Recap: AMC wasn’t the first to coin the theater subscription model – in fact, it was opposed to the idea initially. Seeing the success that MoviePass had, however, and identifying its flaws, AMC realized there could be potential in such a program if managed correctly.
AMC Theatres’ movie subscription service, Stubs A-List, now has more than 800,000 subscribers, making it the top movie-going subscription service in North America. The chain set out to attract half a million members within the first year but with more than a month remaining until the one-year mark, they’ve properly smashed that goal.
Unlike third-party competitors that reimburse theaters full price for tickets, AMC can eat some of the ticket costs and make it up through increased concession sales. As AMC CEO and President Adam Aron notes, members are also seeing more movies than they did before and they’re bringing friends and family members along who are paying full price for their tickets (and also consuming expensive concessions).
Hitting its next goal, whatever that might be, could be a bit more challenging. According to B. Riley analyst Eric Wold, the number of daily membership additions has slowed to about 1,200 – down from the 5,000 or so the service was attracting in its first weeks.
Wold also found that the average number of movies watched per month by a subscriber is down from 4.7 in July 2018 to 2.6 as of March 2019.
Image credit: AMC 25 by rblfmr
https://www.techspot.com/news/80208-amc-stubs-list-now-top-movie-subscription-service.html
