Aaaaand there goes your quality of service.
Remember when I said Mitch Lowe was pulling out all the tricks he knows to keep MoviePass afloat? And that somehow included buying a stake in what may be the worst movie of the year? A movie which, in an almost ironic twist given its subject matter, has allegedly gone about manipulating its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes despite the fact that that wasn’t the real problem in the first place? Well, they’ve got something more overt, and odious, coming your way right now, and that’s called surge pricing.
Surge pricing is a tactic delivered right from Satan’s anus directly into your wallet. Or, at least, that’s the general idea. Basically, instead of just getting the movie for free with your pass like normal, you’ll be charged a little extra if the movie you’re seeing is in “high demand”. Say, opening weekend, or any other time there might be a packed theater. Or probably just whenever they feel like it, because that’s how shit like this works.
Mitch Lowe is hoping that this tactic brings in more revenue for theaters. Not to mention mid-week viewers for blockbusters. Of course, it’ll also help MoviePass out, considering the fat that they’re paying full price for their user’s tickets. That said, it’s hard for the end user not to see it as getting fleeced for something they already paid for, in a way.
But wait, there’s more!
But that’s not the only change MoviePass is rolling out in August. One just happens to be the long-awaited bring-a-friend feature, which allows users to add on an extra ticket, making seating arrangements a bit easier in theaters with reserved seating. According to Lowe, the price of this ticket will be “somewhere near the retail price of the ticket.” Which could mean that it’s a little less than normal, or that they charge a little fee upon reservation.
The other August feature is the ability to buy IMAX and 3D tickets for an additional fee (somewhere between $2-$6). The IMAX bit is cool, I guess. But 3D’s a stupid fucking gimmick and everyone knows it.
It’s hard not to see these changes as a response to AMC’s program launch, though. It just looks like they’re trying to give their users the same sort of deal (IMAX, 3D, etc.). The problem is that they don’t own the participating theaters, so they’re too far removed to compete with the Stubs A-List.
I get the feeling like I’ve turned into a broken record when it comes to writing about MoviePass. I’m usually hopeful that the changes work out; after all, it’s still cheaper than paying for your tickets outright. And they ave been a boon for independent and arthouse theaters, as well as smaller chains. But it always feels that they’re close to some kind of tipping point, good or ill, and they never quite reach it. I guess there’s no rushing the future, though.
Source: Gizmodo
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