AMC Stubs
Film Center discusses the success and challenges of subscription services in the entertainment industry, using MoviePass as an example of a failed service. They mention positive experiences with AMC Stubs and suggest offering early access to movies to increase subscription appeal. Listen in as we give another important update!
Transcript
this is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff.
Speaker:All facts.
Speaker:Now here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hello everyone.
Speaker:Welcome to Film Center your number one place for entertainment news.
Speaker:My name is Derek.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas.
Speaker:And what are we talking about today, Nicholas?
Speaker:Today we're going to be talking about a M C reaching 1.5 million A-list subscribers.
Speaker:A-list subscribers.
Speaker:Now what exactly does that mean for those who don't know
Speaker:and live under rocks possibly?
Speaker:, basically what it means is you pay a monthly subscription service to
Speaker:see basically, What is it like?
Speaker:It's three movies a week.
Speaker:Three movies a week?
Speaker:Yeah, three movies a week.
Speaker:Yeah, which is actually a pretty good deal if you go to see more than one movie.
Speaker:More than one movie a month really.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then weren't you telling me about a story about how you
Speaker:were an A M C Stubbs member?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And you were just like flexing on people every time you went to the movies?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, alright, so a m c list.
Speaker:A M c is 2195 right now.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:A month.
Speaker:And they're doing a subscription kind of like with subscriptions for
Speaker:streaming services, which is actually, I think is pretty smart eventually.
Speaker:I mean, people love paying for subscriptions way more than they
Speaker:love paying for larger things.
Speaker:Anyway so I'm gonna tell, tell a little story because Nicholas brought it up.
Speaker:This all kind of started with Movie Pass.
Speaker:Or Movie Pass.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Movie pass.
Speaker:Movie pass.
Speaker:2017 for $10 a month, you could see as many movies as you wanted.
Speaker:3 million plus subscribers.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Now I was one of the people who possibly had a hand in taking it down, not
Speaker:because I did anything to corporate or anything illegal or nothing like that,
Speaker:but just basically using the service as they might not have initially intended.
Speaker:So they went bankrupt in 2020 and I mean, they were responsible for
Speaker:about 6% of all movie sales, just within a year from 2017 to 2018.
Speaker:And supposedly they have returned as of last year but aren't
Speaker:really on the scene right now.
Speaker:Now, back in 2017 was in college, , and, I really liked movies.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:'cause me, I was like, I used to see so many movies a week.
Speaker:I used to see like two or three movies every week anyway, right?
Speaker:, So one thing that I noticed when I got Movie Pass $10 a
Speaker:month for as many movies I want.
Speaker:That's a straight up, it's a steal, right?
Speaker:You'll be stupid not to get it.
Speaker:Even if you only wanted one movie a month, it's still a steal.
Speaker:'cause a movie ticket back then is 20 bucks.
Speaker:Kind of just like 20 bucks, right?
Speaker:I notice that I can still get a M c points.
Speaker:For every movie pass movie I was seeing, meaning that I saw a movie
Speaker:for $10 a month and, but I went to a movie to see a movie every single
Speaker:day because I was getting points and didn't have to pay for the tickets.
Speaker:But I was still getting the points as if I was paying for them on top of the fact
Speaker:that I was it they to have a premiere?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But it wasn't called a-list back then.
Speaker:It was just called a m c premiere.
Speaker:'cause they didn't do a-list yet.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So I was getting double points.
Speaker:For movies just for free, because I had Premiere.
Speaker:So what I would do is in the morning before school, I would go drive all the
Speaker:way to and the local A M C, which was really only a couple miles from my house.
Speaker:Buy three movie tickets every day and just like, not even go to the theater to see
Speaker:the movie, just use my movie pass thing, buy three movies a day and just leave.
Speaker:That way when I actually did wanna see a movie, I already
Speaker:had , like 200,000 points.
Speaker:Like, dude, I had crazy amount of points.
Speaker:I think the highest I got was 400,000, 70, I believe.
Speaker:400,000?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:470,000 points.
Speaker:That was the highest.
Speaker:I got almost half a million points.
Speaker:Yeah, because once again, I'm going in the record.
