AMC A-List Announces Price Increase and Benefit Change: Is It MoviePass All Over Again? - The Minute

AMC A-List customers received an email last week regarding a price increase that will take effect upon renewal of their subscription. The price increase will affect select areas, and may vary from state-to-state. Is the movie theater service still worth it, or is this the MoviePass fiasco all over again? Sam and Aaron, of Movie Night Autopsy, discuss these changes.

SOURCES:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/5/18066296/amc-stubs-a-list-raising-prices-new-benefits-features

TRANSCRIPT:

Sam: AMC, they announced recently. I actually got an email about it, being one of the A-List subscribers. Fun fact: Chad got an email about it, too. He was very excited to finally get an email from somebody that he subscribes to. Much to his chagrin, when MoviePass was sending me all kinds of emails about stuff, just he didn't get a one. Not a one. You remember that? Yeah? No? No, yeah?

Jon: Yeah. Full disclosure ... I have not yet received an email.

Aaron: Oh, man. So it does strike somebody. You caught whatever the bug was. But anyways, the AMC A-List ... I mean, it's pretty much AMC's version of the MoviePass. Like, you know about that just because you go to the movies with us, and we all have it.

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah.

Sam: Just for convenience sake. It is very convenient.

Aaron: Yeah. I mean, especially to see the movies at rates you guys do.

Sam: Oh, yeah, yeah. We go see lots of movies. But back whenever I had the MoviePass, we talked about it in-depth in the MoviePass episodes. Like, you go to the movies, and you're kind of questioning, like, "Is this going to be the time that it doesn't work? Is this going to be the time that I have a problem?" And every time that you use it, even whenever it does work, you kind of feel like the person taking the card is just kind of like, "Hmm. One of them." Like, it feels like you're getting away with something. It didn't feel good.

I don't know what it is. I guess it's just because I know that I'm buying it directly from the theater ... But if it didn't work, I'd be upset, and I'd just go talk to them about it. That's kind of convenient, I guess. What I'm trying to say is that we have enjoyed the service. We have definitely gotten what we paid for. But something that I mentioned in the last episode was, "This is great, so far. When are they going to pull the wool out from our eyes? Like, when's the thing going to happen?" And in this email that we got, they announced a price increase. Predictably, AMC announced a price increase, due to a high demand of clientele.

Aaron: Well, I mean, it's pretty much what MoviePass did to you, too. So, obviously ...

Sam: MoviePass definitely took a different approach to it.

Aaron: Yeah, because they didn't think that they had any competition. Now, does AMC have any competition?

Sam: I mean, MoviePass is still, they're still out there. They're still doing the thing.

Aaron: You'd think they'd be fighting each other over this.

Sam: I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what's going on. Like, I don't know if AMC ... I don't know if it's just a thing of they just were like, "Oh, man." I really think that it's just that they saw an opportunity to make more money, just because they saw that there was an interest.

Aaron: Yeah.

Sam: And that's fine for now, because it's still not too much like ... Like, we live in an area that's affected. Not every area is affected. I guess that's important to mention. There's a couple of areas where it's a couple more than what we got. We got $2.00, a $2.00 increase per month. It makes it about 22 bucks a month. It's still not bad if you go to the movies a lot. If you don't go to the movies a lot, then, you know, no point. But if you do, you're still getting a good deal. But I think like in California, and in New York, and a couple other big, big markets, it's going up to $24.00 a month, so it's a $4.00 increase. And, I don't know. I guess maybe if you live in L.A., that's still a decent deal.

Aaron: Oh, I'm sure if you live in L.A., $24.00 to see a movie is-

Sam: It's like, right? If you live in L.A.. But, I mean, is this setting the precedent?

Aaron: Yeah. I mean, it's just what's going to happen once you corner a market. And it was smart of them to do that for their own theater, because they know they have dominance in this area.

Sam: They definitely have dominance in this area.

Aaron: Yeah.

Sam: We mentioned it the last time. Every theater in this area is an AMC theater.

Aaron: Basically, yeah. You have to go ... God, you have to go maybe down to Gulf Breeze to get something else.

Sam: Yeah, pretty much.

Aaron: But that's what's going to happen. You corner a market, you dominate it, and then you raise your prices, because what are they going to do?

