re: MoviePass on its last legs?

On Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday I attempted to check in on the MoviePass app and I failed each time.

For most of Monday the MoviePass app wasn't even showing any movie listings at all for the theaters that you use the MoviePass card to pay for tickets (listings for e-ticketing theaters have always remained visible). However reddit reported that as of 5:45 pm PDT at least some showtimes had returned to the app and check-in was supposedly working again.

So I went to a 9:45 pm showing of Blindspotting at a Century theater, and I went to a kiosk. I inserted my card stripe up into the kiosk and pulled it out, and it failed. I tried it again. My friend noticed and said that I needed to turn the card over. So I turned it stripe down, and my friend said that I wasn't holding my MoviePass card. Oh shite! I had accidentally pulled out a regular credit card! If I had inserted it the correct way I would have paid for the ticket with my own money! After MoviePass failed on three attempts in the previous four days, it would have really sucked if I had accidentally paid for these tickets! But I inserted the MoviePass card and it worked, so I was able to squeeze one more movie out of these guys as we await its fate this week. I'll probably go a couple of more times this week to get what I can, while I can.

New MoviePass press release today. In addition to the recent surge pricing, these are the two most relevant changes coming:

quote:

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A future increase of the standard pricing plan to $14.95 per month within the next 30 days.

First Run Movies opening on 1,000+ Screens to be limited in their availability during the first two weeks, unless made available on a promotional basis.

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https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180731005582/en/

A 1000+ screen release means any movie in wide release, so basically most major studio releases will be restricted (which probably means totally unavailable) for two weeks. Since I typically wait 1.5 weeks for popular films anyway, this doesn't bother me at all. And $15 a month is still a good deal even if you see just two or three movies a month.

If this helps the service survive, I can easily live with these changes. What I, and most people won't tolerate is the situation where the service appears to be working but when you go to the theater and try to check in, it fails. That's what will make people quit. Plus the constantly changing availability of showings that happened this weekend.

I'm gonna switch to A List. I don't want to wait two weeks to see stuff. I'll gladly pay $20 a month to see new stuff when it releases.

Yeah it really sucks because we have one AMC and it's a little out of the way. Same deal here. There's an arthouse theater that shows indie stuff, and Regal eventually gets it. This AMC doesn't seem to show those.

MP down for anyone else? Not pulling anything up.

quote:

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MoviePass’s CEO, Mitch Lowe, told employees at an all-hands meeting that other big-name releases, such as Christopher Robin and The Meg, will also not be available to subscribers.

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They are counting The Meg as a major release?

Just saw the press release on Twitter. Limited availability for new releases, and only certain showtimes will be allowed.

I am cancelling as soon as I can get back to my computer.

It was a good ride.

I’ve moved to Sinemia. I don’t need to see a ton of movies so their 2 movie for 2 people plan is good enough for me. $16 for 2 movies each month for the wife and I is great. Also buying the tickets through Facebook credits the convenience fees.

I just cancelled mine as well.

My decision was partly personal as well. If I were still single and living 2 minutes from a theater, then I would accept the price increase and the restrictions more than likely. However, I don't see the benefit and wanted to cancel before they crash completely.

Just had my first experience with ordering tickets using Sinemia. The process is really simple and worked flawlessly. It’s great to be able to get advanced tickets and when you go through Facebook you don’t pay convenience fees. I still have Moviepass until December so I’ll see where they’re at then.