It’s all about to heat up.
Remember how MoviePass is offering a $10 monthly subscription for movie tickets? And how AMC wasn’t happy about it? Well, it’s about to get better, because AMC’s trying to legally block the service from their theaters.
Their reasoning, of course, being that they believe MoviePass’ business model to be unsustainable. Which, while possible, probably isn’t the real reason they’re going out of their way to escalate. And to be fair, MoviePass may very quickly change the power dynamic by being an intermediary between theaters and moviegoers.
AMC is likely trying to nip this in the bud before it goes much further. After all, if MoviePass is successful, it could have a frightening degree of control over the theaters themselves. Having the ability to remove a chain from their service is well within their power, and could easily be a death knell. On the other hand, if MoviePass is successful while not partnered with AMC, it could easily topple AMC’s business. In trying to avoid a problem down the line, AMC may have placed themselves in a precarious position.