AMC A-List & other theater subscriptions (2 Viewers)

[Colin Jacobson]

That is correct. So every 2.5 months, you earn a $5 Stubs Reward just from your monthly A-List fee alone.

But I also book my A-List through Fandango, and with Fandango, you get a $5 reward good towards streaming movies or actual movie tickets every four movies you book. Since I see twelve A-List movies a month, I earn 3 of those every month! So what I do is let my wife use my Stubs Rewards to buy popcorn and candy and stuff, LOL.

Really, if you are on A-List, you should book via Fandango. It is a seamless process, the only thing it can't do so far is the new "entourage" group booking, but if that's not an issue for you, it's a no-brainer to use Fandango.

Yeah, I guess. I'm set in my ways, though!

I do use Entourage sometimes!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Head's up for anyone interested in Regal's plan:

Discount offer ahoy!

https://www.regmovies.com/static/en...ium=social+network&utm_source=twitter+organic

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Head's up for anyone interested in Regal's plan:

Discount offer ahoy!

https://www.regmovies.com/static/en...ium=social+network&utm_source=twitter+organic

$13 a month for a truly unlimited plan is a steal.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

$13 a month for a truly unlimited plan is a steal.

Hard to argue that! I'm staying AMC, though - the ability to do premium screenings puts them over the top!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

$13 a month for a truly unlimited plan is a steal.

In theory, it’s great, but...

a) they make you pay the full year upfront and worse,
b) being a member doesn’t exempt you from fees. So, maybe the ticket is free, but Regal still insists on charging you the convenience fee when you reserve your ticket.

Those may not be dealbreakers for many but I’m not in a position to make a year long commitment to a single chain and I resent the idea that I’d be charged an extra buck each time I wanted to see an “unlimited” movie.

 

[steve jaros]

A-List report for November 29 - December 28, 2019

I saw 12 movies via A-List last month. After 17 months on the 34-state plan I moved up to the 45-state plan for $2 more. Thus A-List cost $24 with tax, and the movies would have collectively cost $116 at the box office, so I saved $92 this month.

This move paid off, as I was visiting relatives in Maryland, a state not included in the lowest-tier plan, and saw Star Wars in IMAX 3D. That would have been a $19 ticket without upgraded A-List.

Here's the list:

11.29.19: a beautiful day in the neighborhood Rave II^ ......... $5**
12.2.19: dr. sleep ... Rave^ ............ $8
12.5.19: queen & slim (i) ... Rave^ ............ $8**
12.6.19: dark waters ... Rave^ ............ $5**
12.9.19: no safe space (i) ... Rave II^ ......... $8
12.12.19: hold on (i) ... Rave II^ ......... $8**
12.13.19: jumanji next level (3D) ... Rave^ ............ $8**
12.16.19: honey boy (i) ... Rave II^ ......... $8**
12.19.19: Star Wars: Skywalker (IMAX 3D) ... AMC Magic Johnson 12 (Largo)^ .... $19
12.20.19: bombshell ... AMC Tyson's Corner^ .... $13**
12.23.19: cats ... AMC Georgetown 14^ ... $13
12.26.19: uncut diamonds ... AMC Magic Johnson 12 (Largo)^ ... $13**


Lifetime totals:

Movies seen via A-List since July 29, 2018 …......... 215

Cost if I bought tickets at box office ...…................ $1837

A-List cost ............................................................... $360

Cumulative lifetime savings ............…................ $1477


Happy New Year!

 

[Malcolm R]

Just in case you forgot about them, what was expected has come to pass:

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/bu...one-moviepass-parent-files-chapter-7-n1125936

 

[Jake Lipson]

That article doesn't make the situation totally clear, because it is actually Helios and Matheson Analytics that is in bankruptcy. Helios and Matheson did a lot of other things before they bought Movie Pass. So it's kind of unfortunate for them that the whole Movie Pass debacle was enough to curb their entire company, although of course it's not surprising.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Why unfortunate? This is how the market is supposed to work. If your business model involves spending more money than you take in, and if customers choose not to patronize your business, you deserve to go out of business. If you invest your money in a losing endeavor despite all warning signs, you deserve the consequences of that action.

We’re living in a time when normal rules don’t apply for a certain segment of the internet business world. For example, Uber is not a profitable company. It doesn’t own anything, doesn’t have unique technology and isn’t the only company in its field offering the services it provides. It uses investor money to subsidize the services consumers use, allowing it to build up a large base of customers while not being able to run a sustainable business. Their whole model is based on the idea that someone will see how many customers they have and want to buy them. The only reason they’re still around is that billionaire investors keep pouring money into the thing.

