Speaker 1: Movie subscription plans compared. What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech. Well, you've probably heard of
Speaker 1: Movie Past. They kind of shook up the movie industry
Speaker 1: by introducing in all you can watch plan for movie
Speaker 1: theater tickets, kind of like Netflix, but for movies that
Speaker 1: you see in actual theaters. Well, ever since they started up,
Speaker 1: several other companies have also come along and introduced their
Speaker 1: own movie subscription plans. So today I'm taking a look
Speaker 1: at three of them, kind of comparing the pros and
Speaker 1: cons and seeing which one might be best for you. Now,
Speaker 1: keep in mind, all of these plans are really good
Speaker 1: if you see several movies in the theaters a year.
Speaker 1: So if you're just a casual moviegoer maybe you see
Speaker 1: one movie every couple of months, probably not for you.
Speaker 1: But if you see a lot of movies, these are fantastic.
Speaker 1: If you see a bunch of movies, well they're pretty good.
Speaker 1: Let's start with Movie Pass because they pioneered this entire
Speaker 1: genre of subscriptions. So basically, movie Pass charges about ten
Speaker 1: dollars a month, but in the they've done deals where
Speaker 1: it's cheaper and it really sounds too good to be true,
Speaker 1: because it's ten dollars a month and you can see
Speaker 1: up to one movie a day, so literally thirty movies
Speaker 1: in theaters for ten dollars a month. Now, with that said,
Speaker 1: I think that movie Pass is definitely the toughest to
Speaker 1: use for the average person because there are so many restrictions.
Speaker 1: You can't see three D movies, you can't see two
Speaker 1: D movies, you can't see Imax movies. You have to
Speaker 1: see movies at certain theaters. You can't get advanced tickets.
Speaker 1: You have to go to the theater to buy your ticket.
Speaker 1: They do have E ticketing, but it's very limited and
Speaker 1: only with certain theaters. I talk to my friend Brian Bishop.
Speaker 1: He does a podcast called The Film Vault and he
Speaker 1: reviews movies on that podcast. He has movie Pass and
Speaker 1: he told me it is great for him, but he
Speaker 1: really has the system down. He paid ninety dollars for
Speaker 1: a one year subscription to movie Pass. So far he
Speaker 1: said he saw over eleven movies in six months using
Speaker 1: the service, But he said it is kind of complicated
Speaker 1: to use. They give you a debit card, use that
Speaker 1: to buy your tickets, but you have to be on
Speaker 1: site to buy tickets and sometimes They even ask you
Speaker 1: to take a picture of your movie ticket to prove
Speaker 1: that you're not abusing the service. This sounds like a
Speaker 1: lot of work, and I think it's really limited to
Speaker 1: people who want to sort of game the system get
Speaker 1: the absolute most bang for their buck. It's doable, clearly,
Speaker 1: he's proof of that, but I think for the average person,
Speaker 1: this one is going to be way too complicated. And
Speaker 1: if you get into the whole couples thing where you
Speaker 1: want to go to see a movie with someone else,
Speaker 1: that gets even more complicated because then you got to
Speaker 1: figure out how to get a seat next to each other.
Speaker 1: And in a city like La where it's kind of
Speaker 1: crowded when you go to see movies, that could be tough.
Speaker 1: Now a new alternative is from AMC theaters. This is
Speaker 1: called AMC Stubs a list. It's three movies a week.
Speaker 1: As long as you go to AMC theaters, you can
Speaker 1: pretty much see any movie you want. You can see
Speaker 1: a movie in IMAX, you can see a movie in
Speaker 1: two D, you can see a movie in three D,
Speaker 1: so it really solves many of movie passes drawbacks. But
Speaker 1: you're limited to AMC movie theaters, which is not bad
Speaker 1: because AMC has a ton of theaters. You also have
Speaker 1: to commit to a minimum of three months. You're definitely
Speaker 1: in for sixty dollars. So if you do the math,
Speaker 1: there three movies a week. Let's say you max it out,
Speaker 1: that would be twelve movies a month for twenty dollars.
Speaker 1: So if you multiply that to be thirty six movies
Speaker 1: for sixty dollars, do the math. Not too bad, but
Speaker 1: you have to see a lot of movies to get
Speaker 1: your money's worth, especially with this one. I think the
Speaker 1: stubs a list is going to be the easiest to
Speaker 1: use because you can buy advanced tickets, you can reserve
Speaker 1: your seat. So that one's a good one, but again,
Speaker 1: twenty dollars very expensive. You have to see a ton
Speaker 1: of movies for that to work out. Now the final one,
Speaker 1: and this one is my pick. It's a relative newcomer
Speaker 1: here in the United States, but they've been doing their
Speaker 1: service overseas for a couple of years now. It's called Cinemia,
Speaker 1: and they have plans that are as low as five
Speaker 1: dollars a month. They are not unlimited, though, so they
Speaker 1: gave me a trial subscription to try it out. I
Speaker 1: went to see Incredibles two. And the cool thing about
Speaker 1: cinemia is, yes, it's a little bit more complicated, but
Speaker 1: it's actually quite easy once you learn how to use it.
