An analyst says MoviePass could spark 'new and innovative strategies' for theaters after buying $110 million in tickets in 2017
- MoviePass said it bought $110 million worth of tickets in 2017.
- The company also boasted that it helped generate close to $130 million in domestic box-office grosses for this year's Oscar-nominated movies.
- Analyst Paul Dergarabedian said if MoviePass subscribers continue to give a bump to arthouse movies, it could lead to the company teaming with theaters and distributors to do dynamic pricing and special promotions.
MoviePass, the movie theater subscription service, announced on Wednesday that it had bought $110 million worth of tickets in 2017.
It's the latest highlight for the company that has disrupted the movie exhibition industry since it was bought by Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. last year, and changed its monthly price to $9.95 per month for essentially unlimited theatergoing.
The company also boasted that it had helped generate $128.7 million in domestic box-office grosses for this year's Oscar-nominated movies in 2017 (via a "halo effect"). This includes the $110 million in ticket sales plus the "halo effect" of MoviePass members bringing non-members to those movies, along with friend recommendations, according to MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe. Roughly half of that boosted revenue went to Oscar-nominated movies.
According to MoviePass, five of the nine best picture Oscar nominees have benefited from its services. They include:
"Call Me by Your Name" at 8.79% of revenue generated
"Lady Bird" at 6.18%
"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" at 6.89%
"The Shape of Water" at 7.87%
"The Post" at 5.57%
Other Oscar-nominated titles also helped by MoviePass were "I, Tonya" (11.48%) and "The Square" (7.57%).
One executive compared what MoviePass is doing now to the early days of Netflix, with the only difference being that MoviePass is looking to sell the data it collects.
And then there's the consumer side: With a MoviePass subscription, someone is more motivated now to go seek out that arthouse movie that's getting all the Oscar buzz because it's "free" to go to the theater to see one extra film.
"With 9 Best Picture nominees all on everyone's must-see list and seven of those in theaters, any service that can provide a cost effective way for the average moviegoer to indulge in all that moviegoing is going to be a hit with audiences," comScore box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Business Insider.
Dergarabedian said if arthouse movies continue to have this kind of business through MoviePass, the sky's the limit in terms of attracting more audiences.
"This may open the door to utilizing new and innovative strategies involving perhaps dynamic pricing along with special promotions to drive more business toward specialized films," he said.