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Sinemia Movie Ticket Subscription Service Is Having Trouble Keeping Up With Demand

Sinemia Movie
By Ben Pearson/

Earlier this week, we wrote about how movie ticket subscription service Sinemia seemed to be taking advantage of MoviePass's recent struggles by unveiling a series of new plans aimed at couples and friends who want to go to the movies together. But things aren't all sunshine and rainbows at Sinemia headquarters, because a new report shows that they're having trouble keeping up with heavy demand. New users aren't receiving their membership cards in a timely fashion – sounds familiar, right?

TechCrunch points out that several users are complaining online about Sinemia not delivering on their promise to send customers membership cards within a week like Sinemia promises.

TechCrunch reached out to Sinemia's CEO, Rifat Oguz, who gave the following response:

"We have seen strong demand for our new Sinemia membership plans and, while our processing operations have increased production, delivery times can be expected to be longer than usual. We greatly appreciate our subscribers' patience while we work on preparing their cards. Please note that subscribers first month of service will not begin until their card arrives."

I like to imagine MoviePass executives sitting around in a boardroom, smoking cigars and absolutely losing their minds with laughter at this news. After all, MoviePass famously went through these same growing pains last September, when their website and app were bombarded with traffic after people found out about their $9.95 monthly subscription plan that would allow people to see one movie per day in theaters. There's certainly no love between these two companies – back in February, MoviePass sued Sinemia for patent infringement in an effort to remain the go-to source for audiences' movie theater subscription needs.

Sinemia pricing

Sinemia's plans are different. They have multiple tiers users can subscribe to, with the most expensive being $14.99 per month for three movie tickets. That sounds like a demonstrably worse deal than MoviePass, but there are some trade-offs – Sinemia's service allows audiences to watch a 3D, IMAX, or 4DX screening, it's available in every major theater in the country, you can watch the same movie multiple times, and you don't have to physically be at the theater to purchase your tickets.

Many are wondering about the long-term viability of MoviePass, and there's some speculation that the company may not last very long with the way they're currently hemorrhaging money. Sinemia's deal may not be quite as good, but it's possible they could end up becoming the new standard if MoviePass goes under.

(One piece of unsolicited advice for Sinemia, though: you may want to remove Justice League: Part Two from your "most anticipated movies" list, because A) that isn't a real movie and B) even if it were, the poster you have listed is a fan-made fake that claims Grant Gustin is playing The Flash instead of Ezra Miller.)

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