UPDATE (05/03/18): The $9.95 unlimited deal went away and looked gone forever. But it is back! If you want it, get it before they take it away again.
UPDATE (04/03/18): Moviepass has a $9.95 unlimited offer for a limited time. Who knows how long it will last, but for our theaters that is less than the cost of one regularly priced movie! If you go to movies, this is definitely worth checking out.
So, everyone knows what Netflix is, by now. Even if you are one of the seemingly few households (like ours) that doesn’t yet have a Netflix subscription, you probably know plenty of people who do and you have an understanding of what they do. Original shows like “Orange is the New Black” and “Stranger Things” have really helped their subscription numbers. Do you remember how Netflix started, though?
When Netflix began, online streaming technology was not where it is today, and high speed internet was not nearly as ubiquitous as it has become. It is entirely possible that they were looking to the future and had plans for the company to operate the way it does now from the very beginning, but in those early days, it was just a movie rental by mail subscription service. You signed up for $8/mo, put movies into your online queue, and when one of your choices was available, they sent it to you. When you were done, you sent it back and they sent the next available movie in you queue. It was a great idea, because of the subscription model, and it probably played a major role in the beginning of the end for Blockbuster. I DID have one of those subscriptions, and I really liked it. (Full disclosure, I had a Blockbuster online subscription for a while at one point, too.)
In the years before we had kids, Laura and I went to a lot of movies in the theater. It was something an activity that we enjoyed together. Not just going and sitting quietly in the dark next to each other for a couple hours, either. We enjoyed the whole experience. Choosing what movie to see (and hoping it doesn’t suck), potentially running into other movie-goers that we knew while at the theater, and the conversations that came from the movies we had seen.
There was a point that we probably averaged at least one movie a week. If we would have known about a way to attend that number of movies without paying full price, we would have been all over it. Well, it may have existed back then, but we didn’t know about it. However, there is a subscription service that allows you to attend movies in the theater and it could save you some money if you always attend evening (non-matinee) movies. It is called MoviePass and you can find it at moviepass.com. The first thing they do is have you enter you zip code, so prices will vary depending on location, but in Wichita, if use the nicer theaters in town you can potentially attend evening movies for the price of matinees. They have plans for 2 movies, 3 movies, and unlimited movies per month. I will say, that the bump in price for the unlimited account will require you to attend at least 5 movies a month to see any savings.
Also, there are some restrictions that may make it less useful for some users.
- You can see one movie every day.
- You can see each movie one time.
- You can see only standard 2D screenings.
Honestly, this service won’t be beneficial to the majority of people, but there are a few that may find it interesting. At the current prices, considering we attended most of our movies at the Cowley Cinema 8 when Laura and I were attending movies regularly, we would have had to use the unlimited plan and averaged 6 movies or more per month. So, it would not have been worthwhile for us then. If we get back to that kind of movie attendance while living in Wichita, then it may be something to consider.
Photo by Gwen Weustink on Unsplash