July 4, 2018 • 7 mins
You've heard of MoviePass but there are now several movie ticket subscription options. I'll go over the popular choices and help you choose the service that might be right for you.TV Segment:https://ktla.com/2018/07/04/movie-subscription-services-compared/Full Review of my top pick, Sinemia:http://richontech.tv/2018/06/apps/review-sinemia-movie-theater-ticket-subscription-service/Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontechEasy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Movie subscription plans compared. What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro.
This is Rich on Tech. Well, you've probably heard of
Movie Past. They kind of shook up the movie industry
by introducing in all you can watch plan for movie
theater tickets, kind of like Netflix, but for movies that
you see in actual theaters. Well, ever since they started up,
several other companies have also come along and introduced their
(00:27):
own movie subscription plans. So today I'm taking a look
at three of them, kind of comparing the pros and
cons and seeing which one might be best for you. Now,
keep in mind, all of these plans are really good
if you see several movies in the theaters a year.
So if you're just a casual moviegoer maybe you see
one movie every couple of months, probably not for you.
(00:47):
But if you see a lot of movies, these are fantastic.
If you see a bunch of movies, well they're pretty good.
Let's start with Movie Pass because they pioneered this entire
genre of subscriptions. So basically, movie Pass charges about ten
dollars a month, but in the they've done deals where
it's cheaper and it really sounds too good to be true,
because it's ten dollars a month and you can see
up to one movie a day, so literally thirty movies
(01:10):
in theaters for ten dollars a month. Now, with that said,
I think that movie Pass is definitely the toughest to
use for the average person because there are so many restrictions.
You can't see three D movies, you can't see two
D movies, you can't see Imax movies. You have to
see movies at certain theaters. You can't get advanced tickets.
You have to go to the theater to buy your ticket.
(01:30):
They do have E ticketing, but it's very limited and
only with certain theaters. I talk to my friend Brian Bishop.
He does a podcast called The Film Vault and he
reviews movies on that podcast. He has movie Pass and
he told me it is great for him, but he
really has the system down. He paid ninety dollars for
a one year subscription to movie Pass. So far he
said he saw over eleven movies in six months using
(01:53):
the service, But he said it is kind of complicated
to use. They give you a debit card, use that
to buy your tickets, but you have to be on
site to buy tickets and sometimes They even ask you
to take a picture of your movie ticket to prove
that you're not abusing the service. This sounds like a
lot of work, and I think it's really limited to
people who want to sort of game the system get
the absolute most bang for their buck. It's doable, clearly,
(02:16):
he's proof of that, but I think for the average person,
this one is going to be way too complicated. And
if you get into the whole couples thing where you
want to go to see a movie with someone else,
that gets even more complicated because then you got to
figure out how to get a seat next to each other.
And in a city like La where it's kind of
crowded when you go to see movies, that could be tough.
Now a new alternative is from AMC theaters. This is
(02:38):
called AMC Stubs a list. It's three movies a week.
As long as you go to AMC theaters, you can
pretty much see any movie you want. You can see
a movie in IMAX, you can see a movie in
two D, you can see a movie in three D,
so it really solves many of movie passes drawbacks. But
you're limited to AMC movie theaters, which is not bad
because AMC has a ton of theaters. You also have
(02:59):
to commit to a minimum of three months. You're definitely
in for sixty dollars. So if you do the math,
there three movies a week. Let's say you max it out,
that would be twelve movies a month for twenty dollars.
So if you multiply that to be thirty six movies
for sixty dollars, do the math. Not too bad, but
you have to see a lot of movies to get
your money's worth, especially with this one. I think the
stubs a list is going to be the easiest to
(03:21):
use because you can buy advanced tickets, you can reserve
your seat. So that one's a good one, but again,
twenty dollars very expensive. You have to see a ton
of movies for that to work out. Now the final one,
and this one is my pick. It's a relative newcomer
here in the United States, but they've been doing their
service overseas for a couple of years now. It's called Cinemia,
and they have plans that are as low as five
(03:44):
dollars a month. They are not unlimited, though, so they
gave me a trial subscription to try it out. I
went to see Incredibles two. And the cool thing about
cinemia is, yes, it's a little bit more complicated, but
it's actually quite easy once you learn how to use it.
So different plans have different amounts of movie tickets. So
for that five dollars plan, you get one ticket a month.
(04:04):
That's pretty easy to use. You can do a couple's
plan where you can get a movie for two people,
so that makes it easier to buy two tickets at
the same time. And here's how cinemia works. It all
works with a virtual credit card. So once you sign in,
you set everything up, they assign you a virtual credit card.
