deals – Today's Movies

AMC Stubs A-List
https://www.amctheatres.com/amcstubs/alist

The AMC Theaters have come out with a fantastic economic awe-inspiring movie pass at their theaters called the “A-List”. It is the companies alternative to the once inspiring “Movie Pass (which is collapsing and should be avoided at all costs). I switched over from Movie Pass back in August when it started to limit only watching 3 movies a month (vs. one a day) and restricted what and when you could watch. I gave up the Movie Pass $9.95/month and the Netflix 13.95/mo for the AMC A-List 19.99/month. It was the best move I could ever make (though I do miss Netflix – just not in my budget. I do still have Amazon prime though for at-home watching still.). It’s a guarantee A-List is better than Movie Pass.

AMC A-List, for $19.99/month, allows you to watch up to three new releases a week, with the ability to reserve tickets well in advance (no extra cost/free), and be able to see them in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, RealD 3-D, or any of the premiere viewings (something you never got with MoviePass) – there are no restrictions, no blackout dates. You can watch the same movie again and again. You can hold up to 3 reservations at a time. You also get AMC Stubs Premiere status – up to 10% back on food/drink purchases, and priority lanes. In addition, free size upgrades and refills of drinks and popcorn, discounts on concessions, and AMC Stubs point excelling to the ability to get $5 vouchers every time you hit 5,000 points. The only downfall is having to show your ID when checking in (no waiting in lines though) and your app ticket on the phone. Unfortunately, you can only use the movie for yourself, and can’t say use two of your three tickets to take your son to the movies. But you can reserve/pay for their tickets on the phone app alongside yours so you can sit together. Obviously, this deal only works at participating AMC theaters. (I’ve only run into one AMC that doesn’t participate out of the several dozen I’ve gone to across the country) Smart move on AMC’s side, gaining dedicated customers through the deal, as I no longer go to movies at any other theater than AMC now. (or at least since I’ve joined 4 months ago) In fact A-List this week announced it just hit over 17 Million members.

2026 Update: I still think the value of A-List is phenomenal, but unfortunately this year – I’m stepping back and quitting the program. Its a sad farewell, but time-wise, economics, and the growing sprawl of congestion/traffic/travel of the Emerald sludge-pit known as Seattle … I’m just not into the commute. I live an hour away from the closest AMC, so for the 4 movies a week for $25/month package to be worth it, I wound up having to do two double-features each week to make it profitable. Given the hour commute each way, the fact the AMC near me isn’t timing the movies properly for double-features, and the annoying fact that AMC feels like we should have to watch 20-30 minutes of previews and ads before we watch the movie … its just too much. AMC … you can do better. (Also odd experience a couple weeks ago when I bought the large refillable popcorn … instead of refilling the bucket like they used to as much as you like, this time they took the bucket and gave me a smaller plain cardboard “box” filled with popcorn … it felt cheap and ending. I have no clue if you can refill for a third, it makes it feel unwelcomed. At the absorbant price of popcorn at the movies, no thanks. So I bid you farewell AMC A-List, for now at least, its not worth the 14 hour committment a week to use you. (Monday: hour drive to theater, movie 1: approx 2 hours plus 1/2 hour ads. 1/2 hour – hour between movie showings. Another 1/2 hour ads. 2 hour movie, hour commute home. Thursday: same thing: = at least 14 hours in traffic, congestion, and aggressive drivers = no thanks). I bid you farewell on March 11th when my paid subscription lapses.

Movie Pass (3 STARS – 2024) (5 STARS – 2018-2019, 2023)

