AMC MovieWatcher® Becomes AMC Stubs™

Posted in Spicy News Reel | 43 comments

It’s official, on March 14th AMC MovieWatcher® Will Become AMC Stubs™. I’m still trying to decide whether this is good news or bad news for AMC movie watchers but for frequent moviegoers with a MovieWatcher® card, the program is being done away in lieu of their new “AMC Stubs™” reward program (horrible name). Immediately what struck me as bad is that this new program will cost $12/year. Which is only $1 a month but this comes after a spike in ticket prices, further refusal to policing the jackasses within the theater and higher concession costs.

While the old MovieWatcher® card was a joke (will explain after the jump), I did like to follow the points to see how crazy I was in watching 1-2 movies a week. Last year alone I spent $540 on movies, so let’s see if paying $12 extra would save me anything and break down the perks of AMC Stubs for a frequent movie watcher like myself:

Rewards for money spent versus Movies watched

So now you can stuff your face for an inflated cost and get points on your Stubs card. In the past the AMC Moviewatcher® card would yield 1-4 points per movie purchased (no concessions) and after enough points you would get a FREE TICKET! Well granted it was restricted to very old movies that are about to leave the theater – like I said before, it was a joke! Now after dropping $100 in the theater you will receive a $10 AMC Stubs™ Reward which I am skeptical about because AMC’s track record leads me to believe that this “Stubs Reward” money is not on par with cold hard cash. If it is, then that would have saved me $28 last year – woopteedoo!

Still a penny saved is a penny earned right? Oh! For you popcorn munching fatties, this card is golden, guess why? Well all upgrades are FREE! That means you can upgrade a small popcorn for a medium, a medium coke for a large and damaging calories to heart-wrenching calories! Too bad for me, I don’t do concessions (sad face). For old card holders like myself, we are promised a free year to start, we get our points rounded up for the reward points and get sent the next “reward” (too vague for excitement).

Still it’s better than nothing and from what I’ve read much better than the old MovieWatcher® cards. Trust me, as a guy that has had over 30 “Free ticket (to old ass movies) or Large Drink/Popcorn” rewards expire due to my methodology, getting $10 towards a movie that is actually new is a huge improvement – if you consider your investment. So the next time you are in your AMC and feel the need to be “rewarded” for being patient as that 5 yr old kicks your chair, grab a AMC Stubs™ reward card and start the trend of cutting some dollars off of your patronage.

Greg Dragon – who has written posts on Spicy Movie Dogs.
Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.

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  • Betty Marshall

    In response to the recent email explaining how the Stubs program benefits the AMC movie goer is a little bit harsh. I do think that in some cases, such as yours, you find that the Stubs program works really well. A person who have a family who goes to the movies weekly and who buys food and beverages from the concession will certainly benefit from this new program. However, if you do not fall under that category and yet you go the movies weekly, without buying snacks, you do not receive better ,or even equal rewards, with this new program. As an example: with the old rewards program a senior citizen could go to the movies on Wednesday they would receive a free small popcorn as a simple thank you for coming to the AMC theatre. I truely feel this is a very small price to make folks feel like their loyality and dedication to the AMC threate is appreciated and acknowledge. I know in today’s economy that everyone is trying to make ends meet but I do think that the cost of a small bag of popcorn to the AMC is well worth having folks feeling like they are appreciated. When I hear from people I do believe that is the biggest complaint is the free small popcorn on Wednesday, so why not make a minor change and bring back the free small popcorn on Wednesday. This would show good-will on your part to your old Movie Reward Card members.

  • Bill Johnson

    If you are foolish enough to fork over the $12 for the stubs card make certain that you use every reward as soon as you receive it because even though the membership is good for 1 year the rewards are taken from you by AMC after 90 days. Their website doesn’t give you a date or contain any transaction history of the expiration but the points are removed and you are simply told how much more you need to spend before you get some more rewards. This program completely alienated me from AMC theatres. Buyer beware.

    • Greg

      The site does list your transactions and your rewards and it shows when they will expire.

  • AMC STUBS PROGRAM SUCKS!!

    This program is a complete joke, and I agree with the majority of the posters. It is absolutely not worth the $12, and their non-existent customer service dept makes it even harder to resolve issues. They keep send you these “form” responses like “Thanks for contacting Stubs” blah, blah, blah and continue to request the same information from you over and over again…it’s like a vicious circle. I swear they do it deliberately to frsutrate customers who will ultimately give up and go away.

    This is a complete con job at the concession stand!! I wish there were a way to reach a larger audience and let them know AHEAD OF TIME, to save their money and prevent other unwitting consumers (like myself) from shelling out hard earned money for such useless benefits!

    STAY AWAY!!!

  • Bkandul

    I had a Moviewatcher card and never received my hundreds of points or even a notification that this was happening. I was loyal to AMC, now I will go to other theaters.

  • Tigergirl7

    actually when you think about it the amc stubs program is very helpful for frequent movie goers or families who go on occasion. yes you pay 12$. however that goes toward your reward. also. say you normally by a large drink and a large popcorn. when you use your card you save $1.50. $100 dollars seems like alot at first but say you bring your family to a 3d or imax movie, that’s going to be at least 30 bucks. with movie watchers you got 2 points per tickets with a max of 4 points per day no matter how much the ticket was! this card takes into account every dollar you spend! if you really cant spend 12$ dollars then you probably shouldnt be going to the movie in the first place. or if you just go every once in awhile its probably not for you either, but neither was the movie watchers because that would have taken even longer for you to get a reward. just because it was free doesnt mean it was helpful

  • MB

    You can use your rewards to renew your stubs membership. It’s really not that hard to rack up points if you see a movie every month. But my boyfriend and I get popcorn and an icee every time (and sometimes hot dogs and candy, wow I sound like a fatty, LOL). And on top of that, you get free coupons/discounts now and then when you buy tickets. You can also use any tickets that you purchase at Cosco, I’ve tried it. I’m going to renew my membership. If you spend as much money as I do, it does end up paying off (and technically speaking I didn’t even pay to renew my membership so it was free with my rewards).

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