You go in and you tell them, hey, I want
to see this movie in two D, three D, whatever
(04:26):
your plan can allow. And then at this time, at
this theater, their system on the back end calculates exactly
how much those movie tickets should cost, and then they
pre authorize or they load up that virtual debit card
that you have with the exact amount of money it
costs to buy those tickets. So let's say the tickets
are twenty dollars. Will you go on fandango, ormovietickets dot
(04:46):
Com or adam tickets and your card will only work
for twenty dollars for the next two hours or so.
And I asked the CEO, I said, well, do people
try to use this card at like Amazon or something
like that? You said, all the time, But our system
only allows it to work at the exact movie ticket
website you're talking about that you pre authorize and also
for the time and showing and all that stuff. So
(05:08):
it's a pretty smart system and you can see how
it works pretty well. Once you figure that out, it's
very easy to use. The other thing to know about
with Cinemia is that you are on the hook for
any advanced ticketing fees. Those are not included in your subscription.
So for me, I bought from fandango, it costs me
a dollar fifty for each ticket. So I was charged
(05:28):
on my link to credit card three dollars when I
purchased my Cinemia tickets. Now that's still pretty good three
dollars to see a movie, but it is something to
know about. The Other thing to know about Cinemia that's
pretty cool is that if you can get around those
movie ticketing fees, you don't have to pay for them.
So let's say with Fandango you find some sort of
promotion where the movie ticketing fees are free. Well, when
(05:48):
you go in and authorize your Cinemia card, you tell them, hey,
I'm not actually paying for these advanced ticketing fees and
they won't authorize your credit card for those. Now you
have to keep in mind you can't cheat the system
because if you say that you don't need to pay
those fees and then Fandango tries to charge you those fees,
guess what, your transaction is not going to go through
because they're only putting the exact amount for those tickets
(06:11):
on your card. So my advice if you can buy
your tickets through Facebook right now, Facebook has a deal,
or if you buy your movie tickets through the Facebook app,
they actually use Fandango on the back end, but your
movie ticketing fees are waived right now on Facebook. I
don't know how long that offer is going to last for,
but if you pair up Cinemia and buy your tickets
through Facebook, then you won't have to pay for those
(06:33):
movie ticketing fees at least for the foreseeable future until
Facebook stops doing that promotion. So bottom line, Movie past
cheapest plan, but the most restrictions. AMC stubs A list
the most expensive, but I think the easiest to use,
and Cinemia the best combination of value and convenience. If
you want to read my full review on Cinemia or
see the TV segment I did on all three of
(06:54):
these movie ticketing apps, you can go to my website.
It is richon tech dot tv. Like what I'm doing here,
Please rate and review the podcast in Apple Podcasts or
whatever app that you use to listen. Thanks so much
for listening. You can always find links at richontech dot tv.
I'm Richdemiro. I'll talk to you real soon
Movie subscription plans compared. What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro.
This is Rich on Tech. Well, you've probably heard of
Movie Past. They kind of shook up the movie industry
by introducing in all you can watch plan for movie
theater tickets, kind of like Netflix, but for movies that
you see in actual theaters. Well, ever since they started up,
several other companies have also come along and introduced their
(00:27):
own movie subscription plans. So today I'm taking a look
at three of them, kind of comparing the pros and
cons and seeing which one might be best for you. Now,
keep in mind, all of these plans are really good
if you see several movies in the theaters a year.
So if you're just a casual moviegoer maybe you see
one movie every couple of months, probably not for you.
(00:47):
But if you see a lot of movies, these are fantastic.
If you see a bunch of movies, well they're pretty good.
Let's start with Movie Pass because they pioneered this entire
genre of subscriptions. So basically, movie Pass charges about ten
dollars a month, but in the they've done deals where
it's cheaper and it really sounds too good to be true,
because it's ten dollars a month and you can see
up to one movie a day, so literally thirty movies
(01:10):
in theaters for ten dollars a month. Now, with that said,
I think that movie Pass is definitely the toughest to
use for the average person because there are so many restrictions.
You can't see three D movies, you can't see two
D movies, you can't see Imax movies. You have to
see movies at certain theaters. You can't get advanced tickets.
You have to go to the theater to buy your ticket.
(01:30):
They do have E ticketing, but it's very limited and
only with certain theaters. I talk to my friend Brian Bishop.
He does a podcast called The Film Vault and he
reviews movies on that podcast. He has movie Pass and
he told me it is great for him, but he
really has the system down. He paid ninety dollars for
a one year subscription to movie Pass. So far he
said he saw over eleven movies in six months using
(01:53):
the service, But he said it is kind of complicated
to use. They give you a debit card, use that
to buy your tickets, but you have to be on
site to buy tickets and sometimes They even ask you
to take a picture of your movie ticket to prove
that you're not abusing the service. This sounds like a
lot of work, and I think it's really limited to
people who want to sort of game the system get
the absolute most bang for their buck. It's doable, clearly,
(02:16):
he's proof of that, but I think for the average person,
this one is going to be way too complicated. And
if you get into the whole couples thing where you
want to go to see a movie with someone else,
that gets even more complicated because then you got to
figure out how to get a seat next to each other.
