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MoviePass CEO: The Subscription Model Is the Future for Theaters

September 06, 2017
Staff

WRITER

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe joined Glenn on radio Wednesday to talk about his company’s subscription business model and why movie theaters should actually be excited about people seeing unlimited free movies. He explained why MoviePass was first designed for millennials, a generation accustomed to subscribing to everything.

“We realized that what we really needed to do is to reinvigorate, especially, millennials,” Lowe said. “They talk themselves out of going to the movies. … ‘I’ve already got Netflix or Hulu; I’ll just wait and see it then.’”

For one fee, people can use MoviePass to see as many movies as they want to each month, as long as they don’t go to more than one movie per day or see the same film twice. MoviePass recently dropped its price from $50 to just $10 per month.

Movie theaters benefit from people being in the theater and buying concessions, so they should welcome a subscription service that encourages people to come to the movies, Lowe asserted.

“I think the movie theater experience is just totally changing,” Glenn said. “I think the future is putting me into some sort of cocoon where I never, ever want to leave.” As an example, he cited local theaters that serve people food while you watch the movie.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

STU: You can give your critique on the script too. The coauthor of American Assassin. Tomorrow, he joins us. The beginning of this hour on tomorrow's program. But one of the things that I love about movies and I have a new appreciation of them and can go to much more of them because of it is called this ridiculous movie called MoviePass.

GLENN: I don't -- there's something wrong here.

STU: It's ridiculous. There's something wrong. It's too good. When it's too good to be true, it means it's too good.

GLENN: Right. Mitch Lowe is here. He's the CEO of MoviePass.com. And, Mitch, I personally may put you out of business because I see too many movies. So...

MITCH: Hey, that's what we want. We want to reinvigorate the movie theater going. So we would love to see that.

GLENN: Okay. Honestly, I'll bankrupt you. I see almost every movie made, and I love to go to the movies. It is a pastime with me and my family. But we see probably a minimum of four movies a month. And under your service, I pay $10, even in New York where the ticket is $16, and I can go see any movie I want and I can see as many movies as I want, as long as it's not the same one over and over again, right?

MITCH: That's right. It's one a day. It's one a day.

GLENN: So how is that working for you? I'm trying to figure out the business model. How does that work?

MITCH: So here's the thing: Yes, there are about 11 percent -- 36 million people in the US and Canada that go to a lot of films every month. They go to roughly 18 films a year on average, and they buy half of all the movie tickets. But there's 51 percent of the population that go to less than a movie a month, and that's who primarily join our service. So, yes, everybody like yourself who goes to lots of movies joins. They get huge value, and they tell everybody about it. But the majority of our subscribers are people who go to three to six films a year prior to joining MoviePass. When they join, they double the amount of films they go, so now they're going to six to 12 movies a year.

So the majority of our subscribers roughly go to one a month. And then there's a small group of people who end up going five, ten times a month. And it drives up the average a little bit.

GLENN: Okay. So it's 9.95 a month. It used to be $50 a month.

MITCH: Yeah. Thirty to $50.

GLENN: How -- what happened to where you could drop it down that low?

MITCH: Well, what we found -- you know, when we were 30 to $50, we were really just appealing to the people -- that 11 percent who go a lot already. And we got them to go more often. But essentially, it was a -- at first a price point that only appealed to a small group of the public.

GLENN: Yeah.

MITCH: And we realized that what we really needed to do was to reinvigorate especially millennials. Over the past five years, millennials have decreased their amount of times going to the theater by 20 percent. And the reason why is now they have all these other alternatives. In fact, they talk themselves to go out of the movies. They go, I don't know if it's good enough. I've already got Netflix or Hulu. I'll just wait and see it then.

And what we really -- these are people that grew up on subscription. And really, what are subscription services, it's insurance against a bad movie. Now we can go and experiment. And if they don't like it, they can walk out and trash it the next day to their friends.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: When you put this together -- because AMC doesn't like this.

