It’s de rigueur for any company who’ve gained a monopoly on a service to suddenly raise their prices. But this is kind of weird: AMC Stubs A-List — the subscription movie service that’s basically MoviePass only more expensive (but still cheap) and limited to the titular theater chain — is predictably cranking up the monthly fee … in about 30 of the country, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
The increase will come in early January 2019, if it comes for you at all. For 35 states, there will be no change. The price will hold at $19.95 a month, plus taxes. What’s wrong with the other 15 states? They’re where Stubs is the most popular. AMC’s CEO-president Adam Aron said the decision to punish some states and not others with what he called a “modest price adjustment” will keep them in “that sweet spot of successfully balancing profits and popularity.”
Here’s another strange thing: Not all increases will be the same. The highest ones will hit residents of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, who will see their Stubs subscriptions jump from $19.95 to $23.95. Meanwhile, those cursed to dwell in Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington state and The District of Columbia will find their monthly payments “only” hitting $21.95.
AMC was nice enough to include a catch. Prices won’t jump for current subscribers for a full year after they joined. Aron even encouraged people to take advantage of this and become a new subscriber before January, thus retaining the old monthly payment through the majority of 2019.
Even with the price hike, it’s still only double-and-change over what’s charged by their collapsing competitors at MoviePass, who last we checked were being investigated for fraud. And with Stubs you get unlimited movies at all AMC multiplexes, not only three that are from painfully limited options that keep being cruelly shuffled throughout the day. And we know, like most people, you’re dying to watch The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
(Via THR)
