Who wouldn't want to see all of this November's biggest movies like "Thor: Ragnarok," "Justice League," and Pixar's "Coco" for just $9.95?
Since MoviePass announced a new subscription plan to give frequent moviegoers a big, big discount on tickets, the company has seen a surge in customers. According to filings from Helios & Matheson, the data analytics company that bought a majority stake in the company for $27 million, MoviePass subscribers have increased from 20,000 at the end of 2016 to 150,000.
But movie theaters are not on board so far — led by AMC Theatres, which dismissed the MoviePass plan and announced it was seeking to end its current deal with the company.
At a time when the market value of the world's largest movie theater chain has taken an enormous hit from this summer's anemic box office, AMC thinks that selling unlimited tickets for 10 bucks a month "will not provide sufficient revenue to operate quality theatres."
Some smaller chains, including the dine-in Studio Movie Grill, said they would continue to accept MoviePass subscriptions. But while other major theater companies have yet to join AMC in public opposition to MoviePass' new plan, exhibition executives who spoke to TheWrap on the condition of anonymity say they share AMC's skepticism that this new model can function in the long run.
"There's a possibility that subscription services can work out for the industry, but it's something that needs to be figured out by each company individually," one executive told TheWrap.
Another executive from a regional chain was struggling to grasp MoviePass' new subscription model, which allows users to see as many movies as they want and theaters to get the full cost of each ticket but limits MoviePass' income to the monthly fee and any other deals it can cut for marketing partnerships or a share of concession sales.