Speaker:A m c has given me a ticket, says if I bought it gimme points
Speaker:is if I bought tickets right.
Speaker:Three times a day for a month.
Speaker:Think about that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And you're also getting, and 'cause you're getting double points for a premiere.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:So, When I went to go see a movie, I had so many points.
Speaker:I could just get whatever I wanted, right?
Speaker:Get it.
Speaker:I'd buy all my friends tickets, , I get tons of popcorn, whatever.
Speaker:And so eventually, I guess they caught wise that people
Speaker:were doing this of course.
Speaker:And they tried to, , Make it so you only see certain movies at certain times and
Speaker:da, da, da, and probably make it more like, oh, try to make it more restrictive.
Speaker:But it didn't matter because as long as I swipe my card, I got the points.
Speaker:So I really didn't care.
Speaker:You could also make advanced reservations and like skip
Speaker:the lines and all that stuff.
Speaker:Also, you could purchase food.
Speaker:You could also purchase food with the a that their Premier Pass.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you'd get a 10% discount.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So, and then when they raise the prices to, I think like, $12.
Speaker:Everyone's like, still It does, right?
Speaker:That does nothing.
Speaker:, I mean, 20% of AMC's attendance in the US comes from a-list subscribers.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So when movie passed then went bankrupt, a m c kind of took that back because
Speaker:of how popular the business model was.
Speaker:I also used to work in a movie theater, not A N A M C.
Speaker:I worked at I worked at a Regal Cinemas prior to Oh, okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Prior to this little stint in college, and what I can tell you about movie yo
Speaker:is is that from a Oregon's perspective, you'll get a lot of regulars.
Speaker:There's a lot of regulars.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean it's, it's just like a surprisingly amount of regulars and
Speaker:exactly who they are when they come.
Speaker:There's a huge older crowd in movies where they're just like,
Speaker:oh yeah, they come during the day.
Speaker:Usually during the day.
Speaker:It's someone, some, some people of the older crowd, and
Speaker:they're there all the time.
Speaker:So for people like them, sts makes perfect sense.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:What do you notice how gross people are?
Speaker:Oh, people cannot clean up after themselves.
Speaker:Not at all.
Speaker:Not even like, a little bit like, I remember when Girls Trip was coming
Speaker:out and I was working at Regal Cinemas, right Girls Trip and also
Speaker:Girls Trip, Don Kirk and valerian.
Speaker:Those were the three nastiest theaters I had to clean up.
Speaker:Just disgusting.
Speaker:Like, I don't know what, these are three completely
Speaker:different audiences, by the way.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Girls Trip is an African American female movie.
Speaker:, not only for that crowd, but those are the stars in it.
Speaker:That's it, who it's predominantly marketed towards.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:The Valerian was marketed towards sci-fi fans, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Don Kirk, this is, , these are, are people who like Christopher
Speaker:Nolan for some reason.
Speaker:Just disgusting.
Speaker:Just like people, people used to do things like, they would just bring in like
Speaker:outside food and drinks, which I don't really care about 'cause I, I just don't.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But then they would just leave a lot of it.
Speaker:There was one guy he kept and he, he used to, he was a regular, we had tell him
Speaker:like, Hey man, we know what you doing this where you leave baked potatoes?
Speaker:, it's funny you say that because like in the sides of the.
Speaker:In the sides of the chair.
Speaker:Where are you?
Speaker:And they, I'm sorry, maybe I'm not being clear enough.
Speaker:I'm thinking this thing is split open down in the middle with the butter
Speaker:and the chives on it and he just like le I was like, are these for me?
Speaker:What are you doing here, man?
Speaker:We had way back in the day, maybe like early 2019 I was working
Speaker:at a place called Pizza Rev.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And I had a manager of mine, so we had an A M C theater, , it was the
Speaker:Pizza Rev and then there was an a M C theater, like almost right next to it.
Speaker:Ah.
Speaker:So what he used to do all the time was we would.
Speaker:We would get a free pizza for lunch.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then what he would do is he would take a pizza, make it for himself,
Speaker:and then take the pizza and then go watch a movie at a m c walk.
Speaker:Right over there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I asked him one time, I was like, You just take your pizza
Speaker:over there and watch a movie.
