In an unexpected turn of events, MoviePass, the subscription service that allows current users to see one 2-D first run movie a day for $9.95 a month, has responded to threats of legal action from AMC Theaters for its “unsustainable” prices by introducing an even cheaper option. Even we here at The A.V. Club declared that the deal was too good to last much longer just a few weeks back, but today MoviePass introduced a new plan that gives subscribers an entire year for $89.95, which comes out to $7.50 a month. That’s $1.43 less than the average cost of a single movie ticket in the U.S., which Deadline reports is currently hovering at $8.93.
The offer is available on the MoviePass site for a “limited time,” and while existing customers can switch to the yearly option, new customers can only sign up for a yearly pass while the deal’s in place. You also can’t cancel the yearly plan for a partial refund, which is presumably at least partially how MoviePass is hoping to make some kind of money on this deal.
But rather like the movie theaters, which make most of their money on snacks, MoviePass isn’t making money on the movies themselves: Deadline says that MoviePass offsets losses from the tickets themselves by selling marketing data about its subscribers to advertisers. There have also been some notable customer service issues, with some subscribers waiting months for their cards to actually arrive.