MoviePass: The Ongoing Saga (Part 15 of ?)

I wrote my first MoviePass book after I'd been happily using it for nine months. I enthused about it to friends, family, and acquaintances. And I mentioned it here and there on this blog.

But I was strangely subdued about it in my literary work. And that's basically because it felt so fragile. It was a miracle. And I didn't want to interfere with the miracle.

MoviePass is not a miracle anymore. Neither is Sinemia. They're companies offering pretty good deals on movie tickets (if you know how to use them right, which I will try to help you with) and their antics are fun to keep up with and tell you about on a weekly basis.

So on this fine holiday week, let's take a break from the cinemadness of these companies and take a deeper dive on the history of MoviePass.

I am a reference librarian by trade, so I decided to take a reference approach to the history of MoviePass. I did a brief history of the company in my second MoviePass book. But let's take a closer look at some moments in time here...

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Did you know MoviePass existed in 2005?

"Comcast's new MoviePass service started with a few dozen titles and will hit 75 movies in March and 200 titles by year end...Roberts said 30% of VOD users watch at least one movie per month on MoviePass."

Stump, Matt. "VOD's Mystery Numbers." Multichannel News, vol. 26, no. 7, 2005, p. 24.

That's right. It was a video-on-demand service. Spelled the same way, with a capitalized "P" in the middle.

And what the heck, since you're here, you probably want to hear the other stuff people said about MoviePass around that time. Here you go! (Skip these if your interest is not piqued.)
 

"Comcast has declined to discuss its long-range plans for MoviePass...The goal of Comcast is to keep all the VOD theatricals on MoviePass free and thus make it such a powerful attraction to digital customers that they won't be tempted by the siren calls of satellite TV or the phone companies. Because of technological limitations, such satellite distributors as DirecTV and EchoStar can't create VOD platforms like MoviePass...However, Warner Bros. and Paramount might hesitate to sell movies to Comcast for fear that subscribers would become so enamored of MoviePass they'd cancel their subscriptions to HBO (a sister company of Warner Bros.) and Showtime (a Paramount sibling)...a robust MoviePass could deliver a potent weapon to Comcast's arsenal when it negotiates contract renewals...Comcast is going to have spend a lot of money on marketing "to get it across to the consumer that MoviePass is up and running and offering free movies."

Dempsey, John. "Cable Keeps Off Competish." Variety, vol. 398, no. 1, 2005, p. 17.

"While not a complete dud, Comcast has work to do with the studios before MoviePass becomes anything of value...The selection of free pics was beyond disappointing...And most of the movies are much older-- and by that, I don't mean "classic." I mean "Wholly Moses" and "976-EVIL.""

Adalian, Josef. "On Demand Lineup Is a Little Uneven." Variety, vol. 398, no. 1, 2005, p. 17.

Comcast has hired experts to negotiate with the major studios to buy as many as 50 library titles a year, at a total cost of $10 million, for use on an exclusive free-on-demand service called MoviePass.

Dempsey, John. "Comcast Crashes the Party." Variety, vol. 400, no. 8, 2005, pp. 1 - 2.

"Capitalizing on its stake in the MGM library, [Comcast] has launched the Moviepass service, which offers many older movies for free to subscribers."
Zeitchik, Steven. "USA Vid Suit Targets Cablers' VOD Plans." Daily Variety, vol. 291, no. 54, 2006, p. 52.

"Since movies are one of video-on-demand's favorite attractions, Comcast bought a 20% stake in MGM last year to get its hands on the studio's theatrical library of more than 4,000 titles, tapping in to a steady flow of free movies on a service called MoviePass."

Dempsey, John. "Comcast Opens Up Supply for On-Demand." Variety, vol. 404, no. 5, 2006, p. 22.

Oh, and in 2006, MoviePass had its first legal trouble, foreshadowing all the legal trouble the next incarnation of MoviePass would face a decade later!