Speaker:And he was like, yeah, we don't have a po We did not have a, there.
Speaker:There's not a policy to prevent you from bringing inside food.
Speaker:That's food and drinks is actually where they, the theaters
Speaker:make most of their money from.
Speaker:And not really from the ticket sales.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So you would think they wouldn't.
Speaker:. I think it's, Because it might be illegal.
Speaker:There's some like legality reason why they can't force
Speaker:people to not bring in the food.
Speaker:Because what he, I was like, what do you do?
Speaker:He said, I walk right in there.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Hold the pizza.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Like you do.
Speaker:And then walk in there and watch my Batman movie, or watch whatever
Speaker:movie it is, sit down and eat my pizza while I watch the movie.
Speaker:I was like, that sounds amazing.
Speaker:He's like, it's, they can't, they can't stop you.
Speaker:All those people out there who are like sneaking in food,
Speaker:you don't need to sneak it in.
Speaker:, I used to work at a movie theater.
Speaker:Now, maybe a m c might have some smaller different regulations than Regals, but for
Speaker:the most part, a m c can't do it either.
Speaker:I think mainly it also might have to do with the fact that.
Speaker:A m c Regal Carmic these movie theater chains are really designed
Speaker:to sell tickets and not food, right?
Speaker:So if, let's say for some reason, let's say you're you're going to bring 20
Speaker:people with you two movie theaters, right?
Speaker:To buy tickets.
Speaker:Hollywood would love that, right?
Speaker:They want you to go see the movie, right?
Speaker:So they get paid off the ticket sales.
Speaker:But if Carmic Cinema says, sorry, you can't come in 'cause you have
Speaker:outside food, then the movie.
Speaker:Company, the movie studios are gonna lose money 'cause the
Speaker:patrons can't come see the movie.
Speaker:. And on top of that, then their studio won't work with the, carmic because
Speaker:they're not letting their people in and now they don't have any movies to show.
Speaker:So it's kinda like a calculated loss they have to take.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And because it's just a general consensus as Americans to just buy it
Speaker:there for like convenience, basically.
Speaker:People just like try to sneak stuff in, but you don't have to.
Speaker:, I mean, obviously you don't, I had a manager of mine, he would literally
Speaker:just walk the pizza into there and he was like, yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker:I just sit down.
Speaker:Eat my pizza.
Speaker:Everybody stares and looks at me like, how'd this guy get pizza in here?
Speaker:He's like, it's not like someone's going to stop him.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:, according to according to so a M C's been doing on for like 103 years, right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And according to the second measure, they passed their pre pandemic numbers.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So in 2022 they reported that they had a 74% increase from 2017, which is huge.
Speaker:I mean, their profit margins from 2020 are basically zero because of
Speaker:obviously 'cause nobody was there.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:'cause obviously the pandemic where Sonic, the Hedgehog ruled the
Speaker:theaters for, for months they come.
Speaker:But they've also had a one also had a 180%.
Speaker:Customer increase from 2021.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So things.
Speaker:Things look kind of up and yet they're losing some sales.
Speaker:, it's funny you talk about, you talk about customers because the
Speaker:demographics for the A-list skew younger with like 75% of members between
Speaker:being between 18 and 34 years old.
Speaker:It's 'cause they're, it's 'cause the younger crowd is
Speaker:used to the subscription model.
Speaker:They're used to paying that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So that's what it sits there and tells you that, , Over half, over
Speaker:half is that golden ratio market.
Speaker:I mean, from according to Forbes, 2.9 billion in revenue for the
Speaker:first three quarters, right?
Speaker:Which is a huge, huge boost.
Speaker:And this is for last year.
Speaker:However, they've been losing a ton when it comes to their streaming subscribers.
Speaker:Right, they're, they're talking about and thinking about offering like exclusive
Speaker:early access to like major blockbuster movies on opening weekends with the stubs.
Speaker:I mean, that would be the next.
Speaker:That'd be the next I'm sure they, they already do that, but they're thinking
Speaker:about ways to make it more exclusive.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:In terms of like, , if you pay this extra or if you pay this, it's kind of like
Speaker:whenever a video game comes out Yeah.
