AMC Theatres will not be participating in the San Francisco Bay Area private beta launch of MoviePass.
Image courtesy AMC

AMC Theatres and other cinema chains say they will not participate in all-you-can-watch movie service MoviePass, leading the startup to put its beta on hold just as the blockbuster Fourth of July weekend is getting under way.

After MoviePass announced its launch earlier this week, movie exhibitors have been pulling away from the service, which would offer users unlimited movie screenings for $50 per month and allow them to buy tickets using their smartphones. AMC even claimed MoviePass included the theater chain without its consent.

“Plans for this program were developed without AMC’s knowledge or input,” Stephen Colanero, AMC Theatres‘ marketing chief, said Thursday in a press release. “It was news to us to see that we were participants and we will be communicating to those theaters they are not to accept MoviePass.”

Camera Cinemas will also turn away customers who attempt to use MoviePass, director of operations Dominic Espinosa said in an interview with Bloomberg. Landmark Theatres CEO Ted Mundorff told TheWrap he didn’t know about the service prior to the announcement of the beta launch.

“We are stunned that an announcement like this was made, and they ‘forgot’ to discuss it with their clients,” Mundorff said. “We are not interested in outside entities setting ticket prices for us.”

MoviePass coordinated its ticketing with online ticket sellers, instead of cinemas, after not being able to get exhibitors to sign on. The company hoped to get a proof-of-concept out of its private beta, scheduled to take place over the July 4 weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area, and use that to get the movie chains on board, said MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes in a phone interview with Wired.com.

With the beta on hold, the company is currently looking at other theaters to test the service, with the aim of resuming the trial period and proving the model to theater chains.

“We’re enthusiastic that once we can walk them through the service they’ll be excited, we just haven’t had that opportunity yet,” Spikes said. “The silver lining of all of this is that this has created the ability to have that dialog now.”

One of AMC’s issues with MoviePass is how purchases of the all-you-can watch pass would be credited to its AMC Stubs members, who receive rewards for ticket and concession purchases.

“As MoviePass was created without AMC’s input and testing, we cannot confidently say the guest experience would be positive for our guests and specifically our AMC Stubs members,” Colanero said in the statement.

‘We kind of turned the spigot off.’

When MoviePass announced its private beta earlier this week, the company was scheduled to launch its service in the San Francisco Bay Area over the July 4 weekend, and claimed 21 theaters were participating. The service began to launch Wednesday but “we kind of turned the spigot off,” Spikes said.

Despite the reaction from theater chains, Spikes said he remains confident MoviePass can move forward.

“If we have to do some modifications to get people to do that, we’re glad to,” Spikes said. “We want to help bring people back to theaters.”