MoviePass madness

MoviePass used to be an incredible deal. It was obviously too good to be true.

In a particularly rash move last year, the moviegoing subscription service lowered its monthly fee to just $9.95. You could see one movie in a theater every day for that $9.95. By comparison, the average single ticket cost in the U.S. is just under $10.

This wasn’t going to end well.

I entered the service in April, locking in a $7.95/month price so long as I paid for the entire year. It was a gamble, especially as MoviePass’ parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, had already been tanking on the NASDAQ.

Down $96, I knew I needed to at least break even on it before the service’s inevitable demise. From April through last week, I used my MoviePass to see 16 films. Average it out, and I paid a little less than $6 per movie ticket. I’ll call it a success.

This is the story of seeing that 16th film. Late last month, the MoviePass app began experiencing significant technical difficulties, the result of the company’s inability to pay some creditors. Helios and Matheson were losing millions of dollars each month at that price point in an effort to secure more subscribers.

The way the company handled its own implosion is fascinating, infuriating, and, in hindsight, a little bit funny. I documented all the changes to my service as I tried to see just one movie over the course of the week:

Friday

Woke up to headlines about MoviePass service being down. The company called it “technical difficulties,” but it was later revealed they needed to take out an emergency loan of $5 million in order to pay creditors and restore service.

My app appeared to be working, but there was one glaring exception: All showings for the new “Mission: Impossible - Fallout” were labeled as “premium showings” and not included in my subscription.

Keep in mind, this is the company that spent a year peddling the tagline: Any Movie. Any Theater. Any Day.

Later in the day there’s a pop-up message about “technical difficulties” on the app that stays up well into the afternoon. The theaters supporting “e-ticketing” however are fully functional. These are theaters MoviePass made deals with to split ticket costs. There are no e-ticketing theaters in North Idaho or the Spokane area, and apparently there are only about 200 nationally.

The company also doesn’t acknowledge the “Mission: Impossible” blackout publically or within the app. Later in the evening, I tried checking into a different movie and the application errored out.

Saturday

Service seems to be restored within the app, and a message from CEO Mitch Lowe appears. This guy… this guy is not my kind of guy.

Mitch refers to the outages as “back-end technical issues.” This, of course, isn’t true, but in 2018 it’s okay to make up your own news.

Then comes a bit about the “Mission: Impossible” blackout without actually saying “Mission: Impossible.”

Mitch: “Certain movies may not be available in every theater on our platform.”

MoviePass.com homepage on Saturday: “Any Movie. Any Theater. Any Day.”

Mitch: “This is no different than other in-home streaming options that often don’t carry the latest shows or movies that may be available on other services. For example, you can’t ever find ‘Game of Thrones’ on Netflix, nor is Season 4 of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ available there yet.”

Me: Nobody cares about season four of “Schitt’s Creek.”

Peak Pricing and the Rest of the Weekend

At no point on Saturday or Sunday did the MoviePass app allow me to check into a movie. I kept getting an error screen. There was no acknowledgment of the error, at least until I found a “technical difficulties” message buried in the “Help” section of the app.

At this point, I’m following news stories on MoviePass and checking in on the topic via Reddit, where boatloads of subscribers claim to be cancelling their service because: A. The app doesn’t work, and B. Peak Pricing surcharges were exceeding the regular price of a ticket.

We’ve got to talk about this Peak Pricing business. As an annual subscriber, I was immune to a recent change in service where MoviePass began asking its monthly users to pay surcharges for “popular movies” at “popular times.”

For example, you check in to see “Skyscraper” at 7 p.m., but it’s tagged with a little lightning bolt that indicates a surge fee of $3. At the theater you swipe your MoviePass card to buy a ticket, but then you are responsible for the additional $3 via another form of payment (cash, debit, etc.).

By most accounts, monthly subscribers hated the Peak Pricing surcharge because of the randomness of its functionality. People would be told a showtime was “popular” and required a surcharge, but then they’d walk into a nearly empty theater.

Anyway, on this particular weekend, Peak Pricing was out of control. My wife has (had) a monthly subscription, and on both Saturday and Sunday, every movie in the app carried a surcharge of $8. A full-price ticket around here is $9-11, depending on the time and theater.

Meanwhile, at the Hayden Discount Theater, every movie had a surcharge of $3.75. The regular price of a movie at Hayden is just $3.

