Still using your MoviePass subscription? While the monthly subscription service has hit and missed in different areas, it may have finally found some new ways to stay afloat…for a little while longer
Peak Pricing
If you’re currently a subscriber with MoviePass, you may have noticed a new email in your box this week introducing a new pricing structure. However, this doesn’t effect the way you pay monthly. Instead, it’s introducing what they call Peak Pricing. It works a lot like Lyft or Uber in the way that they can activate a surcharge (surge pricing/rate) if a particular movie time is filling up with MoviePass users.
While current users may groan at this change, it honestly makes a lot of sense from the business end. MoviePass isn’t exactly making tons of money the way they were original priced. This will certainly help defray the costs moving forward though I wonder if it may already be too late. As of this writing, it seems that it’s still be rolled out so it may not be active in every area. While I haven’t had a chance to test it myself, the website explains that you could still get into a film before the peak starts, particularly if you see the gray icon (meaning it’s filling up) as opposed to the red icon (meaning peak is in effect)
3D/IMAX Tickets & Bring A Guest
Along with that announcement, there were some cooler updates on future features that were easy to miss: access to 3D / IMAX showings along with the ability to bring a guest. If you;re a IMAX junkie like me, being able to use your pass towards those showings would have been pretty useful this summer. Soon, you will be able to pay a small surcharge and get IMAX (or 3D tickets, if you’re still into that) tickets the same as your regular MoviePass. Haven’t seen any updates on pricing for that, but the initial answers on the site yield that you will only be paying the difference between the standard movie and the IMAX prices. Given that these are usually $20, even paying just half would be pretty awesome. Perhaps that’s the attitude they are banking on.
The other feature, which I don’t believe will find wholesale adoption is the “Bring A Guest” feature, where you can go ahead and pay for your friend’s ticket (Standard, 3D, or IMAX) on your app/card and will get charged to your account. Note: that is the full ticket price so I guess this is more of a convenience than a actual savings. I kind of got excited about this one before I got into the fine print.
You can check out in-depth explanations on the service changes here:
Kenneth “Commander” Shipp has had opinions on movies since he was a kid…even if that meant talking to himself. He loves tackling the issues involved with our modern blockbusters while still enjoying the deep dives into the films you may have glossed over. You may still see him comment on his other loves (video games and television) whenever he has time. You can catch all his movie reviews here and listen to him on our weekly podcasts when they start back in August!!
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