"Eleven companies are in hot water with the FTC for allegedly offering downloads of movies, music, sports and other entertainment, then inundating users with pop-ups that disappear only after pressuring users to make payments of at least $19.95. Complaints were filed in mid-August in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against the companies and two executives—allegedly associated with the Web sites MovieLand, MoviePass.tv, Popcorn and MediaCaster.net—that accuse the defendants of having violated federal laws that prohibit unfair and deceptive practices since the fall of 2005."

Vence, Deborah L.. "Law, Regulation & Economy." Marketing News, vol. 40, no. 15, 2006, p. 4.

And that's that for the previous incarnation of MoviePass. That 2006 lawsuit seems to have shut it down, toot suite. I don't know what "toot suite" means. Hope I used it correctly.

I wonder if the trademark on MoviePass expired, or if they had to buy it from Comcast when they started the new company in 2011.

I have a few choice excerpts from articles during that time, mostly AMC taking pot shots against the company. Let's save that for another holiday week!

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I also did a research deep-dive on Sinemia, curious about their origins. Will share the fun trivia I learned about them another day. (Most interesting fact: seems like they were named after a fetal disease.)

Oh, and my Sinemia card arrived Christmas Eve. Am far too tired and overwhelmed with holiday "cheer" to get out and try it. But believe you me, you'll be the first to know once I do...

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-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename

I wrote the book on MoviePass TWICE, once from a positive perspective, and once from a more realistic perspective. I also wrote a horror book about a sort-of evil MoviePass.

My "legitimate" books are on Amazon here and my Phony McFakename books are on Amazon here. I exist on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram but I only really post regularly on Instagram.

MoviePass: The Ongoing Saga (Part 14 of ?)

It seems I can't turn my back on MoviePass for a second.

Just YESTERDAY I said they weren't doing much in the news, since I hadn't gotten any news alerts on them for a few days. But if I'd done a simple Google search, I would have found they had shenanigans aplenty.

And I must share the shenanigans! So that you can stay informed!

And it's not just the usual stuff of them barely staying on the stock market. That happens so often, you have to assume they're always continuing to exist by the skin of their teeth.

Consider it news if MoviePass ever gets successful or makes money. I will let you know if that happens, believe you me.

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First and foremost, Bruce Willis signed a three-picture deal with them.

And why wouldn't he? (Please note in this other article on the deal, Willis carefully never mentions MoviePass by name.)

We can only hope that the motion picture epics he makes in conjunction with MoviePass will live up to the high standard set by Willis' work in Acts of Violence, First Kill, Reprisal, Marauders, Once Upon a Time in Venice, Precious Cargo, and Extraction. (All of those films came out in the past two years, FYI.)

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MoviePass apparently rehired a creep.

This isn't funny at all. And in the #MeToo age, these are toxic optics for a company that's already drowning in a sea of toxicity.

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Oh, and MoviePass' new pricing structure is a train wreck. The notion of $9.95/month for three movies at $3.32/each is a thing of the past.

Now they're attempting the Sinemia-esque confusopoly of multiple plan options. You can pick from three different plans for three different time frames: three months, six months, or twelve months.

This gentleman on reddit broke down the per-movie cost for each of these plans to try to make sense of what they're doing here. They're claiming these are discounted rates, which is garbage, since all the rates are way higher than the previous $3.32 per movie.

TLDR summary of the summary: looks like three months of Select is the best plan. $4.88 per movie. It's "only" $4.44 per movie if you buy TWO subscriptions, but who on Earth is gonna do that!? These prices are certainly cheaper than buying tickets at full price at the box office. So they're good, but not great.

You know what IS great?

Sinemia. The plan I signed up for. Three movies a month for $8.99 plus the card for $1.25 per month for 12 months.

That's about $3.42 a movie.

TOP THAT, as a wise movie once said.

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-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename

I wrote the book on MoviePass TWICE, once from a positive perspective, and once from a more realistic perspective. I also wrote a horror book about a sort-of evil MoviePass.

