MoviePass, AMC and Sinemia – Oh My!

Want advice on movie-watching services, but don’t want to take the time to research it yourself? I’ve spent months tracking and testing this, so happy reading…

For the past year I have sung the praises of MoviePass. So many recommendations, so many Facebook posts, every new change people share with me because they associate it with me. I’ve seen SO many movies for SUCH little money, it has felt too-good-to-be-true, and now it seems it really was, as the service has without question gone further and further DOWNHILL to the mess it currently is. The company paved the way for others to come up with movie-going subscription services, and we should always appreciate the affordability it has provided us, but here are my thoughts on what remains as of August 8th, 2018, in this ever-fluid situation that could make this post irrelevant a week from now:

1. MoviePass:

It still exists, but in any given day you never know what you’ll get from it. In the past 4 weeks they changed it so you can’t see movies they arbitrarily decide minute-to-minute are more popular, so those newer movies usually disappear, and they added surge pricing, but then they said they’d remove surge pricing, but they’d still not show all movies especially newer ones, and not have all showtimes available, and they said it’d be 15 dollars instead of 10 per month, but then changed it back to 10 bucks a month, and they said it will only be 3 movies per month max, but…. If you thought reading that run-on sentence was exhausting, just imagine how exhausting it is trying to keep up with the changes in real time, because that was only a glimpse into the past month! Adi and I prepaid 90 bucks for a whole year that doesn’t expire until November, so we have no reason to even consider canceling the messy plan until then, and honestly by the time November comes who the hell knows what other changes will have been made. But in the meantime I can tell you we could barely use this app over the past few weeks. On Sunday for example, we found a showtime and location for a movie offered on the app,  drove there, and when we opened the app it had disappeared as an option at that theater, and we had to pay for it. (They change it from hour to hour, it’s nuts!) So we had to move on and find a competitor that’s more stable, which brings me to…

2. AMC Stubs A-List:

This is what we signed up for during that incident on Sunday. It costs double MoviePass but in some ways it’s even better than what that ever was, as its details include:

-20 bucks per month plus tax.

-3 movies a week with no rollover, with each week starting on a Friday morning (when movies are typically released).

-You can buy tickets to any movie, in any AMC theater, even special IMAX 3D is fine, no surcharges, and it can be booked w/ seats reserved days in advance (as long as you reserve during that same Friday to Thursday week). So you could buy tix and seats days in advance if you wanted, and you can always cancel and not have it count against your 3 per week (as long as you cancel BEFORE the movie starts). And obviously (unlike MoviePass) none of this has to be done in person when you arrive.

Many other questions you might have about it can be answered here at their FAQ. Honestly, even I used to (at my peak) see 150 movies a year, which averaged 3 a week. So this is technically enough to feed even my insatiable movie-going-habit, and 20 bucks a month is a steal for that since a ticket is already 14-17 bucks. BUT the one sad thing is that I simply will NOT be able to see everything at an AMC. Here in West LA locally there’s AMC Century City, and AMC Sunset 5, and going a bit further there’s the lovely AMC Marina, AMC Burbank and CityWalk theaters which are fancy. BUT I will still inevitably only find certain movies and showtimes at an Arclight or The Grove or The Landmark, which are not AMC theaters. So this AMC plan is absolutely worth it for us but doesn’t solve the times we need to go to those theaters, which leads me to discussing…

3. Sinemia:

I wanted to sign up for this, I really did. This app allows me to sign up for a few options you can see here; their top one being 3 movies a month, ANY movie, ANY theater, for 15 bucks. That’s great, it ensures I can see a movie at The Arclight for example, for what works out to be 5 bucks. It even offers family plans (no other app offers this) so we don’t need 2 separate apps, and can pay 30 bucks and each have 3 movies available to see anytime, anywhere…and we’d obviously try to see most at AMC Theaters and just use Sinemia when we can’t, right?

Except no, their interface and usability is stupid. I read multiple reviews that say you have to go through it, get a code, and then be redirected to a 3rd party website and book through them using the code, and often by the time you go through the effort of booking it you are timed out and have to start from the beginning. Basically, it’s a great idea done badly, and I’m hoping they work on it to make it user-friendly; if and when they do, I will sign us up for this as well. There’s a good review testing out Sinemia that fleshes out what I said right here.

Conclusion:

Until November (when our MoviePass annual subscriptions expire), we will TRY to see everything at an AMC and use our new AMC 3-per-week program, and when we go to another chain, we’ll HOPE our MoviePass actually works. And hopefully down the line Sinemia or some other new competitor will be easy to use and also get our business, or sure, we’ll be happy to re-up with MoviePass if they’ve somehow righted the ship by then.

Regardless of everything I wrote, let’s just have a little happy perspective. In the old days, I’d pay for my cell phone and have to monitor my minutes, because after a certain number, I’d be paying for it. If I wanted to see a movie, I had to shell out the rip-off 16 bucks or so to see it. Well, I far prefer paying my monthly cell phone bill and not even remember what it’s like to count my minutes anymore, and I’m equally glad to pay a monthly subscription and not have to pay for each movie – this is the far better outcome, even if the journey is still a bit of a work-in-progress.