First a real quick rundown on the most recent MoviePass nonsense.
The implications of MoviePass' parent company getting delisted are here.
Quite a world we live in where that's hardly news.
Also their SEC filing report was finally released, if that's of interest to you. I have no idea what it all means and hope someone will explain it to me.
MoviePass actually dropped a print ad in Rolling Stone magazine. First thing I noticed: it's in the same font as the "There are no more screenings" screen on the app. Rich in irony goodness!
MoviePass blitzed my wife and I about a dozen times in late December with desperate pleas to buy annual accounts. We're not alone on that. Best part: neither one of us even qualifies for the annual account offers.
But let us never forget my declaration in my first MoviePass book that this company punched a hole in reality. And it looks like the next year is going to mostly consist of companies rushing to catch up to this reality punch. C'mon, Regal! Get it in gear!
A funny moment over the holidays was when my sister-in-law mentioned how happy she was with AMC's A-List program. It's great for her. I'm happy for her. She tells me that she just uses it...and it works! (She's not alone, there's 600,000 people like her.)
Me? I got no AMC theaters in my town. So I've been stuck with this madcap MoviePass service that's resulted in two books and 16 blogs (and counting).
So we're both winners. I guess.
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I might not be stuck with madcap MoviePass forever, though...
For behold...let there be Sinemia!
I used it. It was not perfect. But it did work.
First impression was not the best.
I tried to see a movie Saturday morning after Christmas. Of course there were "no more screenings" available from MoviePass at 11am in the morning. So I figured it was time to try Sinemia. Well...their app was down. So was their site. Deleted and re-downloaded the app. Nope. Customer service non-responsive, as always. So I got stuck using 36,000 Regal reward points for my wife and I to see a silly movie. Still a free movie, but it chafed me to have to fork out so many points unexpectedly!
I checked Sinemia's reddit page and apparently the site/app went down the previous Saturday morning, too. Okay, that's not a glitch, that's strategic scheduled downtime. Now I know. Now you know, too. Don't try to use it on Saturday mornings.
Tried a few days later and the app worked.
So you go to the local bayou at 8 in the evening, when MoviePass had been down for a full eight-hour shift, and BOOM! Sinemia is still live! Miraculous!
The app has a different layout from MoviePass. You don't click on a movie/showtime, you have to manually scroll through numbers to enter a showtime, then it loads your card with the needed funds. Okay, you can deal with that. But wait! Looks like you can't select a showtime that already passed. You have to physically be at the theater before the showtime you're attending in order to create your ticket on the app.
No bueno.
If you're like me and you strategically arrive late to the movies because you have stuff to do with your life until the last minute of departing your house and you don't want to sit through 20 minutes of ads and previews and student-made Regal propaganda films, this sucks. A weird and lame restriction there.
So you create a ticket for a later film and go to that instead. The app loads your card with the funds. You buy the ticket at the kiosk, racking up reward points...and you have a ticket!
For the first time since August 2018 when MoviePass was unlimited, you walked into a theater and bought a ticket and are about to see a movie ON THE SAME VISIT!
But, wait! Don't get too excited! Focus!
You STILL have to check in on the app. This is a slightly less annoying version of MoviePass' ticket verificiation. Just go to the Sinemia app homescreen and it'll walk you through it.
But be warned: they try to trick you. They ask which movie you're checking in on. One of the options they present is a movie from the showtime you bought, one is another movie entirely. Pay attention there. I think they're trying to get you to click the wrong movie. It's a fraud-prevention measure to make sure you're seeing what you say you're gonna see. So be aware.
But the bottom line: you can now walk into a theater and see a movie with this service. It works.
Hallelujah.
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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.
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