Speaker:And you sit there and you say, okay, you can buy the video game for $60.
Speaker:Or you could pay a hundred dollars and get this bunch of crap and
Speaker:it before and the video game.
Speaker:I think that, yeah, I think that they should do that.
Speaker:Combine it with the subscription model.
Speaker:I think that's really smart.
Speaker:Mainly because these are the people who now.
Speaker:Also little caveat, if you get rid of your subscription to a l s
Speaker:subscription, you cannot sign back up again for a certain period of time.
Speaker:And they're doing this to prevent people from just signing at once,
Speaker:saying movies, three movies a week, and then just unsubscribing.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:Kind of kind of like how, what happened with H B O.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So everybody was signed up to H B O because of Game of Thrones.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It was something like, 50 to 60% of gamer of Game of Thrones
Speaker:viewership came from Game of Thrones.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so did its subscriber count, right?
Speaker:Like it's whenever Game of Thrones came back into season, their
Speaker:subscribers jumped 50 to 60% because everybody wanted to watch the season.
Speaker:But then once the season was over with, everybody would
Speaker:cancel their subscription again.
Speaker:Right now, and especially right now is a good time to.
Speaker:Really capitalize on all the people you have coming to see.
Speaker:Barb Heimer was really good for a m c.
Speaker:Bringing in a hundred Barbie opening up to 162 million, right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:In the theaters.
Speaker:And Oppenheimer opening up to just over 82 million.
Speaker:And then now, now they've crossed a billion dollars, right?
Speaker:And now together they crossed a billion dollars.
Speaker:, Barbie alone actually has crossed a billion dollars.
Speaker:Barbie alone, just recently crossed a billion dollars.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So, and then Oppenheimer has, what is it?
Speaker:Just recently crossed over $400 million.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So this is a time in which people are saying, oh, people
Speaker:are going back to the movies.
Speaker:All you who decide to invest in a M C in 2020.
Speaker:It's looking pretty up.
Speaker:However, there's a little, , there's a, there's a little hesitation and
Speaker:a little fear there because their online subscriptions have dropped.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:They're, and content leasing content licensing, excuse
Speaker:me, has increased by 12%.
Speaker:The domestic operations revenue have failed by 6.3% from the second quarter.
Speaker:And this is according to this year or 2023.
Speaker:This is not a 2022.
Speaker:Numbers.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And these are, these are recent and their stream, their streamer
Speaker:subscriptions have ro risen by 13%.
Speaker:However, their affiliate sales have dropped by 12.7% and
Speaker:their stock last Thursday.
Speaker:From this week, the stock, last Thursday I was at $12 and 28 cents.
Speaker:So what does this kind of mean that they have more subscribers,
Speaker:but they're losing affiliates?
Speaker:Affiliate sales.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Basically, if you have, you have to have the bandwidth to pay for the, the money
Speaker:to pay for all this bandwidth, basically.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So if I have a a hundred million subscribers, I had to be able
Speaker:to provide them with bandwidth and to watch all the stuff.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But that costs money to do.
Speaker:And if my, my subscribers aren't buying, if my affiliate sales are dropping, it's
Speaker:not becoming more and more expensive for me to service all these people.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:So do you want to explain to the viewers what, what bandwidth is in case
Speaker:they don't understand what that is?
Speaker:So bandwidth is just like, The amount of, I mean, most people really know what
Speaker:bandwidth is, but bandwidth is basically the amount of space that you have to
Speaker:service someone on a, a digital platform or the amount of operation the amount
Speaker:of operation speed that you can take.
Speaker:Racing space.
Speaker:Excuse me.
Speaker:So like, this is where your RAM comes in, right?
Speaker:Like on your computer.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, a M c Stubbs, a list has up to this point got about
Speaker:1.5 million subscribers on it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Do you think that there's a possibility that by the end of
Speaker:the year they get 2 million?
Speaker:Six days ago, variety reported that their network sales total
Speaker:is down by 17% in ad sales.
Speaker:And even though they have had a small in, even though they had an increase in their
Speaker:streaming revenue not streaming revenue.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In their streaming revenue.
Speaker:Just recently they lost 300,000 subs.
