Tell me a story

I just got my MoviePass card in the mail this weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m going to be seeing a lot of movies over the course of the next year thanks to this little card.

Nic, what the heck are you talking about? What is MoviePass, and how does it let you see more movies?

Good questions. I’ll tell you. MoviePass is a new service that charges you a small monthly fee—in my case it’s $30 a month, but it can be more or less depending on where you live—and then allows you to see a movie a day at just about any theater.

Get the fuck out.

Whoa, whoa. This is a family friendly website.

We’re sorry. Please go on. How does this all work?

So once you sign up for the service through their website (MoviePass.com), they snail mail you a debit card. While you wait for it, you download the MoviePass app to your smartphone, and then you link the card to the app once it arrives. Then when you’re hankering for a movie, you just go to one of the approved movie theaters as shown on the app, select the movie and showtime you want, check-in at the theater using the app at which point your debit card is loaded with the amount equal to the cost of the ticket, and then you simply purchase the ticket using the debit card.

That’s it.

That’s it?

That’s it.

Is there any fine print?

Of course there is.

Life is just a great big disappointment.

Because there’s fine print? No, listen, it’s not that bad. You just cannot see more than one movie a day, you cannot see 3D or Imax movies, and there are cancellation fees if you terminate your plan before the year is over. I’ll admit that that last part made it harder for me to decide if I should sign up or not.

That makes sense. It seems like you really have to see a ton of movies to get your money’s worth.

In Washington, DC where I live, 2D non-matinee movie tickets cost between $11 and $12.50. So I only need to see three movies a month to get the full value out of the deal. I already see about four movies a month on average.

Wow, you’re really cool.

Thank you. What’s really cool is how I’m going to be able to see much more movies than I already do. And it’s great timing too because this summer is packed with—

Jam packed?

—jam packed with movies I want to see. With MoviePass I’ll even get to see movies that are lower on my list, like a The Purge or The Lone Ranger. So now it’s just a matter of finding the time to see all of them and then making the time to review as many as possible.

You review movies?!

Uh, yeah… didn’t you know that? You’re asking me these questions on my site where I review the movies.

Wow, you’re really cool.

Okay… Anyway, I plan to keep detailed notes on my MoviePass usage. At the beginning of each month, I’ll let you know just how many movies I saw in the previous month and how much I saved (or wasted) using this service. And in a year’s time I’ll look back and see if it was all really worth it.

We can’t wait to read about it. How long have you been working for MoviePass?

Oh I don’t work for them. I discovered them on the Filmspotting Streaming Video Unit podcast, hosted by Matt Singer and Alison Wilmore. You should give them a listen at FilmSpott.com/SVU.

Will do, Nic. Will do. Peace.

Uh, so is that it?

Are we done?

Hello?

Okay, well please check back every month for my MoviePass updates. Peace.

Coolest name ever.