MoviePass as a service is barely recognizable when compared to what it was less than a year ago. Many of these changes have been welcomed by movie fans, but others, not so much. This newest change will likely fall into the latter category, as MoviePass has recently announced that it will be adding a "high demand" charge to ticket purchases for movies deemed popular. This could vary based on movie or showtime, so the same film could cost more depending on the time of day you see it, giving MoviePass an Uber-like quality. According to MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe...
At certain times for certain films --- on opening weekend --- there could be an additional charge for films.
According to Mitch Lowe, this high demand pricing will be rolled out by MoviePass in the coming weeks, though no specific date was given. However, he did tell Business Insider that the additional fee will start at $2. Emphasis on "start," so that's the minimum additional fee, it could go higher than that depending on how popular the showing in question is.
Needless to say, this likely won't go over terribly well with a lot of MoviePass users. If you're the sort of person who doesn't bother with opening weekends this likely won't have much of an effect on you. Alternatively, if you use your MoviePass subscription so frequently that it already pays for itself several times over, adding a couple extra bucks to what you pay, even a couple times a month, might not be that big a deal. However, for others, that surge pricing might make a significant difference as to whether the subscription is even worth it.
While this high demand pricing is expected to hit soon, other changes to MoviePass that have been announced won't arrive until the end of the summer. One is the family/bring-a-friend option that MoviePass CEO Ted Farnsworth previously revealed to CinemaBlend. Another is a premium pricing option that will add IMAX and 3D showings as options. Currently, MoviePass only works on standard screen 2D films.
These changes aren't happening in a vacuum, however. AMC Theaters, one of MoviePass' most vocal critics, recently announced its own subscription service which will compete directly with MoviePass. The AMC option costs twice as much as MoviePass, and only allows you to see three movies in a week, but that includes IMAX and 3D films and it also allows you to see the same film more than once, something MoviePass recently disallowed.
The subscription movie ticket business is heating up, so expect to see a lot of changes from all the competitors in the market in the months to come.