And in a city like La where it's kind of
crowded when you go to see movies, that could be tough.
Now a new alternative is from AMC theaters. This is
(02:38):
called AMC Stubs a list. It's three movies a week.
As long as you go to AMC theaters, you can
pretty much see any movie you want. You can see
a movie in IMAX, you can see a movie in
two D, you can see a movie in three D,
so it really solves many of movie passes drawbacks. But
you're limited to AMC movie theaters, which is not bad
because AMC has a ton of theaters. You also have
(02:59):
to commit to a minimum of three months. You're definitely
in for sixty dollars. So if you do the math,
there three movies a week. Let's say you max it out,
that would be twelve movies a month for twenty dollars.
So if you multiply that to be thirty six movies
for sixty dollars, do the math. Not too bad, but
you have to see a lot of movies to get
your money's worth, especially with this one. I think the
stubs a list is going to be the easiest to
(03:21):
use because you can buy advanced tickets, you can reserve
your seat. So that one's a good one, but again,
twenty dollars very expensive. You have to see a ton
of movies for that to work out. Now the final one,
and this one is my pick. It's a relative newcomer
here in the United States, but they've been doing their
service overseas for a couple of years now. It's called Cinemia,
and they have plans that are as low as five
(03:44):
dollars a month. They are not unlimited, though, so they
gave me a trial subscription to try it out. I
went to see Incredibles two. And the cool thing about
cinemia is, yes, it's a little bit more complicated, but
it's actually quite easy once you learn how to use it.
So different plans have different amounts of movie tickets. So
for that five dollars plan, you get one ticket a month.
(04:04):
That's pretty easy to use. You can do a couple's
plan where you can get a movie for two people,
so that makes it easier to buy two tickets at
the same time. And here's how cinemia works. It all
works with a virtual credit card. So once you sign in,
you set everything up, they assign you a virtual credit card.
You go in and you tell them, hey, I want
to see this movie in two D, three D, whatever
(04:26):
your plan can allow. And then at this time, at
this theater, their system on the back end calculates exactly
how much those movie tickets should cost, and then they
pre authorize or they load up that virtual debit card
that you have with the exact amount of money it
costs to buy those tickets. So let's say the tickets
are twenty dollars. Will you go on fandango, ormovietickets dot
(04:46):
Com or adam tickets and your card will only work
for twenty dollars for the next two hours or so.
And I asked the CEO, I said, well, do people
try to use this card at like Amazon or something
like that? You said, all the time, But our system
only allows it to work at the exact movie ticket
website you're talking about that you pre authorize and also
for the time and showing and all that stuff. So
(05:08):
it's a pretty smart system and you can see how
it works pretty well. Once you figure that out, it's
very easy to use. The other thing to know about
with Cinemia is that you are on the hook for
any advanced ticketing fees. Those are not included in your subscription.
So for me, I bought from fandango, it costs me
a dollar fifty for each ticket. So I was charged
(05:28):
on my link to credit card three dollars when I
purchased my Cinemia tickets. Now that's still pretty good three
dollars to see a movie, but it is something to
know about. The Other thing to know about Cinemia that's
pretty cool is that if you can get around those
movie ticketing fees, you don't have to pay for them.
So let's say with Fandango you find some sort of
promotion where the movie ticketing fees are free. Well, when
(05:48):
you go in and authorize your Cinemia card, you tell them, hey,
I'm not actually paying for these advanced ticketing fees and
they won't authorize your credit card for those. Now you
have to keep in mind you can't cheat the system
because if you say that you don't need to pay
those fees and then Fandango tries to charge you those fees,
guess what, your transaction is not going to go through
because they're only putting the exact amount for those tickets
(06:11):
on your card. So my advice if you can buy
your tickets through Facebook right now, Facebook has a deal,
or if you buy your movie tickets through the Facebook app,
they actually use Fandango on the back end, but your
movie ticketing fees are waived right now on Facebook. I
don't know how long that offer is going to last for,
but if you pair up Cinemia and buy your tickets
through Facebook, then you won't have to pay for those
(06:33):
movie ticketing fees at least for the foreseeable future until
Facebook stops doing that promotion. So bottom line, Movie past
cheapest plan, but the most restrictions. AMC stubs A list
the most expensive, but I think the easiest to use,
and Cinemia the best combination of value and convenience. If
you want to read my full review on Cinemia or
see the TV segment I did on all three of
(06:54):
these movie ticketing apps, you can go to my website.
It is richon tech dot tv. Like what I'm doing here,
Please rate and review the podcast in Apple Podcasts or
whatever app that you use to listen. Thanks so much
for listening. You can always find links at richontech dot tv.
I'm Richdemiro. I'll talk to you real soon
Host
Rich DeMuro
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