RoboDad

Tonight we had the guy at the ticket counter ask to see our reservation in the app when we bought our tickets. I found that strange.

For the photos, we haven’t been notified of any change yet, but I’ve been taking photos of all our stubs just in case we need them.

DJariya

Haven't been asked to submit a stub yet.

I used Movie Pass to see Red Sparrow yesterday and A Quiet Place today.

Usually save all my stubs throughout the year, so keeping them isn't a problem. For those who have been asked, did they send you an e-mail or was there some kind of alert on your app?

fujishig

I'm pretty sure if you're required to take a photo of your stub, the app won't let you check in again to your next movie until you do so.

Obi-Wanma

It notifies you right on the app as soon as you check in if you need to take a photo, and then a camera icon will appear then and there for you use to take the photo. It's very obvious. If you aren't getting those prompts, there's no need to take photos of your stubs (or even save them if you don't want to.)

TomOpus

I've had a theater ask me if I'd checked in yet. She said they've had people try to use the card without checking in. Maybe it was how they verified you had checked in already.

bluetoast

Taking photos of the stubs used to be the norm for a few months about 3 years ago. It was an annoyance, as many times the picture wouldn’t upload successfully, which would waste my time. But I’d just email them saying it didn’t work, and that was good enough.

Abob Teff

I thought the card wouldn't work unless you had checked in ?

RoboDad

It won’t, but in our case I think they were checking to verify that the reservation matched the movie/showing of the tickets we were buying.

Abob Teff

Ahhh ...

TomOpus

The cashier would run the card and it wouldn't work. Customer gets upset and has them keep trying. Idiot customer was the problem. Cashier just trying to head off possible problem.

Hokeyboy

Used it for the first time yesterday to go see Isle of Dogs at the Cinemark. Worked perfectly out of the box. I'm gonna like this thing...

TheBang

Probably just trying to head off unnecessary card declines and holding up the ticket line. I had one guy just ask me if I had checked in already.

Usually, I just try to use the kiosk to avoid human "intervention"

RichC2

I just use the kiosks as well. I haven't used mine a ton lately, but I'm about to make up for that.

TomOpus

If there's no kiosk, I've started to say "Oh, I already checked in" as I'm handing them the card. They're pretty nice and say thank you.

RoboDad

I'm having a hard time accepting that there are that many MP subscribers who are stupid enough to not understand that you need to check in before buying tickets. But then, people ARE stupid.

In our experience on Saturday, the guy at the counter did take the time to read the title and showtime from both of our phones. So it appeared that he was doing a bit more than just confirming that we had checked in. He was making sure we had checked into THAT movie and THAT showtime.

Obi-Wanma

Out of curiosity, what theater chain was this? It really shouldn't matter to the register jockey as long as the card has sufficient funds. Sounds like somebody overstepping his bounds to me, unless he was specifically advised to do this by his management for some reason.

RoboDad

It is an independently-owned theater in Meridian, Idaho, but it is affiliated with Cinema West, which is sort of a consortium of such theaters.

I don't think the guy was overstepping, really. It may be a theater policy that is not strictly enforced. He wasn't rude or demanding, and it was easy enough to just show the reservations since they were still open on our screens. The whole exchange only took about 10 seconds.

I am generally OK with reasonable measures to ensure that people don't abuse the system because I really want it to survive.

TomOpus

If it happens again, I would ask nicely "Have you guys been having problems with these?" Maybe he'll give a reasonable explanation.

Obi-Wanma

It just seems to me that the theater shouldn't really care as long as they get their money, but if it's independently owned, maybe they're one of the theaters that cut a deal with MoviePass such that they're accepting less than their regular ticket price for MoviePass tickets. If that's the case, then they probably have a vested interest in ensuring that you're not abusing the system.

jjcool

Well, MoviePass dropped the small local theater from the program. This theater only has two screens and would show cult and classic movies regularly. I would go a couple of times a year, usually for their showings of The Big Lebowski and Jaws. No big deal. It just means I am going to have to shell out of pocket for these now.

Orbi-Wan Techno

LOL, I had a hole-in-the-wall theater showing Isle of Dogs charge MP $10 for a matinee ticket. Whatever.

Obi-Wanma

I don't have any insider knowledge about MP and their business model. I always assume that they are paying full price for a ticket, and losing fistfuls of money, but they do claim to have reached agreements with certain theaters for either a break on ticket prices or a cut of concessions based on the amount of traffic that MP is driving to them. So I was just speculating that maybe that's what was going on here.

Abob Teff

Theaters receive different amounts of the ticket price for different movies. So if you are saying you are seeing one movie but going to another, it would make a difference. A small difference, but a difference nonetheless.

Obi-Wanma

It would make a difference in that sense, but unless the theater cut some kind of deal with MoviePass like I was discussing, if it it's a $12 ticket, they're getting $12. It shouldn't matter if he's paying with cash, a gift card, a debit card, Hollywood Movie Money, MoviePass, etc. And the arrangement that MoviePass has with the customer (ie, check in to a specific movie to load funds on the card) shouldn't matter in the slightest to the theater.

Abob Teff

With a film in its first week (or few) of release, approximately 80% of that ticket price is going to the studio, not the theater.

As a movie stays in the theater, the percentage the theater keeps increases. If a movie is in its fourth or fifth week in that theater, the theater may be getting 50% of better. In that regard, a theater would want to make sure people are paying for the right movie.

There can be other terms in the studio deal that change as the run goes on as well.