AMC A-List & other theater subscriptions (1 Viewer)

[Johnny Angell]

I saw 3 movies on Friday night, all Dolby or IMAX. I don't see a movie every week but I try to see multiples when I do go! I wish my local had multiple Dolby theaters!

3 movies in one night? Jeez, I can’t remember the last time I did a double feature. More often than not, I can’t finish a movie at home when I start it in the evening.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

3 movies in one night? Jeez, I can’t remember the last time I did a double feature. More often than not, I can’t finish a movie at home when I start it in the evening.

I regularly do double or triple features at home - gotta plow through titles to review for my site! - but I also can't remember the last time I did 2 movies/1 day in the theater!

It's more tempting with A-List but I've yet to actually do it!

 

[Sam Posten]

/flex

 

[benbess]

My A-list movie today was Beautiful Boy. Really good movie imho. But almost relentlessly grim. My rating: "A-"

 

[benbess]

My A-list today was Can You Ever Forgive Me Starring Richard Grant and Melissa McCarthy. Sordid story. Good enough movie. But not quite my cup of tea. "B"

 

[Patrick Sun]

Held out until my 11th month with MP, finally gave in with AMC' A-List.

And even though I now have A-List, I paid for tonight's ticket (Ralph Breaks the Internet) because it was $5 Tuesdays, and I wanted to save my other 2 movies this week for higher-price movies, since Thanksgiving / Black Friday is right around the corner. (Saw Crimes of Grindelwald with A-list last night).

 

[Jake Lipson]

And even though I now have A-List, I paid for tonight's ticket (Ralph Breaks the Internet) because it was $5 Tuesdays

That's interesting that they let you have that price. At my theater, if a movie is opening on a Tuesday, it's not eligible for the $5 Tuesday deal until the following week.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

That's interesting that they let you have that price. At my theater, if a movie is opening on a Tuesday, it's not eligible for the $5 Tuesday deal until the following week.

That's the case at the lone Regal in my area that has bargain Tuesdays, but apparently it's not the case for AMC.

I just "bought" a "Ralph" ticket for tonight and it's $5. Same for "Creed 2"...

 

[bluirv]

MoviePass has just introduced its new plans for 2019:

All Access: $119.95/yr gets you unlimited 3 2D movies/month. Reg. price after Jan. is $179.40
Red Carpet: $149.95/yr gets you unlimited 3 2D movies/month including 1 IMAX or Real D 3D. Reg. price after Jan. is $239.40.

You cannot charge your payment to your credit/debit card. Now you have to submit your bank info.

 

[JQuintana]

MoviePass has just introduced its new plans for 2019:

All Access: $119.95/yr gets you unlimited 3 2D movies/month. Reg. price after Jan. is $179.40
Red Carpet: $149.95/yr gets you unlimited 3 2D movies/month including 1 IMAX or Real D 3D. Reg. price after Jan. is $239.40.

You cannot charge your payment to you credit/debit card. Now you have to submit your bank info.

Yikes. No thanks.

 

[Malcolm R]

Yeah, like I'd want these wankers to have my bank account information.

That's one of the reasons I won't join Planet Fitness. They want your bank account info, not credit card.

I also find it hard to reconcile "unlimited" with "3 movies a month". It's one or the other, either unlimited or limited to 3.

 

[Jake Lipson]

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I wonder if the lack of a credit card option could be due to the credit card companies no longer being willing to work with them. I can imagine they’ve had a huge number of chargebacks between their bait-and-switch practices and their refusal to honor cancelation requests from customers.

As a customer, it’s a lot harder to get your money back from a bank transfer than it is to dispute a credit card charge.

I would be extremely wary of giving them my info.

Also, AMC’s A-List program currently offers a better value for me, since they allow all of your redemptions to be for premium format showings. With a premium ticket costing $25 or more in the NYC area, simply seeing one movie per month on A-List more than gets me full value out of the monthly fee.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Yeah, like I'd want these wankers to have my bank account information.

That's one of the reasons I won't join Planet Fitness. They want your bank account info, not credit card.