MITCH: Yeah.

GLENN: But I think the movie theater experience is just totally changing. I think the future is making me -- putting me into some sort of a cocoon where I never ever want to leave. And that's what's happening -- at least here in Texas, that's what's happening to movie theaters. Where great food -- they'll deliver anything.

MITCH: Yeah.

GLENN: I'm guessing there's a few that would even deliver lap dances. I'm not sure. But they just never want you to leave. And I'm guessing, that's where they make their money. Not on the actual ticket.

MITCH: Yeah, that's right. Concessions are 80 percent margin. You know, when you buy that popcorn or soda, 80 percent. And when you buy a ticket, it's roughly 50 percent. So the theaters really want you in the theater.

And, by the way, when you join MoviePass, what happens, because you're not pulling out that 10-dollar bill to pay for a ticket, you spend more money on concessions, which is great for the theaters. And that's why AMC should love it.

GLENN: Why don't they?

MITCH: Well, you know, we had a two-year partnership with AMC. You know, we -- we both contributed to a blind data report that showed that we doubled people's frequency of going to the movies. Increased their consumption of concessions. And AMC, I believe, you know, came to the point where they said, "You know, we should just do this ourselves." And so I believe this is a little bit of sour grapes in seeing that kind of we beat them to the punch. And, you know, I know they will probably release their own subscription program soon.

STU: We're talking to Mitch Lowe of MoviePass.com.

Mitch, one of the criticisms I've seen from AMC and others is that you are preparing people to pay $10 a month for movies. And then when you go out of business in two years, everyone is going to think the old movie price is too high.

MITCH: Yeah. Well, you know, I was on the founding executive team at Netflix and the COO of Redbox, and that's exactly what Blockbuster said to Netflix and they said to consumers. Don't look at these little guys over here that are offering an innovative service. Keep paying us the high prices.

GLENN: Yea. Are you publicly traded now, Mitch? Is this publicly traded?

MITCH: We're 51 percent owned. The deal isn't closed yet. But shortly, we'll be majority owned by a public company. It's HMNY. Helios & Matheson. And they are -- the reason why we sold half the company to them, a little more than half, is they are a big data and analytics company. And what we want to build is this great experience around going to the movies. And we're building upon their foundation. Their technology. That will build a whole night at the movies experience.

GLENN: I'll tell you, I think this is why AMC is wrong on this.

I don't -- you know, AMC should do what AMC does well. And that is, give me a good movie experience. But I wouldn't want a subscription with AMC, because then I'm locked into just AMC. I mean, if you were a public --

MITCH: Exactly.

GLENN: This might be the kiss of death: I would invest in your company because I think what the future is, is companies that say, "I just do this one piece. And I do it really, really well."

MITCH: Yeah.

GLENN: And they just start linking pieces together, to make everybody's experience super easy.

MITCH: Yeah. You have to listen to consumers. And what typically happens to the dominant player is they lose touch with their consumers. And they spend more time trying to protect an old way of doing things, at the cost of offering, you know, new benefits to consumers. And that's -- that's exactly what, you know, startups can do, is where -- I absolutely love movies. I love them in every way. And, you know, I started with video stores 30 years ago. And I just love movies. And I know the artists -- the creative community makes movies for the that's right, for the big screen, the big sound. You know, laughing with other people around you. They don't make them for the mobile phone. And even though that's fun and a great opportunity, you know, it's really the theater --

GLENN: No, there's nothing better -- yeah, there's nothing better than the theater.

MITCH: Yeah.

STU: And, Mitch, it is a -- any theater you want to go to -- I think a lot of people would think, oh, well, I have to find one of these theaters. It's literally any theater -- you basically have what is a debit card almost.

MITCH: Yeah. It's -- it's over 90 percent of all the theaters.

So there are some theaters -- you know, some drive-ins and some places that only take cash that you can't use it.

GLENN: Can you still use it at AMC? Can you still use it at AMC?