WeWork is much the same. They rent out large quantities of office space from building owners, often at above-market rates, and then divide those spaces into smaller ones which they sublet to customers for short time periods. They don’t make anything, they don’t own anything, and they don’t offer anything that can’t be gotten elsewhere. Their investors subsidized customer costs to drive up the number of customers, hoping that other people would see the company had a lot of clients and invest. They’re at a point now where they are unable to get new investors because it turns out spending more on office space and then leasing it out for less than they pay isn’t a pathway to success. Without investor money propping it up, they’re rapidly shrinking.

H&M thought they could be an Uber and get investors to pour in money no matter what. It turns out that they’re closer to WeWork in that the money dried up.

There’s really not much of a difference between what they were doing and a pyramid scheme. H&M acted incredibly irresponsibly in their management of MoviePass and are suffering the natural consequences of those actions.

Unfortunately, they had a big enough footprint for a year that I believe they’ve potentially done irreparable harm to the theatrical business by successfully devaluing the product further in the eyes of the audience.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Why unfortunate?

Because this involves more than just Movie Pass. The people who did other things for Helios and Matheson besides run Movie Pass into the ground are also going to be losing their jobs and their incomes because the mismanagement of Movie Pass was so extreme that it damaged the whole company. So, it sucks for them.

But, yes, those connected with Movie Pass do deserve this outcome of their bad decisions.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

But you have to understand that H&M is an investment company specifically intended to invest the money of wealthy people into profitable ventures. They’re not innocent actors in this. It’s not as if they had other unrelated businesses and now an entire group of firefighters or nurses are losing the ability to save lives. There wasn’t a single media analyst that thought this was a good bet. It’s not as if the warning signs weren’t there. And before H&M bought them, MoviePass was a small company with a business plan that seemed to work because they charged a much higher price.

So H&M came in, took a company that worked and turned it into one that didn’t, and devalued an entire industry in the process.

In the end, the people that will hurt most are rank and file employees of theaters who will find themselves laid off as ticket sales decrease now that the general public has been convinced that an unlimited amount of movies should cost less than a single one.

 

[steve jaros]

A-List report for December 29, 2019 - January 28, 2020.

I saw 11 movies via A-List last month. The movies would have cost $101 without A-List, so factoring in my $24 tier II membership, I saved $77 last month.

Here's the list:

12.29.19: spies in disguise (3D) ........................ AMC Georgetown^ ... $13
1.3.20: Star Wars: Skywalker (IMAX 3D) .............. Rave^ ......................... $13
1.9.20: little women ....................................... Rave II^ ...................... $8**
1.10.20: like a boss ......................................... Rave^ ......................... $8**
1.13.20: 1917 (IMAX) ...................................... Rave II^ ..................... $13**
1.17.20: bad boys 4 life (IMAX) ......................... Rave II^ ..................... $13**
1.18.20: weathering with you (anime) ................ Rave^ ........................... $9
1.20.20: just mercy .................................... Rave^ .......................... $9**
1.24.20: the gentlemen ................................. Rave^ .......................... $5**
1.25.20: the turning ....................................... Rave^ .......................... $5
1.28.20: 1917 .................................................. Rave II^ ....................... $5**


Lifetime totals:

Movies seen via A-List since July 29, 2018 …......... 226

Cost if I bought tickets at box office ...…................ $1938

A-List cost ............................................................... $384

Cumulative lifetime savings ............…................ $1554

 

[EricSchulz]

Got an email last night that Cinemark's Movie Club is going from $8.99 to $9.99 a month. Still keeping it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Got an email last night that Cinemark's Movie Club is going from $8.99 to $9.99 a month.

Is that a national price increase or just near you? The Cinemark website still says $8.99+tax for me. I come and go from Movie Club only on months when I'm going to go in the evening, which is extremely rarely. Otherwise, I can get in for less money by paying the standard matinee price. Increasing the Movie Club price would decrease the amount of savings versus night price, so makes me less likely to use it in the future.

I really wish Cinemark had an all-you-can-eat plan like AMC and Regal, as they are my local chain. Movie Club is really undercooked and is not designed to serve frequent moviegoers in the same capacity.

 

[EricSchulz]

Is that a national price increase or just near you? The Cinemark website still says $8.99+tax for me. I come and go from Movie Club only on months when I'm going to go in the evening, which is extremely rarely. Otherwise, I can get in for less money by paying the standard matinee price. Increasing the Movie Club price would decrease the amount of savings versus night price, so makes me less likely to use it in the future.

I really wish Cinemark had an all-you-can-eat plan like AMC and Regal, as they are my local chain. Movie Club is really undercooked and is not designed to serve frequent moviegoers in the same capacity.

