Re:MoviePass wants to let you go to the theater once a day f...
by ValentineC on Tuesday August 15, 2017 @01:17PM
(#15020219)
> But my understanding is that they can't just stop charging for tickets (or cut prices significantly) "since they're not seeing it anyway"; there are uniform ticket prices in those same agreements that prevent such tactics.
Isn't this practically a cartel?
But my understanding is that they can't just stop charging for tickets (or cut prices significantly) "since they're not seeing it anyway"; there are uniform ticket prices in those same agreements that prevent such tactics [1].
If they didn't have minimum prices, theaters could game it with a system like:
Movie ticket: $1
No-poke service: $11
"If you buy our no-poke service, a theater employee won't randomly poke you with a stick throughout the movie, as happens with our discounted tickets. ... Hey, Hollywood studios, we only saw $1 in revenue per ticket, but you're welcome to keep it!"
So, any system like the one in the story would have to renegotiate such agreements or work within some loophole.
Edit: Nevermind, this is why you read the article before commenting: apparently they pay the full price to the theater for you, which is a huge loss that they plan to make up by selling the analytics:
>MoviePass will pay theaters the full price of each ticket used by subscribers, excluding 3D or Imax screens.
>MoviePass could lose a lot of money subsidizing people’s movie habits. So the company also raised cash on Tuesday by selling a majority stake to Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., ...
>Ted Farnsworth, chief executive officer at Helios and Matheson, said the goal is to amass a large base of customers and collect data on viewing behaviors.
[1] From a quick googling:
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Arguing-One-Price-Ticket-Syst...
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/why-do-...