Tell me a story

Hey everybody. It’s July. Do you know what that means besides an absurd increase in the heat index? It means I’ve been a member of MoviePass for a month now. If you don’t know or don’t remember, MoviePass is a new service that allows you to see one movie a day at theaters for a fixed monthly price. You can read my first write-up about it here. In that post I stated that at the end of each month, I’d come back here and detail how much I saved or lost through the service, and like I just said, it’s July. So how did I do? A brief refresher first.

I pay the people at MoviePass $30 a month for entry into one movie a day at just about any theater I want. With movie prices in DC ranging from $11 to $12.50, I only need to see a minimum of 3 movies a month to get my money’s worth. In June saw 8 movies in theaters. So I must have benefited big time, right? The answer is not as much as you’d think. Let’s go over this.

In June I saw Now You See Me, The Internship, The Hangover III, The Bling Ring, Man of Steel, After Earth, Monster’s University, and The Heat. I only used MoviePass for three of these: The Hangover III, After Earth and The Heat. My sis treated me to Now You See Me after I saw that the Sunrise Cinemas in Valley Stream, NY was not one of the approved MoviePass theaters. I saw The Internship and The Bling Ring via advance screenings. I bought my ticket for Man of Steel through Fandango on opening day so that I wouldn’t get sold out. As for Monster’s University, I didn’t have any reception at the Flagship Cinemas in Waterville, ME, which meant I couldn’t use the MoviePass app on my phone. I went into an immediate funk. That was $9 I could have saved! At least the movie was good enough to cheer me up, but I still think about that $9 sometimes. I wonder who has it now and if they’re treating it well. Maybe they’re  buying candy for orphaned kids with it or purchasing BINGO supplies for retirement homes or donating it to portable air-conditioning research. I just want little Niney to be used for something good.

So just how much did I save? Let’s calculate: The Hangover III cost $12.50, After Earth cost $12, and The Heat cost $12.50, totaling $37 meaning after paying $30 to MoviePass, I saved $7. That’s not bad at all. If I only ever save $7 a month, that comes to $84 a year. Sure, that won’t buy me a new car, but I’d rather have an extra $84 in my pocket than not. So all in all MoviePass has been beneficial, but after showing these numbers to my girlfriend Stephanie, she brought up an interesting point, one that calls into question how much I’m really saving.

When June 30th arrived, I found myself having only seen two movies using MoviePass. That meant I had to see a movie that day if I wanted to get my money’s worth. Partly with that goal in mind, Steph and I went to see The Heat. Based on previews I’d seen, I thought it looked okay, not great, but probably enough to give me a few chuckles. To be sure though, it’s not anything I would have seen without MoviePass. Luckily it ended up being funnier than I would have imagined. So win/win for me, although you could say that MoviePass made me see one more movie than I normally would have. If I hadn’t signed up for it and if I’d skipped The Heat, I would have ended up saving $5. So did I really win?

Well, I love stories, and movies might just be my favorite form of story-telling, and the theater is my favorite way to experience movies. Even when I see a bad film (like let’s say Pacific Rim), it’s still a worthwhile experience because I can always find something to appreciate (like let’s say how cool the Pacific Rim aliens looked lumbering across the planet). So maybe MoviePass is going to make me see movies I wouldn’t have otherwise  seen, and maybe those movies won’t be good, but hey, I’m doing what I love and MoviePass is making it cheaper. Win/win. Yet, I might be counting unhatched eggs here. There’s still a good chance this whole thing will blow up on me and I’ll lose money on it every month going forward. I’m crossing my fingers that I won’t, knowing full well that crossing my fingers changes absolutely nothing. We’ll just have to wait and see. Until August!

June 2013 MoviePass Savings:

Total MoviePass Savings: