> The data they are gathering cannot be more valuable than the cost of a movie ticket.

Yeah, but they think they can get the loss low enough that it becomes feasible to overcome that with data. And it goes beyond just knowing what movies someone is watching.

For example, they know the exact location and time of where people are going to be (the app requires location to work). So MoviePass can use that info to upsell their customers to restaurants/etc around the theater and even transportation there and back. Create packages around this.