[slivym]

It's way more complex than that. Firstly:

* MoviePass isn't putting butts in empty seats - look at all their problems, their problem is that they're selling out on blockbusters and weekends. So a lot of the revenue theatres are getting is just displaced. There's really no reason to think that a MoviePass customer is seeing more low demand movies. Think about it this way: A Theatre could drop the prices on their older flicks to get more butts in seats today, but they don't. What's the logical difference between that and doing it for MoviePass?

* Secondly, Theatres don't make their money the way you expect - up to 100% of a blockbuster's ticket sales go to the studio and the theatre is contractually limited in the prices they can charge. So even if the theatres wanted to make a deal, they can't!

* Thirdly, which business on earth wants to let a middle man in? If MoviePass reaches critical mass it can turn around and say 'We're dropping you from our list of supported theatres unless you cut us in 20%' - and you'll have to agree because they aren't your customers anymore, they're MoviePass customers.