MITCH: Absolutely. You can still use it at AMC.

STU: And I don't know, Mitch, if you do radio-based customer service, but I have not received my card yet. I've just been using the app. So we really need to work that out.

MITCH: Well, we absolutely underestimated demand. And we were not prepared for the amount of new subscribers we had. We're still catching up. You know, on those first couple days, we were the third most searched word on Google after Charlottesville and Korea. And we continued to get thousands and thousands of new subscribers every day. And we're catching up fast. But you'll get yours soon. And I apologize. Your first month does not start until you get your card. So even though we charged you in advance, the month doesn't begin until you get your card.

STU: That's awesome.

MITCH: And I'm extremely sorry and I apologize.

STU: We're rooting for you. This is really cool.

GLENN: We are. Mitch, thanks a lot. Mitch Lowe. He's the CEO of MoviePass.com. That's MoviePass.com. I will be a member by the end of the day.

'Sanctuary city' Democrats upset over (a few 1000) migrants, meanwhile here's what's happening in border towns

(Left) Photo by Bill O'Leary - Pool/Getty Images/ (Right) Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) are in an uproar now over a few thousand illegal immigrants coming to their cities — even though both places claim to be "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, the number of illegal immigrants coming into border towns is expected to exceed 6 MILLION by the end of Biden's term if things continue at the current rate.

As the Democrats ask the Biden administration to declare a federal emergency, Glenn Beck took a few moments on the radio program to compare their immigration problems to the massive influx of illegal immigrants flooding our border towns.

Watch the video clip below to hear more from Glenn. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Even CNN called BS on these OUTRAGEOUS lies about Rep. Lauren Boebert

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has come a long way since she told then-2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke "Hell, no, you’re not" taking her guns in response to O'Rourke's viral "hell yes" comment about proposed firearm confiscation plans.

Now, we find out that Boebert was a stripper and a paid escort, had a "meth drug problem," nearly "killed her sister-in-law during a drunk driving" accident, and somehow had an abortion five or so months before giving birth to her son. Oh, wait, no. Those were all lies, and the guy who peddled them — American Muckrakers PAC co-founder David Wheeler — admitted to CNN that his "bombshell" exposé on Rep. Boebert was chock full of "inaccuracies."

Wheeler also offered to apologize to Boebert, but on "The Glenn Beck Program" Thursday, the Republican congresswoman told Glenn that it looks like that was a lie too.

"I don't really mind that they hate me," Boebert said of her left-wing defamers. "It actually lets me know that I'm on the right track, because they cannot stand the truth ... [and] they hate anything that is good about America. So, whenever they come after me, I'm like, 'alright, we're doing good.'"

Asked by Glenn about Wheeler's absolutely outrageous lies, many of which went viral on Twitter last month, Boebert said, "They cannot attack me personally enough ... they've always stretched it too far and now they just completely make it up. They completely fabricate it. There were lies saying [she had] two terminated pregnancies, I was an escort, a stripper, an addict, all sorts of things. And, you know, people get tired of it ... it really discredits anything they're trying to do because it's so out of touch. But that's all right. We'll have my lawyers handle that one."

After CNN called the Democratic super PAC co-founder out on his "inaccuracies," Wheeler "conceded:

[T]he super PAC was wrong when it insisted a photo of another woman posing on a bed is a photo of Boebert, was wrong when it claimed Boebert initially failed to disclose a campaign contribution from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, was wrong to suggest Cruz had made big contributions to Boebert's campaign immediately after she started running in her first primary, was wrong about the date of a Boebert vehicle accident, and was wrong when it published a claim that Boebert had an abortion "in the fall of 2004'"- at most six months before she gave birth to a son in March 2005.

Wheeler also told CNN that he would be willing to apologize, but according to Boebert, "he doubles down on a daily basis."

"[Wheeler] stands by his claims [and] stands by his anonymous sources," she said. "This is not something that he's backing down from, and frankly, neither am I."