My "legitimate" books are on Amazon here and my Phony McFakename books are on Amazon here. I exist on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram but I only really post regularly on Instagram.

MoviePass: The Ongoing Saga (Part 13 of ?)

Moviepass' main insanity this week has been carpet-bombing current and former users with email offers for discounted annual plans.

They're even carpet-bombing ME with this offer, which the fine print clearly says I am ineligible for, as it's only good for people whose subscription lapsed prior to December 1, 2018 (mine lapsed December 2, 2018).

This offer ALSO extends to people who CANCELED their accounts prior to December 1, 2018. So much for their whole "If you cancel, you can't rejoin for nine months" policy!

They're essentially rewarding disloyalty and punishing the people who stuck it out and didn't cancel. Interesting strategy, let's see if it works...

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MoviePass also thought it would be cool to try advertising on Facebook for the first time.

Now they were sharp enough to finally shut down the comments on their Instagram posts. They were not sharp enough to shut down comments on their Facebook ad. If you click on the comments for this ad, you will behold a stream of hundreds of raging/mocking GIFS, photos, "no more screenings" screengrabs, and rants.

Essentially, MoviePass is focusing on roping in new suckers with this offer, with the promise that things will be different this time and the service will actually work in the new year. At least, it will work if you pay for one of the upcharged "premium" plans.

Time will tell!

In the meantime...maybe you should turn off the Facebook comments, Mr. MoviePass?

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This isn't MoviePass' fault, but there was a weird movie release schedule this month. No major releases came out for three weeks straight (other than Possession of Hannah Grace the first week, which got such toxic reviews, even a horror junkie like me was wise enough to skip it) and then last weekend and this coming weekend roughly three blockbusters and a handful of mini-major releases are getting unleashed, on both weekends.

Now I'm not here to tell Hollywood how to do their job, but the first casualty of this ridiculous release schedule decision was Mortal Engines. That movie's studio had THREE free and clear weekends to release it, but NOOOOO, they had to wait until it was coming out head-to-head with the new Spider-Man movie and, to no one's surprise, it was completely crushed by the spider. It's estimated to be the biggest bomb of the year.

Which is a shame. Because I saw it and at no point was I unentertained. Check the preview. The movie's nuts! Yes, it's a generic YA dystopian and yes, it's not the most original plot. But...cities on wheels! Cloud cities! Sea cities! Cities shaped like spiders! Zombie cyborgs! Non-stop crazy plot developments! Girl power! What more do you want? This movie didn't deserve to be a megabomb. But the studio screwed it with the release date.

Bad studio, no cookie.

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And here we go, the story you all came for...

I signed up for Sinemia.

Not a perfect process, but I survived.

You can choose whichever plan you want, and you can choose whatever additional fees you want to pay to get it activated early, cardless, or monthly instead of annual.

But I'm gonna walk you through the most fee-less way possible.

First off, some background info. Yes, I have been vocal with my anti-Sinemia feelings and thoughts in the past, in print and on this blog. I stand behind what I said at the time based on what Sinemia was doing at the time, but Sinemia has made some positive changes recently (while MoviePass has been getting progressively worse) that led me to go ahead and pull the trigger on joining.

The short version: Sinemia went "cardless" a few months ago and started forcing all users to pay a "processing fee" of $1.80 per ticket through the app on top of "convenience fees" from Fandango or Atom tickets or whoever.

Sinemia got sued.

Sinemia backed down.

Sinemia said okay, we'll bring back physical cards you can use at theaters to avoid the fees on our app (full disclosure: the cards cost $14.99, but that comes out to $1.25 over a year so that's not a bad deal and this is the ONLY additional Sinemia fee I recommend paying) and we promise to hire customer support staff so we can do more right by our customers.

You know what? I've heard good things about them lately. And they actually followed through on their promise and immediately and offered physical cards for members. (MoviePass used to apologize and send "Whoopsie" emails on a near-weekly basis, but they never actually changed anything, at least not for the better.) So I'll take a chance.

