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#128. The Substandard on AMC vs. MoviePass
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Dudes Chatting — AMC Stubs A-List vs. MoviePass: Micro-episode. AMC Theatres has announced its own subscription service: $19.95/month, up to three movies a week including IMAX and Dolby. The guys dissect why MoviePass never made economic sense — it's a reseller buying tickets at full price and reselling below cost, and its involvement in the Gotti film (supplying 30–40% of tickets) may be inflating that movie's numbers artificially. AMC makes more sense because it owns the inventory, but unresolved revenue-sharing with studios remains a genuine uncertainty. If studios don't get their standard per-ticket cut, they have an incentive to push for simultaneous home release, which would kill the theatrical experience entirely. Ticket apps: JVL is an AMC Stubs Premier member and swears by the AMC app; Sonny uses Fandango; Vic has a grievance about the Premier priority concession line (four older people ahead of him who then spent five minutes deciding what to order). JVL reports the Alamo Drafthouse just opened in Woodbridge, a quarter mile from his AMC.
Full transcript
Vic00:00:00Hello and welcome to another micro-episode of The Substandard. I'm Victor Matus along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. Just a quick reminder that full episodes of The Substandard are available every Thursday at 11 a.m. This micro-episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Over to you, JVL.
JVL00:00:22With all this news lately about data hacks and breaches, it's hard for me not to worry about my digital privacy. No matter what you do online, your mobile carrier and internet service provider are tracking it all. Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, the list goes on. Companies like these have a record of every single thing you do, every website you visit, Vic, every email you send. It's ridiculous. So that's why I decided to take back my privacy using ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN is the world's leading VPN provider that lets you private. You can privately and securely use the internet at blazing fast speeds without being tracked by anyone. To take back your internet privacy today and find out how you can get three months free, go to expressvpn.com slash substandard. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash substandard for three months free with a one-year package.
Vic00:01:12You know, you say that like you're trying to scare me, but most of the websites I visit are in Japanese, so there's no chance they'll figure out what's going on. You don't even know what those sites say. I don't even know what's happening. I don't even know what's happening. Okay, so Variety is... What happened? What happened?
JVL00:01:26Where is that from? Whose catchphrase is that? That is Fred Willard. It's Fred Willard in which movie?
Vic00:01:30From Mighty Wind. Yes. And he was saying that if a tidal wave should come over, that he could say, what happened? And his other trademark phrase he said was, I don't think so. I don't think so. I love Fred Willard. Thank you. So Variety is reporting that AMC Theatres is countering MoviePass. With its own premium subscription called AMC Stubs A-List, which is kind of a mouthful already. It's $19.95 a month, up to three movies a week. Your thoughts, JVL? I have complicated thoughts.
JVL00:02:08Sonny, do you have thoughts? Good or bad? Let's try to kill MoviePass.
Sonny00:02:12What's going on here? My big thought on this is AMC and Regal and the rest should have just waited for MoviePass to collapse under its own weight. Because I think that this is the sort of thing that ends up destroying an industry, selling these subscription-type models. On the other hand, I think that this is a... It makes more sense for AMC than it ever did for MoviePass. Right, because MoviePass is a reseller. MoviePass is a reseller.
JVL00:02:44They were buying those things and then reselling them.
Sonny00:02:47Exactly. MoviePass never made any sense. It doesn't make any sense. How this was supposed to work as a business model is a total mystery to literally everyone. They make it up on volume. To literally everyone. Well, I mean, the best thing about MoviePass, too, is that now they're getting involved in individual movies. So they were heavily involved. They had a piece of the Gotti movie. And apparently some 30% of... Is that good? No. Oh, no. And apparently some 30% to 40% of the tickets sold to Gotti were sold through MoviePass. So I'm totally baffled. As to how... So they not only bought a piece of the movie, they're paying people to go see it, essentially.
JVL00:03:28Perhaps they should get involved in blockchain. This is the next step. MoviePass blockchain.