Watch the video clip below to catch more of the conversation. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

CEO says TWO-THIRDS of ammunition deliveries have gone MISSING with UPS

Photo by Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Patrick Collins, CEO of TheGunFood.com, says he's "lost" thousands of dollars worth of ammunition. Why? Because customers’ orders don’t always seem to make it to their doors — especially when delivering with UPS. In fact, he says out of 18,000 rounds of ammunition shipped through UPS, only a third were actually delivered. That's a lot of ammo to go missing. So, where is it?

Collins joined Glenn Beck on the radio program to detail the issue, the lengths his company has gone to work with the delivery service, and the lack of detailed response or explanation from UPS.

Collins said UPS blames the packaging even though his company has always "met and exceeded" all available packaging protocols.

"I have pictures of how the packages are packed (and) within the packages," he explained. "And I have all of that information. In fact, we changed our protocol here at TheGunFood.com to have our drivers, when they drop off the packages at the centers, they have to actually take a picture of it on the conveyor belt when UPS takes possession of our packages."

Collins also told Glenn his company isn't the only one to have ammunition go missing during delivery. "I know quite a few other folks, that have had well over $300,000 of ammunition gone missing. And it's really changed the way we have to do our business," he said.

"The Glenn Beck Program" reached out to UPS to ask why ammunition and gun sellers might be having these issues, but the shipping company didn't exactly answer the question.

"Dear Glenn Beck Program ... Regarding your question about shipping ammunition, as a common carrier, UPS transports ammunition that constitutes cartridges and small arms as defined in federal regulations. UPS has safety protocols to help ensure the safe transport of ammunition in our network. We work with our customers to address their concerns including those with packaging. You can find out more about how to ship your ammunition on UPS.com," Glenn read.

"To [UPS], it's just a write-off. However, it's becoming a very expensive write-off. I would like to thank you for bringing a lot of attention to this because it really is a big deal," Collins said to Glenn. "It impacts people on multiple levels, more than your average citizen would think. Imagine if the police department doesn't receive the ammunition that they need to serve their civic duties."

"Well, imagine if you got sloppy with ammunition and you were just kind of losing some from time to time. What would they accuse you of?" Glenn replied. "There's no excuse. It's either theft from their own employees or it is part of a hidden policy that is disrupting the flow of ammunition ... and their stonewalling here bothers me, because there should be an answer. What happened to it?"

Watch the video clip below to hear more from Glenn. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Disneyland is now cancelling Walt Disney — here's why that should be a WARNING for America

Photo by Barry King/WireImage

For the first time in its 67-year history, Disneyland omitted Walt Disney's iconic opening day speech from its anniversary celebration, leaving fans to wonder how the company could have gone so "woke" that they would even erase Walt Disney from Disneyland.

But Glenn Beck thinks the reason is actually easy to spot if you listen carefully to what Walt Disney was really saying back in 1955:

To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. Thank you.

"Do you hear what they deleted? And can you understand why they deleted it? To all those who enter here, greetings. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, and the hard facts, that created America. To send them fourth as a source of courage and inspiration throughout the world [...] They're not only cutting Walt, the founder, out of Disney, but they're also cutting America out," said Glenn on "The Glenn Beck Program" Tuesday.

"The America that we all grew up in, the America that we thought we knew, is gone. But it's only on hold. And it's on hold, because it is in each of us — those of us who lived it, who know its truth, who know its promise, who have received its inspiration — it should now give us courage to continue to stand up, because we know what it was. Our kids don't. But I want you to know that it has only been put in a closet for a while, and it is our job to open that door and take it back out of the closet. It's only on hiatus if we choose, otherwise it is gone," he warned.

Glenn said he believes Walt Disney created Disneyland to be the exact opposite of what Disney now is. The original mission statement was about who we are as Americans, and who we can still be. But we must recognize that times have changed. We're not living in the same country anymore, and we're not playing by the same rules.

Watch the video clip below to hear more from Glenn. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.