WARNING: The following post is not sponsored by AMC Theatres, they are paying me in no way whatsoever. However, enjoy my usual unpaid sponsorship if you like that sort of thing.

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! Before we get into some of the latest movie news that has been on my mind for awhile, let’s talk about some other news that may as well be a lot sadder than what I’m going to mainly deliver here. When I go see movies, I’m not a jerk who goes around spoiling things for others. And for my latest promotion, allow me to say that it contains content that shouldn’t be spoiled to anyone, so I’ll keep my lips sealed. One thing that I CAN say however is that this is in a series of videos created by a couple by the name of Paul and Genevieve. The two are expecting a child in the future, but the journey to get to where they are happened to be one of the more frustrating a complicated than a game of chess! This is all explained… in “What the IVF?!”

“What the IVF?” is a YouTube series starring the recently mentioned couple as they experience what it’s like to be in hell. Sure, that can be a use of figurative language some may use for having to deal with kids. The problem for Paul and Genevieve is that they don’t even have kids of their own to experience that possible hell! Their slices of hell include problems having to do with sex, examinations, life issues, downloading crazy apps, and shark bites–err I mean needles! You can find the latest videos in the series on its specifically dedicated YouTube channel (link below)! The latest entry takes place around the holiday season, which is amazing because it was uploaded June when the video was uploaded! Although in the end, that has little to do with quality, because even with the out of place time frame, the video is top notch and one of the best I’ve seen in the series thus far. Be sure to subscribe to the “WTIVF?” YouTube channel, check out their website, follow them on other forms of social media, all the links are provided down below, go crazy! Also, be sure to tell them that Jack Drees sent ya over!

WTIVF? WEBSITE: http://www.whattheivf.com/

WTIVF? YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCILXSidkzWgwrQ5Oa1py78w/featured?disable_polymer=1

WTIVF? TWITTER: https://twitter.com/WTivF

WTIVF? INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/wtivf/

WTIVF? FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/What-The-IVF-288868031634125/

This news you’re about to hear is perhaps something you may have known already. I was actually alerted of this last week, and as a result, some of you may be thinking I’m a lazy jackass who doesn’t care about delivering you content at the right times. If you have not been spying me, there’s a chance you might not now that I’ve been busy and frustrated. Getting into the specifics is for another time however. Speaking of getting into the specifics of things, let’s get into the specifics of AMC’s new A-List program. For those who care to know, I am an AMC Stubs member. If you are familiar with this program, you’d know that there is more than one group that members can belong to. I belong to the Insider group, which is the group with the least perks. It’s not to say that my perks suck. I’m totally thankful for them. I get a free large popcorn on my birthday, I can get $5 rewards if I spend enough money towards that such thing, and one of the most recent additions is $5 ticket Tuesdays, which I hope to take a serious advantage of in the near future. The other Stubs program is what’s called Premiere, and this program is $15 a month. Why is it $15 a month? On the AMC website, it essentially says that it has superior, not to mention exclusive, perks compared to the Insider package. And as of recently, I’ve been tinkering with the idea of upgrading.

As the post states, we are going to be focusing on the AMC A-List Stubs membership. And holy crap! This is movie heaven (as long as you go to AMC)! This membership is going to cost purchasers $19.95 a month plus tax, and I gotta tell you, as long as you like the AMC cinema chain or go to AMC often, PLEASE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS! Let me just go through these features and see if that hypnotizes you to stop reading this, get off your ass, and head straight to an AMC movie theater!

• See 3 movies per week at anytime, any day, anywhere, any format. There are no blackout dates, and benefits reset every Friday morning
• Fill a six-month calendar of upcoming films
• Free online reservations (hold a maximum three reservations at any time)
• Complimentary Premiere Stubs benefits

Yes, these are four benefits, and the way I’m stating all of this, might make my statements overall sound underwhelming. Maybe you expected a bit more out of this. Let me just tell you, focus on quality, not quantity. There’s one benefit that I need to point out, and that is the first one, seeing 3 movies per week for free. I’d usually get lucky just to see a free movie in general. Let’s take this into the perspective of a certain area. Let’s talk about New York City, the city that never sleeps, despite having millions of hotel rooms complete with beds for use at a guest’s convenience. There are several movie theaters in New York City, and if you live in a suburban area and go to a suburban theater and look at one of the Big Apple theaters, chances are you’ll think the price range is a little more exorbitant. Let’s take one theater for example, specifically the AMC Kips Bay 15. If you go to that theater in the evening and go see any movie in standard 2D, you would end up paying $16.99. That is one ticket for one movie, and you have this new deal that without taxes, is a monthly payment worth just $2.96 more! With this new deal you can literally go to this exact theater towards the end of the day, go see a double feature by yourself, and have it cost nothing. You would ultimately pay $19.95 that month alone after seeing TWO movies in the same day that would have separate tickets combining together to make a total of $33.98. Let’s also keep this in mind, the benefits reset on Friday mornings. This means, if this program survives to make it to next year, which I’m pretty sure it will, people will be able to go through a month such as March of that year and watch FIFTEEN FREE MOVIES. Why? The first day of the month starts on a Friday, and the last day is on a Sunday. March has 31 days. If you go see 3 free movies by the second Friday of that month, the eighth, the reset kicks in and you can go see 3 more free movies, giving a total of 6. Once the next Friday comes, the fifteenth, you have three more bad boys, giving you 9 chances at free movies. After that comes the following Friday, the twenty-second, giving you 3 extra chances and 12 in total. Then you have another restart on the 29th, giving you a few more days in the month to see 3 more free movies. With that, you can round up all the opportunities of freedom to a total of 15. Just for the concept of seeing movies by itself, this deal is automatically worth it, especially if you go to AMC. Although as suggested, that’s ultimately just a portion of the entire deal!

