MoviePass Adding High-Demand Pricing To The Mix

MoviePass, the movie theater subscription service, is changing its pricing — the company is adding “high-demand” pricing to the mix.

Business Insider, citing MoviePass chief executive Mitch Lowe, reported that in the coming weeks, users will pay an extra $2 for movies that are popular with subscribers to the service.  “At certain times for certain films — on opening weekend — there could be an additional charge for films,” Lowe said in the report. The move is aimed at enabling MoviePass partners to lure more moviegoers its way during the week and on the weekends after the movie opens. It also aimed at ensuring the company can “continue to offer a valuable service and support the whole enterprise,” Lowe said.

In addition to adding the $2 fee for high-demand movies, MoviePass will roll out two new features to its service this summer — one being the ability to bring a friend to the movies, in which users will have the option to add a ticket for a person that doesn’t have the MoviePass service. The price of that ticket will be near the price consumers pay to see the movie. With the feature, subscribers will be able to choose a seat for both people in the theater. The other feature is a premium price option so that subscribers can see Imax or Real 3D movies. With that pricing, subscribers will have the choice to pay a fee to see the movie in those formats with it ranging from $2 to $6, Lowe said in the report. He said that in the future subscribers will be able to use the bring a friend and the premium pricing for the same movie. At the beginning, customers will only be able to use one of the new features for a movie. Subscribers that sign up for an annual plan won’t have to pay the high-demand fee and are able to opt out of the other new features, noted the report.

As for competition with AMC Theaters, which is rolling out its own monthly subscription plan, Lowe said it serves to validate its service. “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,” 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.”