Siniema - subscription for movie theater tickets

[sureLoss]

Anyone try this out yet: https://www.sinemia.com/new-plans/ca/calgary

The premise is that you pay a monthly fee/yearly fee to be able to go to 2 to 3 movies per month.

According to their website:

• You can get tickets for any theatre, any day, any showtime, any movie currently playing.
  
• Tickets include 2D, 3D, Dbox, IMAX, 4D, screenX showings with no additional surcharge

For Calgary right now there seems to be a promo price of:
2 movies per month - $9.99/month if you pay for a year, $12.99/month no commitment
3 movies per month - $14.99/month if you pay for a year, $17.99/month no commitment

edit: Don't see cross iron mills as one of their listed movie theatres
edit: nevermind I see it on their main page

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Interesting idea. Looks like that’s a promo price, which makes it a better deal.

Is it a credit card? Says your card will be sent right away and has a picture of a MasterCard. Not sure what the deal is there.


Edit. Looks like that’s how you “pay” to get your free tickets.

Crossiron is listed on this link:

https://www.sinemia.com/#how

[Burninator]

Looks interesting for sure. I signed up for the couple plan with 2 movies per month. Will report back to tell how it went.

[Northendzone]

wow, those are some pretty good prices. looking forward to reading reviews of how the transactions goes before jumping in.

[getbak]

Here's one review I found: https://gear.lifehacker.com/sinemia-...nse-1823370082


The process to actually buy your ticket sounds pretty convoluted.

They say that you can use this for IMAX and Atmos showings, but reading the fine print, it looks like you can only do that once a month. So, if you have the 2 or 3 movies a month deal, only one can be a "premium" showing.


Also, I don't know if there are 12 movies a year that I really want to see in theaters, let alone 24.

[sureLoss]

Some interesting tidbits in this article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/movi...flix-1.4611033

• There doesn't appear to be any partnerships or relationships with the theaters themselves. Meaning Sinemia is paying the full cost of the tickets to the theaters?
• "In explaining the company's business model, Oguz said the company hopes to supplement the revenue from its ticket plans with advertising on its website, corporate sales and eventually, deals with theatre companies to sell popcorn and other concessions within its app." - doesn't sound like a rock solid business plan to me especially considering they don't even have ads on their website yet
• They are being sued for patent infringement in the US.

With the above I would be very hesitant to commit long term to them as I am not sure how long the company will stay afloat. It almost seems ponzi scheme-ish.

If you do try it out on a no commitment basis and manage to get a few months out of it, it should pay for itself.

edit: unless they are banking on most subscribers not using all their tickets or are hoping to negotiate deals with the theatres in the near future, I am not sure how this business model will work at all

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Some interesting tidbits in this article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/movi...flix-1.4611033

• There doesn't appear to be any partnerships or relationships with the theaters themselves. Meaning Sinemia is paying the full cost of the tickets to the theaters?
• "In explaining the company's business model, Oguz said the company hopes to supplement the revenue from its ticket plans with advertising on its website, corporate sales and eventually, deals with theatre companies to sell popcorn and other concessions within its app." - doesn't sound like a rock solid business plan to me especially considering they don't even have ads on their website yet
• They are being sued for patent infringement in the US.

With the above I would be very hesitant to commit long term to them as I am not sure how long the company will stay afloat. It almost seems ponzi scheme-ish.

If you do try it out on a no commitment basis and manage to get a few months out of it, it should pay for itself.

edit: unless they are banking on most subscribers not using all their tickets or are hoping to negotiate deals with the theatres in the near future, I am not sure how this business model will work at all

The same as every tech company is using

Acquire a monopoly of users, then force a company or customer to pay more/provide service for less.

In this case if everyone is buying movies through them, any theater that won't participate and sell them cheaper tickets would go broke, as they wouldn't offer that theater.

The question is just how deep their pockets are and can they acquire enough members

[Cecil Terwilliger]

If you look at their standard pricing it is $25 per month.

I think they're counting on people signing up for a year and not averaging 2 movies per month.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

The same as every tech company is using?

Acquire a monopoly of users, then force a company or customer to pay more/provide service for less.

In this case if everyone is buying movies through them, any theater that won't participate and sell them cheaper tickets would go broke, as they wouldn't offer that theater.

The question is just how deep their pockets are and can they acquire enough members

Except that theatres are essentially a monopoly already. Cineplex and Landmark are the only two real choices for most Canadians. Hell, Cineplex has 75% of the theatre market. If this is a valid business opportunity, Cineplex could easily start their own subscription plan for their own theatres.

There are indy theatres in smaller towns but no one is going to drive 30-60 minutes to see a movie in Cochrane or Okotoks.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by KTrain

Except that theatres are essentially a monopoly already. Cineplex and Landmark are the only two real choices for most Canadians. Hell, Cineplex has 75% of the theatre market. If this is a valid business opportunity, Cineplex could easily start their own subscription plan for their own theatres.

