Movie ticket subscription services have had a tough time of it. The two largest names in the business — MoviePass and Sinemia — have been waging what looks to have been a mostly losing battle in the war to reinvigorate box office sales. The category has been plagued by mind-boggling cash burn rates and disastrous customer service.
AMC’s A-List service, on the other hand, appears to be moving along swimmingly. In May, it hit 785,000 subscribers, effectively tripling MoviePass’ most recent numbers, according to a report. Of course, AMC has one key thing the competition doesn’t: its own theaters. That means, among other things, that the company operates with far fewer middlemen.
According to a new report from Deadline, Regal is also set to get into the subscription business. As of last year, the Tennessee-based chain is No. 2 in the U.S., with 558 theaters to AMC’s 659, which means it has similar infrastructural support in place. The plan would be tiered, giving premium subscribers access to all theaters in the chain, with another plan cutting that down to about half of its locations (which would cut out access to locations in big cities like LA and NYC).
Like AMC’s offering, the deal would also offer discounts on some concessions — deals on $20 buckets of popcorn are another advantage theater chains have over third-parties like MoviePass and Sinemia. The plans are reportedly set to launch at the end of the month, as soon as Regal’s parent company has worked out the finer details with studios.