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Comment by cwyers | Hacker News Reader

Because one per day is completely unsustainable and they only need to last longer than MoviePass burns VC money and fails?

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It's only unsustainable because of the current royalty structure. Most of the money actual theaters make is on concessions and I'm more likely to buy concessions when I'm not paying $15 per person for a single movie ticket.

How much would you pay for concessions if the theater didn't show movies because they didn't like the royalties? Or if they didn't show the movie you apparently want to see?

It's not a binary decision, the royalty structure is set in stone by movie studios and distributors. Theaters have no choice right now on how to license the movies and that's the part that is unsustainable (because theaters have almost no control over the price of a ticket). That's the truth of why the theater model is unsustainable and is more and more hard pressed to get traffic.

Giving theaters more lee-way on how to pay for the movies they are licensing will allow for much more competitive opportunities and differentiation between theaters.

But how can MoviePass change the royalty structure?

i have always heard that movies make most of their profit from concessions. if that is the case, i'm not at all surprised they're failing. i've always brought my own snacks because they're cheaper and/or tastier, and i rarely get given shit for it. the minute they make me feel uncomfortable about it, i stop patronizing that theatre.

Concession prices are why I stopped going to the movies. Unless I eat right before hand, I'm going to want a snack during the movie, but I'm not going to pay $15 for a Coke and some popcorn.

its pretty much the gas station model

>Because one per day is completely unsustainable and they only need to last longer than MoviePass burns VC money and fails?

Are we sure about that, though? I assume these people are not complete idiots. I assume they had a team of economists and business analysts crunch the numbers on this beforehand. The cost of a ticket seems trivial to the added benefit of having your theater full of hungry, thirsty patrons at what would otherwise be off-peak times. I think this is going to be a massive boon to the industry, and may even see theaters evolve into more like "family fun centers" and general hangout locations.

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