Speaker:It's going, it's fluctuating too much.
Speaker:They lose for it to be stable.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They lose all this a whole bunch and then they gain a whole bunch
Speaker:and then they lose a whole bunch and then they gain a whole bunch.
Speaker:I don't think it's gonna reach, I, I think that if the rider strike
Speaker:continues that they might be impacted.
Speaker:I know that Kristen Dolan, the c e o of a m c said that the rider strike
Speaker:and the sag strike won't really impact them until possibly mid or late 2024.
Speaker:But Wow.
Speaker:That long.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But let's say that some of their subscribers decide to support.
Speaker:The strikes.
Speaker:And as the strikes get more and more popular to support, it's like
Speaker:that's gonna be really detrimental.
Speaker:I, yeah, I, I think it could be very detrimental.
Speaker:I definitely think that, I don't think it's going to reach 2 million subscribers.
Speaker:'cause it's a bit, it's a bit too fluctuating, right?
Speaker:Because also you have to sit there and say, How much of this recent success
Speaker:that they've had, how much is that just attributed to just Barb Heimer alone?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And , I think that they know that they're kind, not that they're dying,
Speaker:but I know that they're having, everyone knows they're having trouble.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And this Barb Heimer is just proof that, okay, people do want to go
Speaker:to the movies, which is keeping the hope alive right at the same time.
Speaker:They need to go more than once or twice a summer blockbuster.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:, and also this kind of leads the credence to Oppenheimer, which a
Speaker:lot of people said, who's gonna want to go see a three hour movie
Speaker:about Americans dropping the bombs?
Speaker:I'm gonna be real with you.
Speaker:This shouldn't have been called Barbara er.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Shouldn't have been called Barbie.
Speaker:Hey, call.
Speaker:I call, call it as a C when I.
Speaker:I know that, , some of our listeners might not like, I mean,
Speaker:I like Christopher Nolan, don't get me wrong, but come on, man.
Speaker:I'm up here reading these numbers and comparing 82
Speaker:million to 162 million opening.
Speaker:Like, what am I doing here?
Speaker:Like, literally Barbie opened up to, to double open.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:I'm not supposed to put it up there.
Speaker:Like, it's one of the numbers, like, oh, HIPA Parade.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, like I, I'm not saying that's a low number.
Speaker:That's a great opening.
Speaker:But let's be real here.
Speaker:Barbie crossed a billion dollars, not Oppenheimer, right?
Speaker:Barbie had a huge hu and you can say, oh, maybe it's just marketing.
Speaker:It might be right.
Speaker:I mean, there's a lot more people out there who want to go see a good.
Speaker:I quote unquote family movie, right?
Speaker:Like Barbie, like Barbie compared to, Hey, you remember that one time
Speaker:we killed hundreds of thousands of people instantly in Warren.
Speaker:This is a story about the guy who did it, , also quite interesting.
Speaker:Japanese Twitter.
Speaker:I love how, , I guess it's ex now because of Elon Musk, right?
Speaker:I'll say Twitter for clarification.
Speaker:Because there people know what I mean.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:So, Germany, Twitter, they started making a whole bunch of
Speaker:memes of Barb, of nine 11, right.
Speaker:Nine 11.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:To show them how disrespectful it is to just like glorify Oppenheimer.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:What they didn't understand is that Americans are sadistic.
Speaker:Assholes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're very they're very cra we're crazy and apparently they, all the nine
Speaker:11 memes got very popular in America.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And we all, all, all really enjoyed them.
Speaker:And everybody's like, we can't let the Japanese out.
Speaker:How funny us, and they're like, they're not, how funny us,
Speaker:they're not trying to be funny.
Speaker:They're trying to show you that it's offensive and they,
Speaker:apparently we don't care.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Not that we don't care about nine 11, but apparently Americans can
Speaker:take a joke better than, right.
Speaker:We have a better sense of humor than the Japanese do.
Speaker:Or darker sense of humor.
Speaker:Def definitely, , definitely darker.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One thing I will say about a M C is that their stocks are fluctuating,
Speaker:their sales are fluctuating.
Speaker:When things are positive, they're also negative at the same time.