Sonny00:03:34But it makes more sense for AMC because, A, this gets people into the theaters. This is like the whole thing. AMC wants people in their theaters buying popcorn and pizza and snacks and stuff.
JVL00:03:47And the question is, we don't know the details of their revenue share. So MoviePass... MoviePass was buying the tickets themselves and reselling at discounts. AMC, they make the tickets. And let me tell you, the tickets are free.
Vic00:04:00It actually doesn't cost anything to make a ticket when you own the seats at the theater.
JVL00:04:03So we don't know if they are required to share revenue from this with the studios, right? Or, I mean, I'm assuming they're required to share at some rate. But it can't possibly be at the same rate of a normal ticket purchase.
Sonny00:04:17Well, let's say... I think that that strikes me as... Because not entirely, right? I could see them having to share whatever, like, the cost of a hypothetical ticket is. Let's say you're spending $10 on a ticket. Studio gets five of it. And AMC gets five, right? I don't see any reason why the studios wouldn't... A, like, wouldn't demand their $5. And B, wouldn't get it.
JVL00:04:41No, but what I'm saying is of the $20. So it's $20 a month. So studios might be able to demand... We want half, half, Eddie, of the $20 a month you're getting. But somebody who consumes... 12 movies in a month... 12 movies a month. ...is not going to get half of... Yeah, yeah. The other thing, Hollywood is gaming the system here with us, the consumers,
Sonny00:05:00because they don't put out 12 good movies a month that are worth seeing.
JVL00:05:03A year. Yeah, it's like, you could see three movies a week. Are there three movies a week? Right, right. Could I pay you to see three movies a week?
Sonny00:05:12Reasonably speaking, you know, the people who are going to get the most out of this are the people who go to a new movie a weekend, right? Like, this is... This is going to be, you know... Getting back to your revenue splitting point, my big question on this is, if the studios are not getting their per-ticket, you know, fee, their normal cut of the ticket, how do... Like, how do they work that with their own people? Like, their own revenue sharing within the system?
JVL00:05:49Well, but this is, like, the whole new category, right? So, unless... Unless this was pre-written into existing contracts, as in, if we ever do this some point in the future, then this is a new category which they have to negotiate with...
Sonny00:05:58How do they... See, and this is the real issue here for me, as somebody who watches Box Office Numbers religiously, who goes to Box Office Mojo every day, a couple times a day, usually, is, if you aren't... If you aren't, you know, sending the studio $5 per ticket sold, right? Like, how are they going to distribute the... So, let's say the studios get... $10 on the monthly subscription, right? Right. A, you would have to divide that amongst all the studios. Right. B, you would have to figure out how to allocate that from movie to movie.
JVL00:06:30From each according to movie, to each according to ability.
Sonny00:06:33It just doesn't... This is why it doesn't make any sense to me. And it has to be based on, like, the revenue per ticket.
JVL00:06:38So, you are right that this poses an existential threat, but here is why. Because if this program makes it not worth the studios' while to put the movies in theaters, then it pushes them towards the... Popcorn time. Is that what it was called? When Zuckerberg was saying, we should just cut the release window on HomeVid to zero and release everything simultaneously at home, which kills the idea of the exhibitor and the in-theater experience, which is the thing that's really bad. Right. We don't want that.
Vic00:07:09All right.
JVL00:07:10You would not want... You want to be at home with your RGB3 cable hookup.
Vic00:07:15I'm going to say yes, but my question to you is, are either of you Stubbs members? 100%. Yes.
JVL00:07:22Wow. 100%. Sonny says no. But that's because you don't pay for movies, Sonny.
Sonny00:07:26I do. I mean, I still probably pay for at least one or two movies a month. Okay. You know, just catching up on stuff. I like the Stubbs program. All right. Can you explain the Stubbs program to me? I have questions, too.
JVL00:07:39Do you actually pay for the Stubbs program? Yes. Well, you pay for the premiere. So the Stubbs program is free, but the Stubbs program itself is useless. What's useful is the premiere membership, and I pay for that. How much is it? What is it, like five bucks a month? No, I think it's like $12 a year. Oh.