I also find it hard to reconcile "unlimited" with "3 movies a month". It's one or the other, either unlimited or limited to 3.

Apparently their "unlimited" means that they'll allow you to see any movie that's playing, not just crap from the limited roster they've offered for months.

I agree that it's really sleazy phrasing, though. Plenty of people will read it and think it means they can see an unlimited number of movies every month.

If anyone continues to throw money at MP and they end up screwed, I have no sympathy at this point. We know they're a bad company...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I still don't see the value in the new MP offering, unless, I suppose, you live someplace with high ticket prices that doesn't have an AMC.

With AMC's A-List, you get three movies a week, which adds up to about 12 a month. You can see all three of those movies in a single shot, or over the entire week. You can watch the same movie over and over if you'd like. You can see all of the formats, including IMAX, 3D, and Dolby Cinema, for no extra charge.

Where I live, it's possible to extract about $320 worth of value out of every monthly $19.99 fee.

At best, MoviePass could give me about a $50 value per month.

Huge difference.

And I think the bigger issue is, I just don't trust them. At least when I was paying by credit card, I had the security of paying month-by-month and knowing I could dispute the charge with my credit card company if the company failed to deliver what they promised. But now they want me to give them over $150 in one shot directly from my bank, in such a manner that I can't get that back if the company folds the second week in January, or if they change their offerings in the middle of my membership? No thanks!

I cannot imagine any scenario where I would give my checking account information to MoviePass.

I suspect I'm not alone in this.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I still don't see the value in the new MP offering, unless, I suppose, you live someplace with high ticket prices that doesn't have an AMC.

I agree totally with your above point -- except that you have to like your AMC in order for A-List to be of any value.

As I've noted before, my local AMC remodeled their auditoriums last year and put all of the wheelchair seating in the back, for every single auditorium except the non-renovated IMAX. I use a wheelchair, and aside from the fact that this change is ridiculous, i am extremely nearsighted. Therefore, the idea of sitting in the back for every single film is not appealing to me. The savings of paying AMC $19.99 a month is not worth having a bad viewing experience every time I go. Therefore, I haven't signed up for A-List, even though the deal in and of itself is great and I would be all over that program if it were being offered at a theater where I have good seating options.

So in that respect -- if you've got a really shitty AMC -- I could maybe understand why some of the other plans might seem attractive. However, I also agree with your overall point that Movie Pass is not a trustworthy company, and my not liking AMC does not mean I'm going to subscribe with them.

As-is, I just go to my Cinemark and pay a la carte on a per-film basis (which, with the ticket prices where I am, is cheaper than doing their movie club), and I will continue to do that. I would be open to a subscription plan that made sense to me from a reliable company, but I have yet to see one that checks all the boxes for me, so until that happens, I'm happy to continue buying movie tickets the old fashioned way.

 

[Jason_V]

I saw their e-mail pop up yesterday and I just laughed. After a few months of not being in the news and falling out of my consciousness, MP roars back with something that is destined to crash and burn. When you start providing too many options to a consumer, they will ultimately give up on your product. I imagine by this time next year, MP will be gone.

At least they did something right, in the long run: they shook AMC and other exhibitors enough for them to create their own subscription services.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I pretty much auto-delete MP emails nowadays, so I missed their "new deal". Are we sure it's not "The Onion" writing up all of these MP offers?

 

[steve jaros]

A-List report for month 4 .... October 29 - November 28.

Movies seen via A-List ......... 14

Cost if I bought tickets at box office ............ $133

A-List cost .................................................................. $21

Savings for month 4 ............................................. $112

Cumulative savings for 4 months** .............................. $347



** Since 7/29, I have seen 52 movies that would have cost $431 for the $84 I have paid to A-List.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

A-List report for month 4 .... October 29 - November 28.

Movies seen via A-List ......... 14

Cost if I bought tickets at box office ............ $133

A-List cost .................................................................. $21

Savings for month 4 ............................................. $112

Cumulative savings for 4 months** .............................. $347



** Since 7/29, I have seen 52 movies that would have cost $431 for the $84 I have paid to A-List.

You enjoy your little spreadsheet, don't you?