MoviePass Pulls Out Of 10 AMC Theaters

MoviePass, the popular monthly subscription service for watching movies in theaters, has pulled out of 10 AMCs across the country. Ted Fansworth, chairman and CEO of Helios and Matheson, the majority owner of the service, said in a statement that since the get-go, AMC has not been interested in collaborating with MoviePass.

"We already know in past testing that MoviePass subscribers are not theater-loyal; they're happy to drive by a theater that may be closer to a theater that will accept MoviePass -because of the MoviePass value," Fansworth said. The investment from Helios and Matheson has allowed MoviePass to subsidize its costs.

The subscription service costs $9.95 per month and allows users to see unlimited movies in theaters, but not on the same day. AMC's hostility towards MoviePass is well known and in August of last year, the company said it was consulting with its attorneys to see if or how it could prevent MoviePass from being used at AMC theaters in the United States.

The 10 AMCs MoviePass has pulled out of are listed below:

1. AMC Empire 25 (New York City NY)
2. AMC Century City 15 (Los Angeles City CA)
3. AMC Mercado 20 (San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose CA)
4. AMC Disney Springs 24 (Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne FL)
5. AMC Loews Boston Common 19 (Boston MA-Manchester NH)
6. AMC River East 21 (Chicago IL)
7. AMC Mission Valley 20 (San Diego CA)
8. AMC Tysons Corner 16 (Washington DC (Hagerstown MD))
9. AMC Veterans 24 (Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota) FL)
10. AMC Loews Alderwood Mall 16 (Seattle-Tacoma WA)

"As of today, you'll find a small handful of theaters are no longer available on our platform. Our number one goal as a company is to provide an accessible price-point for people to enjoy films the way they're meant to be seen: on the big screen," Mitch Lowe, CEO of MoviePass, said in a statement. "Many exhibitors have been receptive to this mission, and we're excited to keep working with theater chains that are closely aligned with our customer service values."

The theaters weren't losing money due to MoviePass, according to TechCrunch. MoviePass subsidizes the cost of the movie ticket so theaters get the full ticket price.

MoviePass claims that it represents 62 percent of AMC's operating income.

"This equates to $34.4 million of gross profits to AMC in the upcoming quarter. On an annualized run rate basis, that's over $135 million to AMC's gross profits - which doesn't include concession sales from MoviePass subscribers," MoviePass says. "In publicly disclosed 2017 financial documents, AMC claimed each customer spends $4.88 on concessions each visit - meaning MoviePass subscribers could bring an additional $17.1 million in AMC concession revenues for Q1 of 2018, which on an annual run rate means $68.4 million more --- an annualized run rate going forward of over $203.4 million revenue from MoviePass subscribers."

An AMC spokesperson told Patch MoviePass greatly exaggerated its contributions to AMC's profitability.

"AMC has taken no action to block the acceptance of MoviePass at our theatres," AMC spokesperson Ryan Noonan said. "We have no further comment about MoviePass’s unilateral actions. We are, however, disappointed that MoviePass continues to make false statements about AMC, including today when MoviePass greatly exaggerated its contributions to AMC’s profitability."

Image via Shutterstock