Difference is, "any theater in the U.S. that accepts debit cards". If you're unfortunate enough to only have a Vue around, your Cineworld pass won't do much.
Yes, that's a fair point, and they are paying the theatre the full price of the ticket. I wonder if their plan is to control the supply of visitors to the cinema at a loss, then negotiate a profitable way to continue when the cinemas fear losing the revenue.