Atom Tickets, smelling blood in the water, launched a contest encouraging customers of the flailing MoviePass service to cancel their memberships for a chance to win one year of free movie tickets. The movie-ticketing company, whose backers include Disney, 20th Century Fox and Lionsgate, on Tuesday kicked off a “Break Up Sweepstakes” — offering one ex-MoviePasser the chance to win the grand prize of a free daily movie ticket for 365 days (valued at $4,380). To enter, MoviePass customers must tweet a picture of their cut-up MoviePass card to @AtomTickets with the hashtags #MOVIEPAST and #ATOMSWEEPS. Atom’s kick-’em-when-they’re-down campaign comes after cash-strapped MoviePass suffered a major outage July 26 and its parent company was forced to borrow $5 million to resolve the issue. MoviePass reportedly had technical problems again Monday. In addition, after warning users last week that “certain movies may not always be available in every theater on our platform,” CEO Mitch Lowe told MoviePass employees that at least two major summer releases — “Christopher Robin” and “The Meg” — would not be available to subscribers, according to a BI report. MoviePass claims it has more than 3 million subscribers. On Tuesday, MoviePass raised the price of its one-movie-per-day plan, from $9.99 to $14.95 per month, and said subscribers would not have access to nearly all Hollywood blockbusters within their first two weeks of release. First-run movies opening on more than 1,000 screens will “be limited in their availability during the first two weeks, unless made available on a promotional basis,” MoviePass announced. More info on Atom’s promo targeting MoviePass is available at atomtickets.com/promotions/moviepass-breakup-sweepsteaks. The contest runs through Aug. 31, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. PT (although MoviePass may have gone belly-up by then). Atom also is running a buy-one-get-one-free promotion this week, available in the U.S. on the Atom Tickets mobile app using the code “WEGOTYOU.” The offer is valid through Sunday, Aug. 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Atom Tickets’ primary rival is NBCUniversal’s Fandango, and both have launched new customer-rewards programs this summer. To date, Atom has raised $125 million from Lionsgate, Disney, 20th Century Fox Film, and Fidelity. Its advisory board includes Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Tyler Perry, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia (and Johnson and Garcia are also investors).<doc-sep>Taylor Martin/CNET MoviePass remains the best thing I've bought this year, and even though some very disconcerting stuff is going on with their finances, I'm in too deep to abandon the service now. It's better than my AirPods, which I use every day. And it's not because I now go to more movies, it's because I spend way way less money doing it. MoviePass was the answer to the common, absurd post-college loans problem (aka Zero Disposable Income). I love going to the movies, and MoviePass lets me go whenever I darn well want. It's that simple. For $10 a month, subscribers were told they could see any movie they wanted, once per day, every day of the week. My favorite feature was watching and rewatching any movie I wanted -- I've seen Black Panther four times on the big screen (because I can). Now playing: Watch this: How the crazy $10-a-month MoviePass deal works But like any good thing, it came to an end... kind of. MoviePass keeps changing the game on us and it's starting 👏 to 👏 mess 👏 with 👏 me. Now, the company is having some serious money problems. And these money problems have been coming for a while, we all knew that eventually they would run out of cash but why did this have to happen now? It really seems like MoviePass is going to be ripped from my cold, dead hands. Even though the company tweeted they were having some "technical issues," a SEC filing indicated that the problem was really cash flow. AKA they don't have enough money to keep the app on. AKA I can't use MoviePass this weekend. AKA find me which is a total travesty. I know I sound dramatic, but give me a break, I'm 23. I spend enough time on Twitter to see everyone else annoyed that MoviePass keeps changing the game on us. You can't give me the sweet, sweet fruit of cheap movies, and not be able to back it up for the rest of my life! I will exploit the obvious stupidity of MoviePass right up until the moment it crashes and burns and I will enjoy every second of it — Seth Rosenthal (@seth_rosenthal) July 27, 2018 So, this is more like a plea for the funding world. For my selfish reasons, please, please, please give MoviePass all the money to keep going to I can keep going to movies on the cheap for the rest of my life. And I know it's not a "sensible investment" and could be considered "not fiscally responsible" but I just wanted a few more weekend of cheap movies. DON'T BAIL OUT THE BANKS, BAIL OUT MOVIEPASS — Lindsay Zoladz (@lindsayzoladz) July 27, 2018 I just wanted some more time with it. I didn't think it'd end like this. P.S. MoviePass brought back unlimited movies 🎉🎉 but how long will they actually stick around? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Marvel Cinematic Universe: How to watch every Marvel movie and TV show in the right order. Tech Culture: From film and television to social media and games, here's your place for the lighter side of tech.<doc-sep>
MoviePass was always a bargain that couldn’t last. The movie subscription service charged $9.95 a month for one movie ticket a day at most theaters across the country. It had some limitations, such as a check-in distance requirement and lack of advanced ticketing options, but those were small quibbles for such a great deal. But MoviePass has changed a lot in recent months, and the service just announced two huge changes that make paying for it a harder sell. Within the next 30 days, the monthly subscription price will go up to $14.95. New releases opening at more than 1,000 theaters won’t be available to see as part of the monthly subscription for two weeks. And even then, you might be Peak Priced. Many MoviePass subscribers have complained about the service’s version of Uber’s surging, which adds a $2-$6 fee for seeing popular movies at peak times. Some have reported being Peak Priced for matinees in empty theaters. MORE: I Ditched MoviePass for Sinemia, and I Really Like It The changes come after three separate MoviePass outages on July 26, 28 and 30. One outage was due to a lack of funds — MoviePass ran out of money to pay for its subscribers tickets. MoviePass was a great deal, but an unsustainable one. Many of the service’s 3 million subscribers have canceled due to the issues, according to social media reports. I canceled MoviePass after the last outage. I wasn’t using the service often enough, and when I did try to take advantage of it, movies were often sold out or Peak Pricing was in effect. Competing services, including Sinemia and AMC’s Stubs A-List, charge more per month to see fewer movies but seem to have a business model figured out so you won’t have to navigate constant changes. It was a good run, but MoviePass couldn't last. The service may live on, but the magic is gone.