The movie subscription service business continues to heat up as the major players look for new ways to entice customers. Now, one of the major players may have found a great way to get new customers, free food. Sinemia, one of the major competitors to the better known MoviePass, has announced a new partnership with Restaurant.com that will allow subscribers to not only get a deal on their movie tickets but on the dinner they have before the film as well.
The new partnership was announced today by Sinemia and it shows that the movie ticket subscription business is only continuing to heat up. Starting now, all Sinemia subscription plans will include up to $300 in Restaurant.com e-gift cards that can be redeemed at any of over 62,000 locations across the country. Each subscriber will, in addition to a set number of movie tickets per month, also receive a $25 gift card for Restaurant.com, meaning that dinner and a movie date you're planning can be almost entirely covered.
Sinemia differs from MoviePass in a few key ways. The service has multiple subscription plans to choose from that give you access to as few as one, or as many as three movie tickets per month. Some plans include large screen and 3D screenings while others do not. In addition, the full price of the 12-month subscription is billed at once, so you're paying for everything up front, though that certainly gives you an incentive to put it to use. The addition of the Restaurant.com gift cards isn't changing the current subscription prices, so it's essentially a free $25 to spend on food that's just being added to everything else the package gives you.
For movie fans who like to go on a regular date night, this is going to make Sinemia potentially an interesting option. While it may ultimately depend on whether or not any of the restaurants available through Restaurant.com work for you, it does make this service a lot more valuable.
This isn't the first time we've seen a movie ticket subscription service include material outside of the tickets. Moviepass is currently offering a free three month trial of I Heart Radio along with its service, but it is only a trial, and while adding an additional form of media to MoviePass might appeal to some, free food probably appeals to everybody.
The new subscription services coming from the theater chains themselves, like the Stubs A-List also include food discounts at the theater concession stands, but some people surely will want a more substantial meal.
The movie ticket subscription wars are far from over. With so many competitors in the market, it remains to be seen if there are enough people interested to keep all these different companies afloat, but we certainly haven't seen the last shot fired here.