Speaker:I mean, Dude, they were gonna file chapter 11 in 2021.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And that's according to Forbes, man.
Speaker:So I don't really, I think that for them to have a good solid future, what they
Speaker:need to do is a, keep the stubs right.
Speaker:We see that that's what people want and.
Speaker:I know that the, I'm working in the movie theaters having that experience.
Speaker:I know that during the day, their market is the older crowd, but I
Speaker:also happen to know that there's more younger people going to the
Speaker:movies than there is older people.
Speaker:, also what does it say about, I mean, A M C Stubbs, A-list launched in June of 2018.
Speaker:Right, and just year after movie pass.
Speaker:Right now, just four years later, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's in trouble.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:There, I mean, you have the pandemic.
Speaker:I'll give that to you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But like, they're in trouble because they're still, they didn't
Speaker:understand what made movie pass popular and movie pass three, four
Speaker:years, I meant to say three years.
Speaker:Yeah, it was whatever man.
Speaker:And then, and then what Ronald's movie Pass is they didn't
Speaker:understand how to make money.
Speaker:Movie Pass.
Speaker:They, I guess they underestimate how many people see movies and how many
Speaker:of them see movies like, It wasn't uncommon, especially to a lot of
Speaker:people who were in college around, at least around where I went to.
Speaker:I went to F SS U.
Speaker:A lot of us, especially F S U, has a film school.
Speaker:A lot of film bumps there, right?
Speaker:So going to movies daily was not weird, especially, right?
Speaker:It just wasn't.
Speaker:And F SS U students had F Ss U is There's a lot.
Speaker:I wasn't one of these students, but there was a lot of students
Speaker:there who had a lot of money.
Speaker:So of course we seeing movies to them every day was very easy.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:, I mean, movie Movie Pass had an unsustainably low 6 95 price and
Speaker:it illustrates the risk of like trying to subsidize cost to grow
Speaker:your subscriber base so fast.
Speaker:, it started off with 6, 8, 9, and then it quickly was at, I joined when it was $10.
Speaker:Me personally they didn't really understand.
Speaker:They, they low balled it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And they didn't really understand the market.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Right, but they knew that subscribers were popular, kind of like how Netflix was.
Speaker:The idea is genius.
Speaker:Now it's way more sustainable with a M c, let's say only three movies a week.
Speaker:And also they have over doubled the price.
Speaker:That makes more sense.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And sometimes AMCs A lists will block out certain movies
Speaker:like, like avatar two, right?
Speaker:They won't, they'll only let you see that.
Speaker:I believe they'll only let you see it like once.
Speaker:And they also block out certain premieres that you also have to pay
Speaker:from their part of the subscription.
Speaker:And on top of that, a m c stubs also does not let you see certain artisan films.
Speaker:So if there was some weird, , independent movie that you wanted to see, or you
Speaker:wanted to see an anime movie such as when dragon Ballsy Brody came out, or demon.
Speaker:Slayer.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I'm not sure which one it was, but it was on a train, right?
Speaker:No, that's Demon Slayer.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I said.
Speaker:I don't know what the name is when it's on the train though.
Speaker:I don't know the name.
Speaker:It's like the Mogan Mogan Arc.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Something like that.
Speaker:'cause those aren't regular showing movies.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And they're specific to specific theaters.
Speaker:Those you had to regularly pay for, unlike MoviePass in which
Speaker:those you could still see for free.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So I think that their business model is solid.
Speaker:They just don't understand that.
Speaker:What made Movie Pass so popular was that it really encouraged
Speaker:you to go to the movies.
Speaker:You were getting an experience that you really couldn't get at home.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:You were paying very low money for a 20 a dollar movie.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's like a, I have to feel like it's a steal.
Speaker:That's why we passed, got so many subscribers, but they
Speaker:didn't make enough money.
Speaker:So a M C also needs to make it feel like a steal.
Speaker:There are so many other movie theaters out here that especially here in
Speaker:California, they do other stuff just besides, oh, hey, come see a movie
Speaker:and I have popcorn for you to buy.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think that maybe if they also gave food, Like meals, like some other movies
Speaker:they just do that could that could work.
