AMC is adding a monthly subscription service that allows customers to see more movies at lower cost – you know, like MoviePass. The new program will cost $19.95/month for up to three movies a week along with AMC Stubs membership benefits.
AMC denounced MoviePass in 2017 after its unprecedented $9.95/month unlimited subscription, which allows users to see up to one movie per calendar day.
AMC A-List, launching June 26, is sufficiently different from MoviePass and may prove to be steep competition. Even though it limits users to three movies a week (no rollover), there’s no calendar day restriction, and they can see the same movie more than once, which MoviePass users can’t.
A-List also allows advance purchase instead of MoviePass’s buy-at-the-theater model (a nightmare for popular movies without reserved seating), as well as IMAX and 3-D tickets. However, since it’s only AMC theaters, users won’t have access to a lot of the independent cinema that has been thriving with MoviePass.
Heard AMC Theaters jumped on board the movie subscription train. Twice the price for 1/4 the theater network and 60% fewer movies. Thanks for making us look good AMC!
— MoviePass (@MoviePass) June 20, 2018
MoviePass recently crossed three million subscribers, but the business model – in which the company pays the ticket difference for every user – still has many skeptical, especially with plummeting stock prices. It is still accepted at all AMC theaters, but the AMC has been looking to sever ties with them for almost a year.