Speaker 1: So different plans have different amounts of movie tickets. So
Speaker 1: for that five dollars plan, you get one ticket a month.
Speaker 1: That's pretty easy to use. You can do a couple's
Speaker 1: plan where you can get a movie for two people,
Speaker 1: so that makes it easier to buy two tickets at
Speaker 1: the same time. And here's how cinemia works. It all
Speaker 1: works with a virtual credit card. So once you sign in,
Speaker 1: you set everything up, they assign you a virtual credit card.
Speaker 1: You go in and you tell them, hey, I want
Speaker 1: to see this movie in two D, three D, whatever
Speaker 1: your plan can allow. And then at this time, at
Speaker 1: this theater, their system on the back end calculates exactly
Speaker 1: how much those movie tickets should cost, and then they
Speaker 1: pre authorize or they load up that virtual debit card
Speaker 1: that you have with the exact amount of money it
Speaker 1: costs to buy those tickets. So let's say the tickets
Speaker 1: are twenty dollars. Will you go on fandango, ormovietickets dot
Speaker 1: Com or adam tickets and your card will only work
Speaker 1: for twenty dollars for the next two hours or so.
Speaker 1: And I asked the CEO, I said, well, do people
Speaker 1: try to use this card at like Amazon or something
Speaker 1: like that? You said, all the time, But our system
Speaker 1: only allows it to work at the exact movie ticket
Speaker 1: website you're talking about that you pre authorize and also
Speaker 1: for the time and showing and all that stuff. So
Speaker 1: it's a pretty smart system and you can see how
Speaker 1: it works pretty well. Once you figure that out, it's
Speaker 1: very easy to use. The other thing to know about
Speaker 1: with Cinemia is that you are on the hook for
Speaker 1: any advanced ticketing fees. Those are not included in your subscription.
Speaker 1: So for me, I bought from fandango, it costs me
Speaker 1: a dollar fifty for each ticket. So I was charged
Speaker 1: on my link to credit card three dollars when I
Speaker 1: purchased my Cinemia tickets. Now that's still pretty good three
Speaker 1: dollars to see a movie, but it is something to
Speaker 1: know about. The Other thing to know about Cinemia that's
Speaker 1: pretty cool is that if you can get around those
Speaker 1: movie ticketing fees, you don't have to pay for them.
Speaker 1: So let's say with Fandango you find some sort of
Speaker 1: promotion where the movie ticketing fees are free. Well, when
Speaker 1: you go in and authorize your Cinemia card, you tell them, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm not actually paying for these advanced ticketing fees and
Speaker 1: they won't authorize your credit card for those. Now you
Speaker 1: have to keep in mind you can't cheat the system
Speaker 1: because if you say that you don't need to pay
Speaker 1: those fees and then Fandango tries to charge you those fees,
Speaker 1: guess what, your transaction is not going to go through
Speaker 1: because they're only putting the exact amount for those tickets
Speaker 1: on your card. So my advice if you can buy
Speaker 1: your tickets through Facebook right now, Facebook has a deal,
Speaker 1: or if you buy your movie tickets through the Facebook app,
Speaker 1: they actually use Fandango on the back end, but your
Speaker 1: movie ticketing fees are waived right now on Facebook. I
Speaker 1: don't know how long that offer is going to last for,
Speaker 1: but if you pair up Cinemia and buy your tickets
Speaker 1: through Facebook, then you won't have to pay for those
Speaker 1: movie ticketing fees at least for the foreseeable future until
Speaker 1: Facebook stops doing that promotion. So bottom line, Movie past
Speaker 1: cheapest plan, but the most restrictions. AMC stubs A list
Speaker 1: the most expensive, but I think the easiest to use,
Speaker 1: and Cinemia the best combination of value and convenience. If
Speaker 1: you want to read my full review on Cinemia or
Speaker 1: see the TV segment I did on all three of
Speaker 1: these movie ticketing apps, you can go to my website.
Speaker 1: It is richon tech dot tv. Like what I'm doing here,
Speaker 1: Please rate and review the podcast in Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 1: whatever app that you use to listen. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening. You can always find links at richontech dot tv.
Speaker 1: I'm Richdemiro. I'll talk to you real soon