UPDATE: 2024

Moviepass saw a resurrection and I joyfullly jumped back into it when they returned the Winter of 2022. I got a premiere invite to rejoin. The company was back under the control of its original founders and seemed to be moving in the right direction. At first, movies were plentiful, I was able to use my credits/points, and for $20/month I averaged 5-6 movies. But that didn’t last long the 96 credits I got a month seemed to be used up quicker and quicker … as movies started to average costing 36 credits each (even for matinees averaging 22-36 credits per movie) so it was really working out to only seeing 3 movies a month for $20. Not really cost effective. Now somehow, especially if you book the tickets online with their online booking credit usage, it averages to two movies a month – that’s like $10 a movie. No thanks. They still have technological glitches and times when the card wouldn’t work. At least they had reasonable wait time to get in touch with tech support, however after missing parts of movies while in the lobby on the phone with tech support it just got frustrating. So as of today, May 30th, 2024 – I quit moviepass. I used almost the last of my credits to see a really stupid movie at Regal (“In a Violent Nature.) It wasn’t a great sendoff. How fitting. I wish the company well, but they’ve got to change their model “again”. On top of it, the grandiose documentary “Movie Pass, Movie Crash” just came out on HBOMax. Well done. Answered alot of questions I had about the Moviepass experience. I still however, don’t know how their model allows them to make any money (maybe not until now that they’ve outpriced movie usage/credits) or how they ever did. Goodbye Moviepass! Rating: 2 stars out of 5 (5/30/2024)

UPDATE: 2022-2023

Moviepass is back and spectacularly 5 stars! I was invited to join again in Winter of 2022 and have been nothing more than extremely impressed. $20/month and so far have been able to see 6-7 movies a month for $20. It has worked at every theater so far – from the small downtown artsy theater to the big blockbuster AMC or Regal. I love it! You still have to be at the theater to check in, then it preloads the ticket funds onto the credit card it gives you, you can swipe and pay at the ticket counter or the self-service kiosks, choose your seat, and head in. Completely awesome. I still don’t know how this company makes any money. It’s crazy.

HISTORY:

Long ago, this was “By far the most amazing and spectacular deal that oddly very few know about” (as I had promoted when it was considered “golden”), and was the fantastical premiere entertainment pass known as “Movie Pass”. The way it used to operate was quite simple – you subscribe at Moviepass.com for $9.95 a month and in 8-10 days you’ll receive a beautiful credit card called “Movie Pass”. You download the app and when you want to go to any of the 6,000+ movie theaters in America, you drive up, log into the app, select your movie time, then go to either stand in line at the ticket booth or use the kiosk, select the movie, your seats if applicable, and use the card to pay for the movie. When you registered using the app, Moviepass uploaded the exact ticket price to the card, and you are set to go. It used to be that “You can go to one movie every day as long as your subscription is active.” (2019: This is no longer true) In 2017-2018 I couldn’t express more how amazing this offer was to my friends. I would say “Hurry now as you never know how long it’ll run”. Well, that clock finally ticked no more. The only problem at that time with the program is you couldn’t get the pass in the mail quick enough! Now it is riddled with problems and on its way out. Rating: 1 star out of 5 Formerly Rating: 5 stars out of 5 (Winter 2017/Spring 2018) :: So far, I’ve used it twice – seeing “Paddington Bear 2” and “The Commuter” – no snags whatsoever. In fact, originally wanted to see Jumanji and by the time i got through the line to the ticket agent, it sold out, and was able to instantly just pay for Paddington Bear with it so I could see with my son. 1/15/18.

UPDATE: Around February / March 2018 – Movie Pass began starting to force movie-goers to photograph their tickets after purchase which became a severe annoyance and hassle. This ticket verification is a major pain. Then in April 2018, they are restricting the ability to see a movie more than once de-valuing the deal. Still a discount, just not as good. Dropping their rating from a 5 out of 5 to a 4 out of 5.

Late June, early July Movie Pass began restricting first run/premiere movies and threatened a surcharge for those viewing them. This never really fully sunk in. The company continuously developed ways for viewers not to get the full promise they offered in the beginning. It also became harder to log in and out to change accounts if you and your family have multiple cards working on one phone, and sometimes the theater listings won’t load up.

On July 27th, 2018 Movie Pass ran out of money stranding thousands of movie-goers from seeing their promised films. The company had to take out a multi-million dollar loan to keep going. They were back up in 24 hours. They had to make some changes, including limiting customers to only 3 free movies per month (standard, not a new release) with a $3-5 dollar discount on additional movies. This caused the service to drop to a rating of 2 stars out of 5.

January 2019: I canceled my movie pass around August 2018. I do not recommend it and see it as a complete waste of money. Their limitations on what you can see and when make it a rip-off now. I predict this company shutting its doors soon. Get out while you can. I have replaced it with the incredible competitor replacement, which I couldn’t recommend more ecstatically, the AMC A-LIST. It’s a guarantee A-List is better than Movie Pass. In fact A-List this week announced it just hit over 17 Million members.