I'm in Chicago. As with you, it's my local theater (15 minutes away). While I also like the matinee times/prices, my partner is an evening moviegoer so it saves us on his ticket and our concessions. Perfect for us.

 

[steve jaros]

A-List Report for 1.29.20 to 2.28.20

I saw 13 movies via A-List this past month. The movies would have cost $125 dollars, so factoring in my 45 state plan which cost $24 with tax, I saved $101 last month:

1.31.20: the rhythm section ......... $8**
2.1.20: gretel & hansel (i) ..............$8
2.5.20: uncut gems (i) ................... $8**
2.8.20: parasite (i) .......................... $8
2.11.20: birds of prey (Atmos) ........$13
2.12.20: birds of prey (IMAX) ......... $13
2.14.20: downhill ............................ $8**
2.15.20: sonic the hedgehog (Atmos) ... $9
2.18.20: fantasy island ............................ $8**
2.21.20: the photograph ......................... $8**
2.22.20: created equal: clarence thomas (i) ..... $8**
2.23.20: call of the wild (Atmos) ......................... $13**
2.28.20: the invisible man (IMAX) ...................... $13**


Lifetime totals:

Movies seen via A-List since July 29, 2018 …......... 239

Cost if I bought tickets at box office ...…................ $2063

A-List cost .................................................................. $408

Cumulative lifetime savings ............…................ $1655

 

[Patrick Sun]

I barely made it to maybe 3 movies in January and February each, so my average is pretty high, but still cheaper than not having A-List. Plus, there are movies I want to see in the theaters for the next 6 months, so hopefully I can squeeze in some more movies going forward, just don't seem to have the time either these days.

 

[benbess]

Pixar's new movie Onward was my A-list movie today. It was a good enough movie, but not one of Pixar's best imho.

"B"

 

[Robert Crawford]

To our valued A-List members, AMC Stubs members, and guests,
If you are like me, your email inbox has been flooded by communications from companies detailing their responses to the coronavirus. Before I share with you what we are doing at AMC Theatres, I want to take a moment to share with you an optimistic thought.

The challenge that this outbreak represents to you, and to your family, friends and community is likely not similar to anything you have seen before. All of us currently find ourselves having to process our way through uncertainty, understandable anxiety and heightened risk. At some point though, hopefully sooner rather than later, the world will return to normal. Throughout history, people have always risen to meet whatever challenges have been thrown their way — usually emerging stronger than ever.

What is most important now is that you stay safe and healthy. To that end, here is what AMC is doing to help ensure the safety and health of our moviegoers and theatre teams.

Earlier today, AMC announced our detailed plan to ensure a clean and healthy movie-watching environment for you at our U.S. theatres. Most importantly, we have taken bold nationwide action to encourage “social distancing.”


LIMITING SEAT CAPACITY IN EVERY AMC AUDITORIUM
• To give you more empty space around you within our theatres, we are capping ticket availability to 50% of the normal seating capacity for every showtime in every auditorium at all AMC theatres nationwide. Once we hit 50% of an auditorium’s capacity, movie screenings will show as being Sold Out, even though by definition there will be a large number of unfilled seats. This will begin Saturday, March 14, and for now, will continue until April 30.

• For those AMC auditoriums with more than 500 seats, we will further reduce bookings to a maximum of 250 people in any case.

• And, it goes without saying that AMC is actively complying with all current and future federal, state and local authorities’ directives on social gathering.

ENHANCED THEATRE CLEANING
• AMC theatre teams are following AMC’s stringent health and safety cleaning protocols, which include that every auditorium is thoroughly cleaned between each and every showtime.

• In addition, AMC has instituted enhanced cleaning protocols, which ensure that at least once per hour within an AMC building, the theatre team is cleaning high-touch point areas, including: kiosks, counter tops, restroom areas, glass, handrails and doorknobs.


GUIDANCE FOR GUESTS AND THEATRE STAFF
• AMC has mandated that any theatre associate who feels ill is excused from work and should not come to the theatre.

• We urge all potential guests to stay at home and seek medical assistance if they are not feeling well.

As you may know, AMC Theatres was founded in 1920. For more than 100 years, we’ve taken great pride in making smiles happen every day at our movie theatres around the country. As we enter our second century, AMC remains firmly committed to offering you, as one of our most valued guests, a clean and healthy environment every time you come to enjoy movies at our theatres.

Adam Aron
CEO and President
AMC Theatres

 

[Jake Lipson]

I wonder if AMC will allow people to pause the recurring charges for A-List for the duration of this situation. I can't imagine most people wanting to go to the movies even once a week during this, between the coronavirus fears and the movies being pushed because of it.