Speaker:We live here in New Hall and there's a movie theater here that gives
Speaker:out food and it's, it's open up for business and it's still very popular.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's like like back home they have, we have what's called the Movie Tavern.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And it's basically the movie theater, but you can order full
Speaker:on meals to come to your seat.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:We had, we had a a, a Malco Roxy.
Speaker:And it wasn't where I lived in Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
Speaker:but it was in Smyrna.
Speaker:And at Malcolm Roxy they have like this fancy fountain in
Speaker:the middle and stuff like that.
Speaker:It's very upscale, right.
Speaker:I think that now it's hard to do that on a mass scale, like with a m c 'cause
Speaker:they have so many theaters, right.
Speaker:But what they could do is say, okay we're going to bump it up from this
Speaker:low twenties to like mid twenties.
Speaker:Like there's like $26.
Speaker:But then some of the foods included.
Speaker:I would take that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would take that in a heartbeat.
Speaker:, that's the thing with movie Tavern.
Speaker:The the, the food is separate.
Speaker:Like it's still a regular price, but you get to, you get the option.
Speaker:I mean, you could order drinks and all kind of stuff like that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:That, that was like the, but people pay a subscription because of bundles.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:How it's keeping a m c.
Speaker:From cutting a deal, right?
Speaker:With, I mean, they, they've been in operation for 103 years.
Speaker:What's, what's wrong with 'em?
Speaker:Cutting some sort of deal.
Speaker:Like, okay, cool, for a higher tee year or $26 you get to have free popcorn.
Speaker:Like you get free refills if you have the AMC stubs, right,
Speaker:you pay for it initially.
Speaker:As someone who, like I said, as someone who worked in the movie
Speaker:theater, popcorn is like dirt cheap.
Speaker:It's like, it's way like, When I buy a thing of popcorn, now I, internally I get
Speaker:very upset because I know how much, like, let's say you buy a large for like $15.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:How much that really costs them to make?
Speaker:How much?
Speaker:About 30 cents.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:, I also had some time working at Disney in their theme parks.
Speaker:So I, I can tell the different tastes of popcorn and stuff like that too.
Speaker:So you became a popcorn connoisseur?
Speaker:Kind of.
Speaker:'cause I ate it so much 'cause I, I wasn't supposed to, but I, I was hungry.
Speaker:I had nothing to do so Right.
Speaker:So I just ate it.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:So do they also recycle the popcorn?
Speaker:What do you mean recycled?
Speaker:Like what they don't sell one day, they put it back in.
Speaker:Not where I worked.
Speaker:I have heard of some places doing that.
Speaker:I personally have never seen that.
Speaker:What we used to do with the popcorn, when I worked at Disney,
Speaker:we used to make it into coms.
Speaker:When I worked at the Regal Cinemas, we also No, actually we just threw it away.
Speaker:We just literally just threw it away.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause I've heard some places what they'll do is they'll put 'em in those
Speaker:big wa those big clear bags and it up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's how get rid of it.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Tie it up.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then, but in the, and then put it away.
Speaker:And then whenever it was time for the next day, they'd bring it
Speaker:out and j just fill it back up.
Speaker:I'll say this, it'll have to, it probably comes down to the manager.
Speaker:'cause like you said, there'd be no reason to do that because if the popcorn is
Speaker:that cheap, I mean, they're saving, like, they're just, it's just saving a nickel.
Speaker:What I'm saying?
Speaker:And I guarantee you we're all gonna get someone to reply to this
Speaker:who was like, oh no, it actually costs way more 'cause da, da, da.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Once all the operational costs are up and running, once you have the machine,
Speaker:once you have all the butter, right, the hot corn itself is , very cheap.
Speaker:Because what people don't understand is the amount of kernels that are
Speaker:actually getting into the bucket.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So you're basically getting like a small handful of kernels, but that handful of
Speaker:kernels will actually fill up your entire bucket because of the difference in space.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think that if a M C offered free popcorn, which is totally
Speaker:something they could do right.
Speaker:, like instead of saying, oh, free refills, you get your first one for free.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think that would be, that would be a steal to me personally.
Speaker:Especially this thing.
Speaker:You have a family, a lot of people are going with now, they
Speaker:do have a family plan, but.
Speaker:If you have kids, right?
