Movie theater subscriptions - You stream to the movies

The surge pricing is only for monthly subs, thank goodness. This article also mentions we’ll be able to pay an extra fee to see IMAX movies, which is great news. Right now you have to pay for the regular movie, photograph your stub, then go talk to a manger to upgrade you to IMAX. A real PITA.

Theaters don’t have as much control over ticket prices as you would expect. The price for first run tickets is often dictated by the movie companies. Disney is one of the worst, often also pressuring a percentage of the concession take as well as what they are getting from ticket sales.

I looked for a thread about Movie Pass and I guess this is the best one? Have people been happy with it? It’s one of those “looks too good to be true” deals for $10/month to see one movie per day. You see two in a month you’ve saved. You see 4-5 and you have made out like gangbusters.

What are the drawbacks, restrictions, etc.? Thanks.

Uh oh.

Wait, you mean their business model is untenable? Who could have possibly anticipated this shocking turn of events?

I’m reminded of the Order of the Stick comic with the potion merchants.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0135.html

I always figured it was a scheme to bilk money from stupid venture capital.

Terms of the loan are onerous. Investment firm Hudson Bay Capital Management can demand repayment of more than $3 million of the loan on Aug. 1, and the rest on Aug. 5. Proceeds from a planned stock sale must also be used to repay the debt.

If Helios and Matheson Analytics fails to pay, it will be subject to a 15 percent annualized late fee until it makes good on the obligation. If the company is 48 hours late in its payment, Hudson Bay can require the company to repay the debt at 130 percent.

lol

48 hours late and they have to pay a 30% penalty? Wow. I guess at the beginning of August they have a bunch of monthly subscription fees coming in that will cover the loan?

It’s obviously a scam, once they run out of capital they will default and one day, very soon, they will simply be gone. Forensic analysis will show that millions of dollars were siphoned out of the company’s funds, and the founders will be living large unextradited in Panama City.

That’s my guess, anyway.

MoviePass is meeting expectations.

Costco gave me a full year refund yesterday. If you bought in that way I recommend you get a full or partial refund ASAP

More on the financial shenanigans. (registration required, but it’s free).

Also, one thing that isn’t flagged in either article — the company got $5m cash for the loan, but actually owes $6.2m (or maybe $6.8m, which is what the text of the promissory note says). So it’s paying an effective interest rate of 24% (or 36% if it’s really $6.8m) on a one week loan. On an annualised basis the rate would be much, much higher. That’s staggeringly expensive.

I regret not getting a job at the consulting place that does their accounting, just so I could see what’s actually going on behind the scenes. A lot of the creators behind these startups have no clue about actual financial/accounting matters so they usually end in disaster.

I feel like they very much have a clue, because the business plan is obviously untenable to any random idiot on the street and yet they managed to get it funded. They’re scam artists.

“Running out of money” is technically a difficulty.

“Helios and Matheson Analytics” sounds so fake.

So yeah.