Techdirt Podcast Episode 158: How MoviePass Makes Money

from the plus,-privacy... dept

Tue, Mar 13th 2018 1:30pm — Leigh Beadon

The apparent success of MoviePass raises a whole bunch of interesting business model questions — and privacy concerns about the data-harvesting portion of that business model add another layer of complexity. So this week, we're going back to a good old-fashioned formula for the podcast, and dedicating an episode to examining the company in detail and trying to figure out where it might be headed.

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Filed Under: business models, movies, podcast, privacy
Companies: moviepass

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Anonymous Coward, 13 Mar 2018 @ 1:42pm

Already know: same way Google, Facebook, Twitter do: SPYING!
As some sage commented way back: SPYING is the "business model" of teh internets.
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Phoenix84 (profile), 13 Mar 2018 @ 2:01pm

Is there a transcript?
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bob loblaw, 13 Mar 2018 @ 2:20pm

For what it's worth, Cinemark has set up it's own similar service called Movie Club. For 8.99/month you get 1 free ticket for a 2D show like Moviepass (that rolls over every month it's not used) and tickets in general are only 8.99. Concessions are 20%. I'm actually subscribed to 3 movie services, Moviepass, Sinemia, and Movie Club. I've used Moviepass the most, followed by the freebie tix of Movie Club. Sinemia is only 1-2 movies a month BUT doesn't have restrictions - you can watch 3D, IMAX etc.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 13 Mar 2018 @ 3:18pm

Re:
Is there a transcript?

Unfortunately, we don't currently do transcripts of our podcasts. It's currently too costly/time consuming so we've been unable to. We hope to in the future, though.
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bernicestockstill (profile), 14 Mar 2018 @ 10:21am

good idea
correct and advantageous solution
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Mike, 15 Mar 2018 @ 11:18am

Re:
Still not worth it IMHO. I've been to 8 movies this month and Never would have gone if I didn't have the moviepass.

I have looked through Cinemark deal and it's not that great
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bob loblaw, 1 Apr 2018 @ 3:52pm

Re: Re:
Yeah, the cinemark one is only good if you utilize it or buy concessions.

I did find out recently the saved tickets can be used to upgrade your tickets to 3D, Dbox, etc, and I did it for Ready Player One, on top of the MP ticket I bought. Overall, MP is definitely the better value, I've seen loads of movies this year alone b/c of MP...but the cinemark and sinemia subs were good for the weekend I went and saw three movies the same day.
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