Speaker:If you have people you go with, you have a spouse or something like that, right?
Speaker:Free popcorn.
Speaker:I mean, you're gonna wanna eat something there that's, that's a steal.
Speaker:And they need to bring back the remember they used to have those, those cheese
Speaker:flavors to put on top of popcorn?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But , what?
Speaker:I found seasonings.
Speaker:I mean, what, what I found out?
Speaker:The hard way hurts my stomach is the butter.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:Some people have a reaction to that butter.
Speaker:So, I'm the type of person that likes to drown their popcorn and butter
Speaker:because it serves two purposes.
Speaker:The per the first.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause I'm smart.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So the thing is, is the purpose is it tastes, the butter
Speaker:tastes good on the popcorn.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the second one is, I don't get thirsty.
Speaker:Eating the popcorn.
Speaker:That's 'cause you have so much butter on it, it's just you're drinking oil.
Speaker:So, Hey, I'm not thirsty though.
Speaker:Yeah, I guess.
Speaker:I think I know why your stomach hurts.
Speaker:And then I remember I was watching like the Avengers or something like
Speaker:that and I walked out of the theater.
Speaker:I was like, oh my, my stomach hurts.
Speaker:And my mom's like, that's 'cause you drank all that fake butter, Nicholas.
Speaker:Like, you're not supposed like.
Speaker:It's fine to drizzle it all over the popcorn, but you
Speaker:like drown your popcorn in it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that, I mean it's funny, the butter actually
Speaker:costs more than a popcorn does.
Speaker:, I could see that the butter costs more than a popcorn does.
Speaker:And really the sodas too is where, where the, the cost, like I, I remember
Speaker:hooking up the the boxes in the back and it's just syrup, by the way.
Speaker:It's just water and syrup, right?
Speaker:So you have all these like giant syrup.
Speaker:We don't take 'em out the boxes.
Speaker:You leave the bags in the boxes, but they have all these hoses that run in
Speaker:the bag that you gotta switch out, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then, mm-hmm.
Speaker:So when you gotta buy all those syrups and stuff like that, that's
Speaker:where the operation, that cost, that's why I said popcorn, right?
Speaker:Candy can also be kind of expensive depending on who you're buying from
Speaker:and how much you're getting that at.
Speaker:Candy, it's also not bought that as much.
Speaker:Candy is also the number one thing that's snuck into the the movie theater.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Which we've already established.
Speaker:You don't have to do, you don't have to do like, no one's sneaking in pizzas
Speaker:unless they have an insane manager, right?
Speaker:Most people sneaking in candy.
Speaker:'cause it's just easy to do when it's stuck in melt easily.
Speaker:Most of them.
Speaker:I used to I back home.
Speaker:When I used to take my little brother to the movie theater, what we used to
Speaker:do was I would tell him, okay, I'll give you $10 to spend at the movie theater,
Speaker:or I can take you to the grocery store.
Speaker:Dollar.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or the dollar store, and I can give you that same $10, and you could just.
Speaker:Buy as much stuff.
Speaker:You go to the dollar store and buy like 10 bags of candy.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:, of course you're not gonna eat, but maybe one or two bags during the movie.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then, but , it's a way better deal.
Speaker:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker:I think if they switch the model to making people feel like they're going
Speaker:to get a steal and what would send it over the age for me and make me sign up
Speaker:today, like the $26 thing, it's great.
Speaker:But they also could say, oh hey, what?
Speaker:Usually you do get to pick your seat, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But if they had some lot of separation, like, oh, for $30, we
Speaker:can guarantee you a good seat done.
Speaker:Guaranteed good seat food three times a week, you have my money,
Speaker:30 bucks a month, 30 bucks a month.
Speaker:I would do that.
Speaker:I would do that.
Speaker:I would do especially 'cause like especially if it also, it had less
Speaker:like for premieres and stuff like that.
Speaker:Easy, easy money.
Speaker:I would easily pay $30 a month for that easy.
Speaker:But anyway this has been film center.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas.
Speaker:I am Derek and you will see you next time.
Speaker:See you.
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic-Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at Film Center News on all
Speaker:major social media platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time, this has been film Center.
