Good news moviegoers: MoviePass has dropped its price again!
Bad news exhbitors: MoviePass has dropped its price — again.
On Friday, the subscription-based movie ticketing service rolled out yet another promotion to reel in new customers. This time, the monthly price is around $7.50 a month (including a processing fee) with a new annual subscription.
That’s significantly less than the $8.93 nationwide average price for a movie ticket that the National Association of Theater Owners reported last month for the third quarter of 2017.
“Annual Plan — Pay $89.95 today — $6.95 a month for twelve months, plus a $6.55 processing fee,” the MoviePass site says. “Once your year is up, your plan will convert back into your $9.95 a month. Offer valid until it’s not. Limit two per household.”
So, while it will cost you less than $8 a month to see all the movies your heart desires, you are gonna shell out a little under $100 today to partake in the savings.
Existing MoviePass customers will receive 25 percent savings from their current $9.95 per month plan if they subscribe to the new plan, MoviePass said in a statement.
In August, MoviePass took a Netflix-inspired step by slashing its monthly subscription fee from as much as $45 to $9.95 a month in conjunction with a $27 million investment from analytics firm Helios and Matheson, who acquired a majority stake in the company.
Mitch Lowe, CEO of MoviePass, tells TheWrap the idea for the promotion actually came about after the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the price drop from consumers. “We had a month where people would ask us, ‘What theater does this service work at?’ and we’d say ’91 percent.’ And second, they’d ask us ‘I really want to get an annual pass and I want to be able to buy it for friends. I want to buy gifts. Can I do that?”
So this option is something Lowe thinks consumers are really going to love going into the holidays.
“All the great movies are about to come out too,” Lowe says. “So what a great opportunity to get people to use our service.”
“HMNY continues to be the biggest supporter of MoviePass, as it outpaces any other movie theater subscription service and continues to disrupt the movie theater industry,” Ted Farnsworth, Chairman and CEO of HMNY, said in a press release from MoviePass. “We look forward to helping MoviePass continue to broaden its reach and modernize the movie theater industry.”
Many exhibitors have objected to the MoviePass pricing plan even though the subscription service typically pays full ticket prices to theaters for its subscribers, expressing worry that consumers may become too accustomed to lower costs that can’t be maintained when MoviePass either raises its rates or goes out of business.