And that's fine, but the original premise under which it was marketed was not "See movies that aren't popular enough today to draw crowds." It was "See any movie you want, any time, up to one movie per day."
I have an e-ticketed theater near me, so I have escaped the brunt of the changes. But, if I didn't, I would have cancelled by now. Every Thurs-Sun showing in every other theater in town has had surge pricing of $4/movie. I get if the biggest movie of the week has that during prime time, but every showing of every movie?
Sure, completely understand. I just don't like when articles imply everyone has a problem, too much sensationalism and exaggeration. Let me pick out some words and phrases: "almost-demise, struggled mightily, unsustainable, outages plagued", etc. There is some truth in all of that, however, let's be real. As many startups do, phase 1 is to get as many customers as possible and who cares if you lose money, phase 2 is to adjust and try to bring down costs, and phase 3 is to add on services or revenue via various methods (data, whatever). Look how many years Amazon lost money, it's not like they didn't know they were losing money! Many other (esp Internet) examples. I don't disagree with anyone who might be mad about the changes, of course they are entitled and justified to. But I am tired of news stories that use too many strong words, that is what I am complaining about, not people like you that have their reasons.
I get the terms changed, they changed for me too, I am willing to live with it. But definitely, if you feel the service is no longer worth it, cancel it. That's the tradeoff for them. Eventually, they will find a sweet spot where it works (or die), they have cut deals with chains, and, enough people still like it. For me, one movie is over $10, and I pay $7.95/mo, so, not difficult to see the appeal. Even with the changes, if I go to one movie a month, I am ahead, so cancelling for me would either cost me money, or, I wouldn't go to movies. I am retired, can't stand noisy theaters, so for me, weekdays early is the best time anyway. The people who love movies and want to see 5 or more a month and are not retired so can (mostly) only go weekends are likely the most upset. For me, 2-3 a month is it so it's easy to find a date and time with no "surge". I actually go to more movies now than before Moviepass, so, it's definitely increased my traffic.
I have noticed Sat Sun has "surge" pricing on every movie here as well (even 11PM), surprised me too, I could see 7PM. I have never looked yet on Thursday or Friday, might be true here also, might not, will have to look! Our surge pricing varies by time, $2-$4. They need to rename it as I doubt 11PM is surge time! But "surge" I don't think is accurate as you point out. I was at a movie a few weeks ago at 11PM, might have been 20 people there out of, oh maybe 500 seats. So, not surge!
