Moviepass (experience and gift guide update)

Last week I wrote about the new fixed price and (sort of) unlimited theatrical movie service Moviepass.  The original post can be read here.  In short, you can purchase a pass on a monthly basis that's good for up to one film per day, every day at a subset of theaters. I decided to give it a try and so far have been really pleased with the experience. It's quite easy to use and except for a few strange looks at the theater (employees tend to be unfamiliar with the vouchers issued) it's worked well.  And even the curiousity of employees only slowed me down at most 2 minutes in one case. Having the pass does change one's thinking about whether to go to the movies or not. Much like Amazon Prime making me not think twice about ordering something to be delivered quickly vs a trip to the store, or Netflix streaming making me less resistant to trying something new.  Only downside I've seen so far is that it lowers the bar for trying a new film does go down when you feel you're not paying for it.  Case in point, this weekend there was a tiny moment when I thought to myself "I wonder if New Year's Eve is even worse it looks? - maybe I should just go and see..."  Upside being I got out to try some films I'd been putting off, and quite enjoyed one of them.

Gift Options
Moviepass is currently in a limited beta (I still have some invites left if anyone wants to try it). But the folks behind the service are thinking smartly allowing for gift memberships to be directly purchased.  This might make a great gift for that movie lover in your life, as long as the theater restrictions work for them.  I'd previously published the list of Seattle theaters, so local folks can take a look there and see if it will overlap with the giftee's needs.  I'd say that Moviepass is being less smart in not making it trivial to see the entire list of covered venues without first logging in.  Maybe one can, but I couldn't quickly figure it out.  The main thing to keep in mind is that if someone only goes to AMC, Regal and Landmark chains it doesn't look like this is going to work for them.  I'm sure if you write to Moviepass they'll sort out the question of local availability for you. Their customer service has been tremendous for me so far.  If not I should be able to generate some local lists of theaters via my account for a limited number of folks (just post in the comments to ask or email).

Gift memberships break down into three options:

• One month ($49.99)
• Three Months ($119.99 - or $39.99/month)
• One Year ($359.99 - or $29.99/month)

Of course for the annual price one could buy a bucketload of Fandango or theater specific vouchers - all without the risk of the underlying company pulling the plug on the service in the next year. But for a serious film-goer it's hard to beat the price per film. I can see that a one-month membership during this awards season would be a great mini-vacation for a film fan the week after the holidays. 

My experience so far
This weekend I caught two films via MoviePass.  One at the Kirkland Park Place theater (Margin Call) and one at Lincoln Square Cinemas (My Weekend with Marilyn).  The way the service works is that you select up to one film each day from their very intuitive website (screenshots below).  Then you're mailed a certificate that uses the "Hollywood Movie Money" service to provide the box office a credit card like number they punch into their point of sale system. Based on my experience it's not something the employees see every day. At Kirkland Park Place they had to rustle up a manager to take a look (just a 2-3 minute process) though at Lincoln Square they punched it right in (while asking how one obtains such a virtual ticket). In the Seattle area the face value is $13 - meaning if it's a 3D film you might have to front up another $0.75 or so.  Moviepass doesn't yet have a mobile app, but their site is mobile optimized and I haven't had a problem using it via the iPhone. It is a drag to print out the voucher if you're on the move (or as I have gotten used to not printing such things). I suspect one could talk their way into a theater using the pdf on the phone - but I haven't tried yet.

The vouchers themselves are typically good through the next full day. So if something comes up and you don't get into the show you'd signed up for there's definitely some leeway. Though it may be a gray area you can probably see two films on one day by using one allocated day's film a day late.

I've included step by step screenshots below for those curious about the process.

Select a theater to see what's playing. This is the Seattle view which can be changed to any location (MoviePass is good anywhere in the country they're accepted)

Then you can view movie times and select a specific show

At the end of the selection process there's a confirmation screen to lock in your selection for the day.

Finally, you're emailed (and linked from the page) a printable voucher to take to the box office