You probably read the headlines a couple months ago that Moviepass was reducing their passes to $9.95. I had heard of MoviePass a couple years ago, but figured it was a fad that wouldn’t last, so I did not pursue it. It wouldn’t have made sense at the time ($30 a month) considering the fact that Denis typically doesn’t go to the movies, and the kids were a bit young to see most movies that were in wide release at any given time.
Cut to 2017: CootieGirl is 14 years old and able to see a LOT of movies in wide release. The bonus? She loves going to the movies almost as much as I do. After reading a bit of the latest news on MoviePass, I decided to buy two passes – one in my name, and one in CG’s.
Unfortunately, because A LOT of people were buying passes, it took over a month for our activation/debit cards to arrive. I was starting to worry that I had thrown $20 at a widely-publicized scam of some kind. But finally, after about five weeks, we let out a cry of excitement when the envelope came in the mail.
The very next day, we hit up our local theater to see “Baby Driver,” a movie we had both wanted to see but never got around to it.
Folks, this Moviepass program is awesome for movie buffs like me. It worked like a charm and we had only one issue that was so minor as to not even really be an issue.
Here’s how it works:
1) You sign up for a monthly subscription (currently $9.95 per month, per person). You’ll select your method for monthly payments and it will be automatically deducted every month. The good news? No membership contracts so you can cancel anytime without incurring fees of any kind.
2) Once signup is complete, download the app on your phone (iPhone or Android).
3) Wait to receive your MoviePass MasterCard debit card in the mail.
4) Once you receive the card, activate it in the app.
You are now set to see one movie a day, every single day. For $10 a month.
To actually see a movie, it’s a bit tricky. To avoid scammers, you actually have to take YOUR PHONE with the installed app, and drive to within 100 yards of the theater so that the app’s GPS tracking knows that it is YOU going to the movie. Once sitting in your car in the theater parking lot:
1) Go into the app, find the theater and select your movie and showtime. You’ll hit “check in” to select the movie. At that point, your MoviePass debit card is activated with the exact amount of money your ticket would normally cost (in our case, $11.90 per ticket).
2) Go into the theater and purchase your ticket, but when it’s time to pay, use the MoviePass debit card to make the payment. Voila – tickets get printed and into the theater you go. Enjoy the show!
Some things to note:
The only hiccup we encountered was purchasing the tickets – our kiosk would not read the debit cards at all, so we ended up at the cashier counter to make the purchase. The good news is the cards worked there with no delays, our show was nowhere near sold out since it is an older movie and we got to pick seats together with no problem. Our receipts said our tickets were $11.90 each. Which means our $9.95 monthly membership has already given us $1.95 in savings.
In my area (Charlotte, NC metro) there are about 20+ theaters in the app’s list of theaters, so we have plenty to choose from. I have rewards cards for Regal Cinemas and AMC, and will continue to use those for concession purchases and the occasional free ticket for my husband and CootieBoy when they decide they want to go see a movie. Also, since the app lists theaters based on zip code and your GPS, if I visit family in Virginia and we decide to see a movie, CG and I can pull up the app on our phones, turn on GPS, and see what theaters we can go to in that area.
We plan on going to see “The Dark Tower” this weekend, and I plan on picking a different theater to see if we have scanning issues with debit card again, or if it was specific to the one theater we visited last week.
But it works, people. IT WORKS. IF you love movies, and think you can see at least 2 a month, you will easily be paying half price to see those 2 movies. That’s a win in my book.
Do you have any questions about MoviePass? Feel free to comment and let me know and I’ll answer to the best of my ability!
