MoviePass: Strange history of the "Unlimited Movies" Card.

Three years ago we bought MoviePass cards. $29.99 a month, see one 2D movie per day. A great deal if you see a couple of movies or more each weekend.

Six months in, they changed their plan to one movie every 24 hours, so you could no longer see a movie on a weekend afternoon after seeing a movie the previous evening. You had to wait until a countdown clock on your app told you that you could get a ticket. For me it meant four less movies a month.

Earlier this year, they did a "test" increase, where they contacted some of their high volume users and increased them from $29.99 (2D) to $99.99 per month (3D & Imax). They basically wanted to see how many people would stay at that outrageous price. If they lost these people, they were losing the people who were costing them money by seeing dozens of movies a month anyway. I didn't get the increase, but a friend did. He dropped them immediately.

Now I get an e-mail telling me that I'm going from $29.99 a month to $39.99 a month. It appears on their website that their new tiered model includes a 2 movie and 3 movie per month option which is basically you paying $7.50 per movie. Or the one 2D movie per 24 hours option for $39.99. BTW, the pricing is regional. If you log in with a New York City zip code you're charged $50 a month instead of $39.99.

Whenever they change stuff on you they give you two weeks to cancel your contract without penalty. I'm staying for now, but it's bizarre how they experiment with their best customers to see how far they can push them before they bail. Reminds me of when Netflix doubled their pricing and then backed away after people canceled in droves.