively working now to determine whether it may be feasible to opt out and not participate in this shaky and unsustainable program," the company's release states.
MoviePass executive Mitch Lowe responded to AMC's comments, comparing the reaction to that of Blockbuster's when Netflix and Redbox, both of which Lowe previously worked with, appeared in the marketplace.
"It’s the big guy being afraid of the little guy offering better value to consumers.”
Since the announcement, MoviePass' website has temporarily gone down, but the company is actively working on repairing the issues to allow for incoming subscribers.
Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
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