Sonny00:07:57It's really cheap. Okay. And you get, like, popcorn-size upgrades.
JVL00:08:01Popcorn-size upgrades. Like free movies on Tuesdays. No fees. Things are cheaper. When you buy... So if you buy tickets online, I believe, without it, you get charged, like, a convenience fee of $1.50 or something. So no fees when you do that.
Sonny00:08:14Is that only at AMC, or does that also apply to Fandango?
JVL00:08:18Oh. Who buys their tickets or anything? I do everything through AMC. Everything through the AMC app. I do everything through Fandango. Me too. Oh, you guys are crazy. No, the AMC app is a real... It's a great experience. It's a very thoughtfully designed app. Very good. Very... It's awesome. 100% should do it.
Vic00:08:38According to the...
JVL00:08:39Also, you don't have to stand in lines with the normals.
Vic00:08:42Well, I know that,
Sonny00:08:43because I would... Right. I mean, this is... I buy all of my tickets online, pretty much. But I'm waiting... No, no, I mean, they have separate lines.
Vic00:08:50Yes.
Sonny00:08:51Forever. For everything.
Vic00:08:52For everything. So even the snacks, I'm waiting with my daughter for the concession stand, and then a group of people, older, like two older couples, four of them, come in. They come in the stubs, the premium line, so I know... Premier. That premier line, and so I know that whoever's done in front of us, they will get to go next, right? And so I'm just waiting for this to happen.
Sonny00:09:16Aren't you anti-Fastpass? Yeah. Wait a minute.
Vic00:09:20Isn't this the same thing? Isn't this elitist? So here's my question, though. My complaint is this. They finally... We're waiting there for almost five minutes. Finally, the woman in front gets whatever it is she needs. They finally... They're waiting, too, for five minutes, and then they get up there, and they go, what would you like? And the guy goes, hmm, let me see.
JVL00:09:35The worst.
Vic00:09:36There's only, like, three options. I don't know. What's the problem here? Oh, there's so many options down the... There's gourmet, right? There's the chicken and waffle sandwich. There's the gigantic pretzel. Have you seen... Okay, how about this? According to the pictures, you know, the little video they show, before the movie starts, the AMC Stubbs members are drinking out of glass. Where is that possible? I've never seen that. From MacGuffin's. So if you get the bar, if you go to the bar, you get a glass. What bar is this? It's MacGuffin's.
Sonny00:10:04The MacGuffin's. It's called MacGuffin's. Really? This is what it's called at all of...
Vic00:10:07It's a movie joke. I know.
Sonny00:10:09This is what it's called at all the AMC... All the AMC bars are called MacGuffin's.
Vic00:10:13Because it's like, oh, there's somebody getting a martini. Unless AMC owns the Arlington Draft House. Have you...
JVL00:10:20The Alamo Draft House just opened. When's the last time Alamo... A quarter mile from my AMC. But the Coke is so fizzy. Wait, really? Yep. Down in... Down in Woodbridge? Down in the bridge, yep. We have an Alamo Draft House opened this weekend. There you go. My buddy went and he said it was amazing.
Vic00:10:36And the fizz. I want that fizz. Supercarbonation. Supercarbonation. I want that fizz all over my face. That's fizz with an F. I want it all over. It's just gonna be crazy. It's great.
JVL00:10:45No, I can't believe you guys aren't Stubbs members. I mean, it is... Again, I think it's either $9.99 or $12 a year. You get... Just the size upgrade alone on your popcorn and soda is worth, like, $8 a visit. Yeah, but... You don't have to stand in line.
Sonny00:11:01You would actually have to buy food at a theater. Who does that?
JVL00:11:07We eat popcorn at the theater.
Sonny00:11:08Rich Uncle Pennybags over here.
Vic00:11:11Well, it's...
JVL00:11:12Look, I can't... I'm sure it's fine.
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