Remember the days when going to the movies cost less than $10? Maybe you remember when it was less than $5.
These days, a trip to the theater can cost a pretty penny. While the national average is $8.65, in many cities, like Los Angeles and New York, a ticket can cost up to or more than $15.
But thanks to one app, $10 can now go a lot further at the cinema.
MoviePass, run by Netflix co-founder Mitch Lowe, is offering subscribers a deal in which they can see one movie per day for $9.95 per month.
According to KSDK: "MoviePass completes their one ticket per day services through the use of a credit card they send you. You pay the $10 a month through their app, then you select the exact movie you're going to see, and the company adds that ticket amount onto the credit card for you to use. You use this credit card at the theater to pay for your ticket. There's no gimmicks or fancy scanning you have to do, just using the credit card they send you."
MoviePass only works at theaters that accept debit cards as payment.
And although subscribers receive tickets at a significant discount, MoviePass pays theaters the full price of each ticket used subscribers, Bloomberg reported.
Still, major movie theater chain AMC threatened the company Wednesday, calling MoviePass as "a small fringe player" and claiming its $10 plan "is not in the best interest of moviegoers, movie theatres and movie studios," Variety reported.
“While AMC is not opposed to subscription programs generally, the one envisioned by MoviePass is not one AMC can embrace,” the company said in a statement read. “We are actively working now to determine whether it may be feasible to opt out and not participate in this shaky and unsustainable program.”
“This is so much like Blockbuster was when we rolled out Netflix or Redbox,” said Lowe, according to Variety. “It’s the big guy being afraid of the little guy offering better value to consumers.”
MoviePass, founded in 2011, originally offered the service to subscribers for about $30 a month. The company’s aim was to profit from subscribers who paid the monthly fee but didn’t use the service often enough to take advantage of the deal.
As of Wednesday afternoon, MoviePass's official website would not load and the company wrote on social media that it was experiencing technical difficulties as a result of overanticipated demand.
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