Sam: Pretty much. And I do got to say, the only-

Aaron: But, I mean-

Sam: The only silver lining is like if you're currently a member, you are guaranteed your price for 12 months. It's not going to go up tomorrow. They announced the day that that's going to happen. I believe it was January that the price officially increases, and if you sign up between now and then, you're guaranteed that price too, I think?

Aaron: Yeah.

Sam: But then, I guess the question going forward is, what about future price increases?

Aaron: Yeah.

Sam: Because we don't know when those are going to happen. How long is this new price going to be guaranteed after that 12-month period?

Aaron: I mean, even if they increase it ... To be fair, the amount that I pay to go to see a movie, because I don't have it ... Like, I'm paying maybe, if I go see three movies in a month, I'm paying upwards of like 50 bucks. If I'm going to get some beers along with it, plus if I'm paying for me and my wife ... Yeah. I'm easily paying 60 bucks to go see three movies a month, and you can see one movie a month and ... Or I mean, you can see the same amount, but you're paying for basically one-third of that. So it's still a good deal as you have it, and if you're the kind of person that wants to go see one or two movies a week, it's still a really solid deal. But, yeah. I could definitely see them trying to push up the prices sooner rather than later.

Sam: Yeah, I got to say I'm not surprised at the announcement. I guess I'm surprised that it happened so quickly. I don't think I was expecting it to happen so soon.

Aaron: Well, I don't think they expected for it to be so successful so quickly.

Sam: That's true. They expect-

Aaron: Once everybody jumped off MoviePass on to them, they were like, "Oh. Well, we can charge them whatever we want, then."

Sam: That's true. They're expecting to have more than 500,000 members. Oh, yes. January 9th is the day that it happens.

Aaron: They do the-

Sam: They're expecting to have more than 500,000 subscribers by that day.

Aaron: They do the same thing in grocery stores. They'll come out with a larger size of something with a higher price, and then they'll alter the price so the higher price goes under the smaller size, and they'll get rid of the larger item to normalize that higher price.

Sam: Right.

Speaker 3: And people just accept it, because they slowly are accumulated to that.

Sam: Acclimated?

Aaron: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Acclimated. Sorry.

Sam: But, and you know, it isn't all bad. Any time that you have to pay a little bit more definitely sucks, but ... Whereas, I remember back with MoviePass, me and Chad were pretty much just watching every day to see what's going to change with our MoviePass subscription. Like, what's going to be different today?

Aaron: Yeah, and that's lame. If they're super inconsistent like that, then yeah, I would obviously drop it. But so long as it works for you-

Sam: And there's literally no difference in the services that they're offering. It's just like, "There's going to be a price change, but that's literally the only change. Oh, and we're lowering the minimum age. Like, you can be 16 and have one of these."

Aaron: But if you are considering getting it, I guess it'd be better to get it now.

Sam: Yeah, that's what it sounds like, based on what they're telling us. They're sticking by those guns, and if you sign up for it now, then you're guaranteed that lesser price for a year.

Aaron: Yeah. For a year.

Sam: For a year.

Aaron: And then they can do whatever they want.

Sam: Then, yeah. Then they can do whatever they want. Yeah, but that's pretty much where my biggest concern is, is what happens after those 12 months?

Aaron: That's just business, man.

Sam: You know? Like if MoviePass isn't around by then ... And I'm honestly surprised if MoviePass is around by the time I finish this sentence ... That's probably their biggest competition right now. They're free to do whatever they want, if they don't have competition.

Aaron: Yeah.

Sam: And it's just like, what are you going to do? Go back to paying for movies?

Aaron: Yeah.

Sam: Remember how much that sucked? It's like, yeah. Yeah, I do.

Aaron: Well, I hope they don't go that way. But knowing how theaters and the entertainment business operates in general, I'm sure prices are going to go up eventually.

Sam: Yeah.

Aaron: It's just the way ... That's just the way of the world, man.

Sam: That's the way it works, and we're just going to have to keep paying attention, and seeing if anything else happens. Maybe MoviePass will catch some kind of ...

Aaron: Yeah, maybe they make a turn.

Sam: Some kind of fourth wind.

Aaron: Maybe Blockbuster will come back.

Sam: Maybe Blockbuster will make a comeback. People will start going to the stores again.

Aaron: Oh.

Sam: We can leave our doors unlocked at night. It'll be just like the good old days.

The Minute, Movies, NewsSam DodsonNovember 13, 2018amc, moviepass, a-list