As the narrator on Jane the Virgin says: LET'S DO THIS.

Sinemia offers a Byzantine confusopoly of options, including family plans, elite plans, Monday-Thursday only plans, unlimited plans, and one-ticket-per-month plans.

Let's get the three-ticket-per-month plan, which is currently $8.99.

So far, so good.

Give them your info, something I hate doing to this day because you know it's getting intercepted by hackers and spyware and it's gonna get sold on the Russian deep web black market, but whatever, you do it anyway.

You get an email thanking you for signing up and saying you now have a Sinemia account and they'll activate it soon! Great!

Download the app, poke around, discover you can't really see much on it until your account is activated. Which will take about two weeks, unless you pay a $9.99 "early activation fee." (Ha-ha. But seriously, don't do that. Be patient.)

Now, time to get that physical card...

Uh, how do you do that?

Look all over the account activation page, the personal profile page, search every FAQ entry on physical cards.

You can find instructions for how to USE your physical card.

You can find a link for REGISTERING your physical card.

But nowhere on the site or in the FAQ is there a place where you can actually ORDER a physical card.

That's a capital-F Fail. Right off the bat.

Time to contact customer support.

You discover that they bend over backwards to avoid revealing their customer service email address anywhere on the site. The only way to get through to them is to scroll to the bottom of their FAQ page, where there's a "Contact" link, which leads to a page where you can put your name and title and message.

Ugh, fine.

Fill out all the fields, finish your message inquiring about how to get a physical card, and click "Send"...

And the fields all disappear!

Your name is gone, title gone, message...ALL GONE!

No notification that your message was sent or received.

So you try it again. Once more...ALL GONE!

Reload the page from a separate link. Try yet again...ALL GONE!

All fields on the screen deleted.

Look at the signup email they sent and find an actual email address on there. Send the message to that address IN ADDITION TO replying to the signup email.

Place your bets on which of these five attempts to contact Sinemia gets the first response...

Ready? And...

Turns out the first response is a response to your response to their initial welcome message. But it's only an acknowledgement that they got your question and will get back to you soon.

Note that.

(Also note: It has now been almost three weeks since I sent that message and I never did get a response to any of the five contact attempts, nor to the subsequent time I contacted them two weeks later. I also contacted them on their Twitter customer support account and got crickets. They have apparently not hired new customer support staff yet.)

Some time passes and you decide to jump online and see if anyone outside Sinemia can answer your question. Your search leads you to the Sinemia reddit page, where the denizens were all aflutter about the physical cards. On one of these threads, discover that there is a "Membership" tab hidden between all the tabs that SOUND like they'd be the places to order a physical card. Go back to Sinemia, open this "Membership" tab and finally, buried as deeply as it could be buried, there is an "Order a Physical Card" link.

They really, really don't want you to order a physical card. They want you to pay those sweet, sweet per-ticket fees on the app.

The wording on the card-buying page is super-shifty, basically threatening to change the fees and terms at any time. Yee-haw.

(Update: they didn't send the card within the promised 1-2 weeks, to no one's surprise. But 2.5 weeks in, I finally got an email from them saying the card is on the way. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I will have the card and be able to report if it works by next blog.)

I'm pre-emptively fine with all the crazy Sinemia stuff that's gonna happen over the next year. The money spent to join was a birthday present, so the 36 movies I'm gonna see with this unpredictable Turkish company over the next year are all basically free.

Plus, it's an adventure. Ups and downs are inevitable. And in case my books and blogs don't make this abundantly clear...I like a cinematic adventure.

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-B.P. Kasik/Phony McFakename

I wrote the book on MoviePass TWICE, once from a positive perspective, and once from a more realistic perspective. I also wrote a horror book about a sort-of evil MoviePass.

My "legitimate" books are on Amazon here and my Phony McFakename books are on Amazon here. I exist on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram but I only really post regularly on Instagram.