There are indy theatres in smaller towns but no one is going to drive 30-60 minutes to see a movie in Cochrane or Okotoks.

If Sinemia gets 30% of moviegoers in year one, what is Cineplex going to do? Create a subscription plan for more ? If they were going to create the subscription plan for the same cost, what's the point, just let Senimia exist and pay them the cost of a ticket, as the cost is the same to you, and you don't have to worry about member acquisition.

Sure they can copy the model, but it doesn't save them any money, because they have to offer the subscription for at least the same price!

This is the same as saying "Why don't the cabs charge less and create an app to complete with Uber"

Well they sort of tried. But these companies 'can' have very deep backers.

I am not saying they will be successful, just stating what their business model is.

Cineplex already offers Costco those 2 movies and popcorn and drink things for like $25. Do you really believe they wouldn't jump at the chance to sell a million tickets at $7 bucks each to Sinemia?

The marginal cost for getting people to the theater is basically nothing, and most theaters don't sell out most shows. It's convincing people to get off their couch and go that's the problem for theaters.

[KTrain]

But what's the advantage to Cineplex to sell their tickets cheaper to a third party company when that company is already willing to buy that at full price? Even if they get 30% of movie goers to buy subscriptions (which is an insane number). Cineplex can still say no and those people wouldn't be able to use their subscription at 75% of movie theatres in Canada.

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Cineplex already offers Costco those 2 movies and popcorn and drink things for like $25. Do you really believe they wouldn't jump at the chance to sell a million tickets at $7 bucks each to Sinemia?

The marginal cost for getting people to the theater is basically nothing, and most theaters don't sell out most shows. It's convincing people to get off their couch and go that's the problem for theaters.

That's fair I guess. There's no skin off them to sell them in bulk.

It's not a business I'd invest in. You're living at the whim of a near monopoly who could change the bulk price and ruin your profit margins.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

If you look at their standard pricing it is $25 per month.

I think they're counting on people signing up for a year and not averaging 2 movies per month.

Is that their standard pricing? Or are they attempting to show what you save per month? $24.99 is about the price for 2 standard 2d movie tickets

Originally Posted by Jason14h

If Sinemia gets 30% of moviegoers in year one, what is Cineplex going to do? Create a subscription plan for more ? If they were going to create the subscription plan for the same cost, what's the point, just let Senimia exist and pay them the cost of a ticket, as the cost is the same to you, and you don't have to worry about member acquisition.

Sure they can copy the model, but it doesn't save them any money, because they have to offer the subscription for at least the same price!

This is the same as saying "Why don't the cabs charge less and create an app to complete with Uber"

Well they sort of tried. But these companies 'can' have very deep backers.

I am not saying they will be successful, just stating what their business model is.

Cineplex already offers Costco those 2 movies and popcorn and drink things for like $25. Do you really believe they wouldn't jump at the chance to sell a million tickets at $7 bucks each to Sinemia?

The marginal cost for getting people to the theater is basically nothing, and most theaters don't sell out most shows. It's convincing people to get off their couch and go that's the problem for theaters.

It isn't just the theaters that Sinemia is trying to strong arm here, it would be also the movie studios.

From what I have read, on a movie's opening week, the studio can get as much as 90% of the ticket revenues. This percentage goes down the longer the movie is in the theater. It is estimated that the movie studio gets 60-70% of the ticket revenue for the entire time the movie is in a theater. You start slashing ticket prices, the movie studios likely get involved.

And it is a bit like trying to squeeze out blood from a rock. The profit margins of North American theaters is estimated to average around 4%, most of which comes from concession sales.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Is that their standard pricing? Or are they attempting to show what you save per month? $24.99 is about the price for 2 standard 2d movie tickets



It isn't just the theaters that Sinemia is trying to strong arm here, it would be also the movie studios.

From what I have read, on a movie's opening week, the studio can get as much as 90% of the ticket revenues. This percentage goes down the longer the movie is in the theater. It is estimated that the movie studio gets 60-70% of the ticket revenue for the entire time the movie is in a theater. You start slashing ticket prices, the movie studios likely get involved.

And it is a bit like trying to squeeze out blood from a rock. The profit margins of North American theaters is estimated to average around 4%, most of which comes from concession sales.

A good friend of mine owns the one screen cinema here in High River and could tell you horror stories about how he has been treated by the movie studios. If it's a new release they dictate to him how many weeks (2-5) he has to show the film before they will give it to him. They don't care that a small town could only support a movie if it was just for a week. In the vast majority of cases he'll keep phoning each week until the studio demands soften.

If he decides to show a couple of movies in a week (near the Oscars) they have to be from the same studio or they won't allow it. Even then it's a hard sell as the studio thinks they'd be losing out on possible ticket revenue if their print is run for say 3 days as opposed to 7. Not sure why it's different with the large cinemas.

Of course there's the percentage the movie studios demand. His only profits come from concession sales. He has to rely on the profits from his other businesses to keep his theatre running.