[Colin Jacobson]

In the thread about AMC's Best Picture nominee marathon, I discussed the AMC MovieWatcher program. I love this free rewards program - it's been a great way to get free stuff for going to movies!

Anyway, I know other chains offer their own programs, so I was hoping people could chime in with info about those. Also, other AMC members can tell us whether they like it or not. I've been insanely happy with AMC's plan, which works like this:

For every 10 points, you get a reward. One movie = 2 points, but I don't think you can get points for anything else (concession purchases, gift cards, etc.) - just movies, and you're restricted to 4 points every 3 hours. I'm sure that rule exists because otherwise guys like me would stand near the ticket kiosks and swipe their cards before anyone buys something - I'd end up getting 100 points a day!

Anyway, the reward schedule follows:

At 10, 40, 70 points: free small popcorn
At 20, 50, 80 points: free small drink
At 30, 60, 90 points: free movie or free large popcorn and large drink

You can pay to upgrade the small popcorn or drink at those reward levels.

At 100 points, you get a "free night at the movies". That's a free movie plus a free small popcorn and small drink.

Once you pass 100 points, the rewards repeat themselves at the same intervals. That means 110/210/310 = small popcorn, etc. That makes it easy to remember where you are.

In addition to these rewards, there are some other benefits:

-If you buy tickets online, MovieWatcher members get the $1/ticket fee waived

-On Wednesdays, you get free small popcorn with paid admission. That goes for other tickets as well, though I'm not sure what'd happen if you had more than 2 people in your group; I've never gone with more than one friend, so I don't know if the free popcorn is limited to the two tickets that earn points.

-They always send out coupons for free popcorn with drink purchase for Mon/Tues/Thurs. The Weds. free popcorn is COMPLETELY free with ticket purchase - no strings attached. The other three days requires a drink purchase, though small is fine - they don't require a large drink.


So let's hear about folks' rewards experiences as well as other chains' plans!

[Jeff Cooper]

For me, I never eat or drink popcorn or soda from the concession stands. Thus, the cost of adding my name and personal information to another marketing list isn't worth a free movie every 15 tickets.

That's just me though. I'm not dissing the program, i'm sure it works great for folks that like the popcorn or soda, or have to buy it for their kids. Probably saves a boatload of money that way.

[Jason Seaver]

Regal has a similar one, based on dollars spent rather than films seen, although if you're just buying tickets, the rewards come at about the same time if you buy $8 matinee tickets. Regal's is annoying in that you can't get points when you buy your tickets from one of the automated kiosks.

AMC's, at least as of the last time I hit a major reward level, has a hole in its implementation that a clever person can exploit if they've got two AMC theaters in the area (point totals are refreshed at the beginning of the day, so if you start out at 28 points and then see movies at two different theaters, you may get two free tickets).