MoviePass competitor Sinemia adds $15 'unlimited' daily movie plan – CNET

Sinemia rolled out a new Always Unlimited $15 monthly plan Friday, which will allow you to see a movie every day.

The plan will be available as an annual or monthly subscription and will let subscribers watch a 2D movie every day at any theater and any showtime. It’s open to movie lovers in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Seats can be reserved up to 30 days in advance.

But with the sweet comes the sour. The company also announced that it’s terminating “a small number of user accounts for fraudulent activity and/or misuse of the service.” 

This comes at a time when the company is under fire for allegations of hidden fees, compounded by complaints that it’s Sinemia’s app which prevents people from checking in — not doing so before or after a movie is considered one of the actionable activities, and it’s been locking accounts over it.

We’re still seeing those complaints. For example commenter SkateNY on our last story posted: 

They’ve deducted movies from my account when their software didn’t work as advertised. Most recently, I was standing in the lobby of the theater, attempting to check in to a movie for which I had reserved an advanced ticket online using the Sinemia App. Couldn’t check in. Kept getting a message that I was too far away from the theater to check in. I paid for the movie with one of my credit cards.

After I wrote to them about this incident, they responded with a warning that my account could be suspended if it happens again and deducted a movie from my monthly total.

Sinemia responds: 

Sinemia does not freeze accounts based on ticket prices. Sinemia users should be able check-in at any theater that is included in Sinemia’s supported theaters listed on Sinemia website. The misuse fee is only charged by Sinemia when a user fails to check-in at the theater 2 hours before or after their movie show time. If a user does not check in during the given time frame, they are charged the full ticket price for the movie they watch. Users need to pay the misuse fee in order to continue using their Sinemia membership. To reiterate Sinemia does NOT freeze or cancel any account due to the price of a movie ticket but because a user failed to check in. If a user is having an issue with the app that is preventing them from checking in they can contact Sinemia’s support line here: https://contact.sinemia.com/. We’re always working to improve the Sinemia experience and appreciate feedback from our users.

First published March 29, 2019 at 8:22 a.m. PT.
Update March 30: Added Sinemia’s response.