MoviePass Adds New Features To Amp Up Subscription Offering

MoviePass announced it is rolling out three different upgrades to its base $9.95 subscription service.

“Our aim is to create the most flexible and cost-efficient product, so that we don’t have to simply raise the price on the subscription,” the company wrote to its customers.

Bring-A-Guest allows MoviePass members to purchase extra tickets to a movie through the MoviePass app so they can reserve seats for friends who aren’t MoviePass subscribers. As a benefit, if a friend signs up for MoviePass within 24 hours, the site will refund the entire cost of their ticket.

Rather than raise prices or limit viewings, Peak Pricing is based on the demand for particular showtimes. Under this plan, if the combination of demand for a title, date or part of day is higher, subscribers may be asked to pay a small additional fee, depending on the level of demand.

In addition, subscribers will soon be offered one “peak pass” per month, allowing them to waive a Peak Price surcharge once per month.

And MoviePass members on any plan will soon be able to access RealD 3D, IMAX 2D or 3D, and other Premium Large Format showings of any film for an additional upgrade fee through its Premium Showings offering.

These features are still in the test stages and will be slowly rolled out to all members over the next several weeks.

The announcement comes after the news that AMC Theaters is rolling out its own monthly subscription plan.

“It’s been tough when you have the president of AMC essentially for eight or nine months telling everybody that our subscription was not sustainable, and then he comes out with a program that essentially could cost him $60 or $80 a month to pay the studios their minimums and collecting $19.95,” MoviePass chief executive Mitch Lowe said, referring to AMC CEO Adam Aron. “So it is a little bit kind of funny that it’s pretty clear what he wanted to do — clear the way for his own subscription program and not have competition.”