Let’s move away from this however and talk about the concept of familiarity. Some of you movie or cinema geeks would probably know what I’m talking about when I mention the names MoviePass and Sinemia. Both are subscription services that have the same purpose, making the movie-going experience more affordable. Since I’m such a movie buff, and I go see a lot of movies, I’d take advantage of one of these two deals. But I didn’t. I didn’t put a lot of thought into MoviePass, and it took awhile for me to know about Sinemia. And as of now, I can’t say I’m entirely sure about Sinemia’s future, but I think it’s dwindling. Although when it comes to MoviePass, it’s almost every other day that I hear about it when it comes to news, and it’s usually not good news. One of the most common things I hear when it comes to MoviePass is the company losing money. With this new deal from AMC, it’s quite possible that MoviePass might not have much time left to live. In fact, while AMC isn’t a worldwide chain, it’s the biggest chain in the United States. According to Wikipedia, the company operates 11,247 screens and 1,027 sites, which by the way, is almost double the sites operated by America’s second place competitor in the realm of cinema chains, Regal Entertainment Group. It’s quite possible if enough people continue to go to AMC and perhaps take advantage of this offer, they would cause MoviePass to go under.

Interestingly, MoviePass has something to say about this whole scenario.

Let’s take a look at these tweets. Let me just start of by saying that in a number of ways, MoviePass couldn’t have their heads up their asses any higher than they do here. I will say one thing though regarding their second tweet, MoviePass does have a point regarding AMC. Going from MoviePass’s original plan, a movie a day for $9.95 per month to 3 movies a week for $19.95 per month is a bit of a price jump. Although I will say that the extra features and discounts might make this all worth it in the very end. However, despite their cheap price, think of MoviePass as a big TV that gives off very little color, and AMC A List as a smaller TV with tons of color. I do want to get the best deal but the reality is that MoviePass has been nothing but shady lately. MoviePass at one point blocked people from going to see “Red Sparrow,” with the recent tweet I just mentioned along with some of their other Twitter posts, it makes them come off as anti-competitive. You can have the best looking deal, but at the same time, some people will ignore because when you look behind the glass, it’s not all pretty. When was the last time an AMC intentionally blocked a movie? Granted, MoviePass has yet to have its CEO kill a guy, but MoviePass is acting like that one kid on the playground who is complaining he never gets to go on the slide, even though he lost his privileges after going on too many times.

By the way, this is going to be a lot less descriptive, but I read an article from Cinema Blend, and Sinemia recently shared some thoughts on this whole thing as well.

“We are happy to see new entrants in the market who understand that movie ticket subscriptions are the future of moviegoing, and AMC is a great example of this. However, we have concerns over their strategy. We believe that, with three tickets per week at a $20 price point and limited to a single theater chain, AMC’s plan is trying to reach a niche segment of super moviegoers. We have been an advocate of sustainable movie ticket subscription offerings for last 4 years, and when we look at the details of the AMC plan we fear that this will devalue the movie experience and simply is not sustainable. We think that this plan may even result in the cannibalization of AMC’s own customer base. That said, competitors always push us forward, and we welcome AMC into this market. We will continue to develop the Sinemia**service and mobile app to be the best solution for both moviegoers and the movie industry.”

As much as I can disagree with that statement, I’ll give Sinemia for being something that MoviePass isn’t, mature. This kind of makes me want to have a Sinemia card on me now. I probably won’t have one on me soon, but even so, their maturity is a breath of fresh air.

In the end, unless AMC starts acting like a child, this deal is more than worth it. I don’t know if I’ll get it because I go to more theaters than those in the AMC chain, even though they have some of my preferred local sites. These features are not just great for those who want to watch movies in multiple formats, but for anyone looking to buy food at the theater as well! This is especially worth it if you have the Premiere Stubs benefits because this is just a few dollars more a month! Maybe if this turns out to be very successful, maybe other chains like Regal or Cinemark will try to join in with a program of their own! We’ll just have to see what happens! Thanks for reading this post! This week is actually pretty busy for me, and by that I mean that in no way related to work or school, but I’m on vacation. There is a movie theater in my area that I might go to, and if I do, I hope to review whatever it is I see there! Stay tuned for more great content! I want to know, what do you think of this new AMC A-List program? Or have you used services such as MoviePass or Sinemia? Let me know down below! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!