Rest assured, very few people had to actually pay the ridiculous surcharges that weekend because by most accounts the app wouldn’t let you reserve a ticket anyway. I got error screens Thursday through Sunday.

Meanwhile, the MoviePass.com homepage all weekend: Any Movie. Any Theater. Any Day.

Side Note: My wife and I paid out-of-pocket, full price to see “Mission: Impossible - Fallout” on Sunday, and it was worth every single penny. The movie is amazing.

Monday

News reports leaked that our Best Bud Mitch led an “all-hands” meeting and said the next several new release blockbusters, including “Christopher Robin” and “The Meg,” would not be available for subscribers for the first few weeks.

MoviePass.com homepage on Monday: Any Movie. Any Theater. Any Day. Look, I’m not trying to be a jerk, but this is an easy thing to change on a website.

I didn’t have time to see a movie on Monday, but I did test whether I could check into the “Teen Titans” movie. The reservation worked within the app, but I didn’t go to the theater to confirm the process.

Tuesday

Finally a formal news release from good ol’ Mitch. The title reads, “MoviePass Accelerates Plan for Profitability.”

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

Among the highlights:

-References “technology issues” that prevented “some” from using MoviePass over the weekend.

-Monthly subscription will rise to $14.95.

-Most wide releases (movies opening on 1,000 screens or more) won’t be available for the first two weeks of their release.

-Peak pricing will continue.

One great line from Mitch: “These changes are meant to protect the longevity of our company and prevent abuse of the service.”

So it’s our fault. Sorry, Mitch, I never knew my one-movie-per-week regimen was destroying your company.

On Tuesday, the website’s home page now reads, “It’s movie time.”

Tuesday afternoon

Open the app, click on a theater and it says, “No more showings at this theater today.” It says this on every local theater. Is the app broken? Did all the local theaters decide to close for a beach day?

Turns out, no, the theaters are still open. On Twitter, MoviePass announces:

“Showtimes that are offered through our service will vary from day to day, and every showtime may not be available. We encourage you to check the MoviePass app for showtimes before you leave for the theater.”

Wednesday

Though the company doesn’t acknowledge anything beyond the statement from Twitter, it becomes apparent that removing showtimes is MoviePass’ latest strategy to save money. Through Reddit and various news stories, it seems like everybody in the country is getting their showtimes Thanos-ed right before their eyes.

Before 2 p.m. on the West Coast, nearly all showtimes were gone. Some people checked their app for a time, drove a few minutes to the theater then couldn’t use their card anyway.

Thursday

My friends on Reddit, while still rambling on about PizzaGate, at least developed a better strategy for using MoviePass. Basically: Go to the theater when it opens in the morning and buy a ticket for a later showtime before it disappears.

I hauled my four kids down at 11 a.m. to buy a 6:15 p.m. ticket for “Eighth Grade.” It worked! So there you go, folks, make sure you arrive to the movie seven hours early to guarantee your seat!

Side note: “Eighth Grade” is excellent. Worth a full price ticket when your MoviePass card inevitably explodes.

Friday and Finale

Lots of technical glitches happened again, but at this point, you get the idea. Movie times show up, disappear, come back, then tend to disappear permanently before the evening.

Since I’m already paid up through March of 2019, I have little choice but to ride this out and see what happens. Last time I checked, the Helios and Matheson stock was trading for 11 cents per share. By the time this article appears, MoviePass might be gone permanently, or there might be a thousand new service conditions and technical difficulties.

I don’t like Mitch the Liar, and all the nonsense around the monthly subscription changes, peak pricing and random blackouts makes MoviePass a bad deal going forward. There’s a lack of transparency here that even politicians would consider dishonest.

But I can’t say I’m mad at them. In a few months, I managed to get my money out of MoviePass, and I appreciate their attempt to make the theatergoing experience less expensive for everyone. Tickets shouldn’t cost $12 a pop, period.

If MoviePass fails (side note: it failed), maybe their disruption will lead to more permanent change. AMC Theaters began offering a $19.99/month service that provides up to three movies per week with no restrictions. You can see a 3D movie and reserve a seat in advance from your phone. Hopefully the other big theaters (ahem, Regal) can come up with a similar plan.

So in destroying itself and losing millions of dollars, maybe MoviePass gave us a more sustainable gift.

Or maybe Mitch didn’t think it through.