MoviePass subscribers were just greeted with a special Fourth of July surprise from the company, but it’s not good news. Surprise!
The company’s plan to introduce summer surge pricing goes into effect today. In an email to subscribers introducing “peak pricing,” MoviePass tried to spin this like a new feature introduction rather than a notification that its monthly service had again worsened.
In an FAQ on its site, MoviePass explains its new dynamic pricing plan and the accompanying surcharges in more detail, but not a lot of detail. The company fails to really explain what exactly will determine price fluctuations beyond stating that “movies that are high in demand for title, date, or time of day will be impacted.” It doesn’t provide guidelines for what those surcharges will look like, though a screenshot it provides suggests we might pay $3.43 more to see Avengers: Infinity War at 7:00 PM.
Now, movies in the app will display a red lightning icon when they are in peak pricing and a gray icon when they are approaching peak pricing status. Subscribers will be able to waive one peak pricing fee per month, which is some relief for the thing you paid for now providing less value and convenience but also just makes the whole system more complicated.
Peak pricing will gradually roll out across geographic areas starting on July 5. If it hasn’t hit your local screen yet, rest assured that no MoviePass subscribers will escape the company’s latest effort to bend its unsustainable business model toward realism.
