From the get/go CMG made it perfectly clear that MoviePass was a fractured concept. Having moviegoers pay $10 per month for the privilege of going to a cinema as many times as they desired during that month was a non-starter from a monetary sense - although, I must say, MoviePass (which claims to have 3m members) lasted longer than I thought.Problem was that MoviePass execs had convinced themselves that exhibitors would eventually come around as MoviePass subscribers increased and that all would share as the admission and concession pie grew. Wow, the more you think about it the worse it is. Needless to say, charging $10 per month and than having to pay full admission for the tickets the subscribers required made no sense. MoviePass tried various pricing structures during it tenure but the concept, as we stated, is flawed.
Now, AtomTickets (a ticketing service whose main competition is Fandango) is smelling blood and last week launched a contest encouraging customers of the flailing MoviePass to cancel their memberships for a chance to win one year of free tickets.
Calling it "Break UP Sweepstakes" the winner will receive a free daily movie ticket for 365 days (valued at $4,380). To enter, MoviePass customers must tweet a picture of their cut-up MoviePass member card to AtomTickets.
The straw that broke MoviePass's back occurred on Monday when their system crashed and their parent company was forced to borrow $5 million to resolve the issue, and then warned subscribers that "certain movies may not always be available in every theater on our platform".
AtomTickets is owned by Lionsgate, Disney, Fox, and Fidelity. Its board includes: Spielberg, JJ Abrams, Tyler Perry, Dwayne Johnson, and Dany Garcia (Johnson and Garcia are also investors).
CMG also predicted that Fandango would fall on rocky times and with AtomTickets as a competitor that's not good news for Fandango (owned by NBC/Universal).
Stay in touch,
Jim Lavorato
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