Maybe it's me, but I don't see this data as all that valuable. Say I go to the movies 8-10x a month. Given that my local theater probably gets about 20 new movies per month, does knowing which half of the movies I see really provide analytical value over aggregate box office numbers?

I wonder if the app is spying on you in more nefarious ways. I guess I could dedicate a retired phone to be my "movies" phone.

The missing piece with box office numbers is connecting individual ticket sales with other individual ticket sales, as well as a host of other factors (since they have your personal information, and credit card or whatever on file, they can correlate your activity with all kinds of other things).

Another smart HN commenter wrote "If it's free, then you are the product."

That seems to be the case with significant discounts.