Movie subscription service MoviePass has dealt with a series of setbacks of late and now one of the company's major competitors is jumping at the opportunity. Today, Sinemia announced a new subscription plan option that matches the current offer from MoviePass, three movies in a month for $9.99.
If you don't like the state of the movie ticket subscription business, wait two days, something will change. The various competitors in the market have been going back and forth a lot recently and the newest change to the status quo has been the addition of a new plan from Sinemia. Previously, the subscription service had an option that gave users access to two movies a month for $7.99 per month, or three movies for $14.99 per month. However, that price includes the ability to see 3D or large format screen movies. Now, there is the option to see three 2D movies in a month for $9.99, just like MoviePass.
Sinemia hopes that by matching the price they'll actually be able to draw customers away from MoviePass by offering an easier and more complete experience. Sinemia promises no blackouts on films and you do not need to be near a theater to purchase tickets, both things MoviePass customers have to deal with. In addition, Sinemia users get access to additional benefits, like monthly Restaurant.com gift cards, giving users the ability to have a regular dinner and a movie date.
This move comes following a series of problems for MoviePass. The company has clearly been having financial difficulties of late as it needed to borrow money last month in order to keep afloat. In response, MoviePass changed the terms of its service, blacking out new release movies and charging an additional fee for films that were deemed too popular. Many of these changes did not sit well with the users and in response, MoviePass stepped back from many of them and instead made the move to limit the number of movies a user could see in a month. While these decisions may have saved MoviePass from collapse, they still haven't made subscribers happy.
Sinemia hopes to fill the void left by those who have left MoviePass in recent weeks. However, they're not the only ones. Theater chains like AMC and Cinemark have started their own subscriptions services as well and both have seen strong adoption in a relatively short period of time.
As a fairly new business model, the movie ticket subscription business is clearly still finding its feet. The various competitors are all trying different things in an effort to find the model that works for customers and is also sound business practice. Eventually, things may settle down, but that's not looking like it's going to happen anytime soon.
