There is no doubt that MoviePass has been making waves in the film industry.

Over the past few months, the company began offering a $9.95/month subscription service that allows members to visit almost any movie theater and see one movie per day. If you aren't familiar with the service, there are a few restrictions, including that the tickets must be purchased the day of the movie and you can only see 2D movies (no 3D or IMAX showings). It does, at first, seem a bit too good to be true, but stay with me.

MoviePass reimburses the full price of the movie tickets to the theaters, so in the majority of markets, it loses money on every member who sees more than one movie a month. So far, the company plans to partner with independent film studios to promote their movies that otherwise moviegoers might pass up due to lack of interest. MoviePass is already successfully driving more traffic to theaters at a time when the industry can use the help.

The company has been around for a while, offering plans that up until August of last year, cost $50 a month for the same services. The company had several thousand subscribers, but it was not until Mitch Lowe, a former Netflix executive took over as CEO that the company started to make some headway. After dropping the price of the service, MoviePass has jumped from 20,000 subscribers to over 1.5 million in the months since. There are various reports about whether this business model is sustainable, and the company recently has had disagreements with AMC, one of the largest movie chains in the United States, prompting MoviePass to pull support from AMC's 10 largest theaters last week.

Despite the media circus that the service has spawned, the offer is very appealing. So much so that I signed myself and my wife up for the service about three weeks ago. I've not seen much on Steemit about the service, so I wanted to offer my thoughts on MoviePass having used the service for two weeks now.

Signing Up

The sign up process is very quick and straightforward. You create an account on MoviePass.com, input your credit card information, and you're set. The service operates via a debit MasterCard, which you will receive in the mail, so you won't be able to head to the theater right away. Since the subscriber volume has increased, some people have reported their debit cards taking around two weeks to arrive, and MoviePass sent an email to confirm this after I signed us up. However, in just 6 business days, I was surprised to find both of our cards in the mailbox! All that was left to do was download their mobile app to our phones and head to the theater.

If you are interested, here is the link to the full terms and conditions of the service.

Purchasing Tickets

Debit cards in hand, we drove to our local theater (MoviePass works with all theaters in our area, including a small local venue that offers second run movies, so it's likely that your local theater will accept the cards as well!). On the app, you select the theater you're going to, then the movie and show time you're planning to attend. Once you are within 100 yards of the theater (location services must be enabled), you can tap the "Check In" button, and you have 30 minutes to enter the theater and purchase your ticket!

At this point, things are fairly simple, as our local theater has ticket purchasing kiosks that make using the debit card easy. My wife and I each took a kiosk, selected seats beside of each other (our theater has reserved seating), swiped the debit cards, and in moments, we had our movie tickets!

Last weekend, we saw a movie on Saturday and Sunday, and this weekend, admittedly, we saw movies on Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon, because, why not?

Making the Most of MoviePass

MoviePass will undoubtedly drive more traffic to theaters. This may result in move people seeing lower profile movies, as well as increased concessions sales. I still have a problem paying $7 for popcorn, so we discovered that our local theater does not have any signs prohibiting outside food or drink, and so now we nonchalantly walk into the theater carrying cups full of water and gallon bags filled with popcorn that I've just popped at home. Before you try the same thing, each theater is different, so be sure to follow the rules on food and drink.

Our theater also runs a short app-based trivia game about 10 minutes before the start time of each movie. Hardly anyone plays the game, so my wife and I started playing every round, which has resulted in us winning several coupons, including arcade time at the theater (it has a bowling alley, arcade, and restaurant), so we've gotten a bit of added value out of our experience.

The only negative thing I have to say about visiting the theater so much is that we've seen the same ads and trailers almost every time, but if you can sit through those, MoviePass is a great value. We've been able to just take a chance on movies when we want to spend a night out, and since we normally see a movie each month anyway, the cost is about what we would pay regardless.

Final Thoughts

If you enjoy movies and the movie theater experience, I suggest giving MoviePass a try while it's around. Their CEO is confident that they will become profitable once reaching four million subscribers, but if that doesn't happen, you may as well take advantage of the service now!

Visiting the theater often has been enjoyable. Now, if we're looking for something to do on a weekend, we can go see a movie without worrying about paying $20+ each time. It's been a fun experience, and I would be happy to answer any questions anyone has about the service and using it so far.

For those of you interested, the movies we've seen over the past two weeks are Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, The Post, Paddington 2, The Greatest Showman, and The Commuter. I'd be happy to share my thoughts on any of those movies if you are interested!

If you'd like to give it a try, just head over to the MoviePass website to sign up today, and be sure to let me know what you think of the service!

Additionally, if you enjoy placing stock market bets, MoviePass is primarily owned by Helios & Matheson, which trades on the Nasdaq with the ticker HMNY. Could be worth looking into. Even more risky would be throwing money into theater stocks, most of which have been on a downturn for several years. MoviePass could breathe new life into their sales!

Thanks for stopping by!