As a way to compete against services such as Netflix, has anyone here suggested the idea of movie theater memberships? I imagine a theater would offer memberships that would allow for free entry into so many movies per month (or whatever timeframe). There could be all sorts of levels offered (single, couple, family). It could operate either by a number of movies or unlimited movies within certain timeframes (ie. all the movies you can watch in a three week period). With concessions being the main revenue source for theaters I would think they would see getting people committed to coming into their theater more often as a great idea. The benefit for the consumer would be discounted average ticket prices the more used. Has anyone heard of this idea?
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I think this idea could make people happy and make money. Kudos.
Great idea.
The only hole I see is in seating capacity. Once a person has a membership, she/he will feel that it should be able to be used at any time. So people who get irritated when they go to the theater and a movie is sold out. Would the theater reserve some seats up until 5 minutes from start time for members, a theater would not want to turn away full price paying customers unnecessarily. I suppose there could be premium level membership that gets a person a seat at any movie and a basic membership that allows for only matinées and Mon-Thurs showings.
This would work even better if it a membership was usable at a chain- say all Regal theaters.
The "membership" wouldn't be a "free" entry, but more of a prepaid deal, where the net cost would be cheaper than individual tickets. It could be sort of unlimited, within some reason.
You would have a membership card and would present that when obtaining tickets, which you'd get in line with everybody else, or have a membership benefit to reserve tickets. The membership itself will not guarantee access to a showing, or necessarily tickets for that matter.
Let the theater groups help choose which movies & which viewings. Glean consumer knowledge from this group of movie fans. Group them into age groups & other groups so that specific advertisers will pay more to reach more focused potential customers. A singles theme would be popular. I'd push double features, because they'll get thirsty & I sell 10 cent soda for 5 bucks. Give the whole thing an "insiders" feel. Members t-shirts, score cards, and so on. Great idea.
Such a program has been initiated 10 years ago in France by the UGC movie theater chain, where you can watch as many flixs as you can for a flat 19,80€ per month (check 'ugc illimite' on Google). This was a very disruptive innovation in the world of movie theaters in France which prompted outrage from small independant theaters and lead to some government intervention.Today, this program proved a wide success, which was not obvious at the beginning. UGC took a big gamble when offering a flat fee, because the marginal cost of a movie ticket is not nul -you have to pay taa fee for the movie