New York Post, Monday, August 19, 2019nypost.com26
L
ATE last month, Regal Cinemas
announced its competitor to
AMC Stubs A-List, the movie ticket
subscription service from the na-
tion’s largest theater chain. On the
surface, Regal Unlimited seems
similar — if not better — than
AMC’s offering. However, the two
subscriptions are far from clones of
each other.
Whether you’re debating which ser-
vice to join for the first time or are
considering jumping ship from AMC,
there are a lot of factors to consider.
Here’s The Post’s breakdown on some
of the most important factors:
How many movies can you see?
AMC A-List: This pass gives you
up to three films per week, without
any restrictions. There are no sur-
charges for IMAX and 3D screenings.
There is a 12 films- per- month limit.
Regal Unlimited: The service bills
itself as allowing you to “watch as
many movies as you want, as many
times as you want, whenever you
want.”
How much does it cost?
AMC A-List: After initially launch-
ing at $19.95 per month, AMC A-List
has hiked its prices to $23.95 for cus-
tomers in New York City.
Regal Unlimited: Though there
are several tiers of Regal Unlimited
membership, the only one with access
to theaters in the five boroughs is Re-
gal Unlimited All Access, which costs
$23.50 plus tax.
How long do you have to sub-
scribe?
Here is one of the biggest differ-
ences between the two services.
While AMC offers a minimum three-
month commitment, requiring sub-
scribers to shell out at least $72, Regal
subscribers must sign up for a fullyear, paying either up front, in a lump
sum, or in monthly installments. For a
New Yorker, that’s a $280 outlay to get
a taste of the Regal deal.
Are there other fees?
AMC A-List: No, everything is in-
cluded in the subscription cost.
Regal Unlimited: There are a
few. The Regal app charges a conve-
nience fee of 50 cents per ticket res-
ervation made from the app rather
than the theater. For comparison
purposes, an AMC A-List pass-holder who switches to Regal would
pay an additional $1.50 per week
based on the AMC minimum com-
mitment. Regal Unlimited also has
surcharges for IMAX, 3D and other
special showings.
What’s the final price?
AMC A-List: 12 months at $23.95
per month will cost $287.40 per year.
Regal Unlimited: If you don’t in-
cur any additional convenience or
premium ticket fees, Regal will cost
$282 for the year, plus tax. If you seeat least 12 films per month and get
tickets using your app, you’ll shell
out at least $354 annually, plus tax —
not including any surcharges for
IMAX or 3D.
So which one is right for me?
If you don’t go to many movies
and like premium formats, AMC A-
List is the way to go. But if you feel
trapped by its 12-film-per-month
limit and don’t mind committing to
a year of the service, Regal rules.
[email protected]Movie fan planner
How to choose yo ur cinema popcorn partner
NICOLAS
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Film forum
All eyes are on the greatest of the latest
moviepasses— let ThePost helpyou
buy the one that suitsyou best.vs.
A top long-only equity
hedge fund is betting big on
internet dating.
Helsinki-based HCP Fo-
cus, which has a slim portfo-
lio of only 12 “high-convic-
tion” stocks, has 16 percent
of its funds invested in Tin-
der-operator Match Group.
The owner of subscrip-
tion-based online dating
Web sites and applications
has risen 93 percent so far
this year, with a surge in
new Tinder subscribers
boosting second-quarter
revenue and fueling a re-
cord gain on Aug. 7. HCP en-
tered the stock at the begin-
ning of 2017.
“When a dating platform
has reached critical mass,
it’s very, very hard to dis-
lodge it, said Ernst Gron-
blom, portfolio manager at
Helsinki Capital Partners.
“If a competing platform
tries to enter the market, it’s
very hard to convince peo-
ple to create accounts on
several dating platforms.”
HCP Focus manages
about $78 million and was
the top long-only equity
fund over the three years
through the first quarter,
according to BarclayHedge.
It returned an average 22
percent a year in the past
five years through July.
Match is its biggest holding,
followed by Amazon.com,
which has been one of the
main holdings since the
start of the fund.
“It’s not overvalued,”
Gronblom said, “but I don’t
see an explosive upside in it
anymore because it’s so
huge. It has the potential to
give a reasonably good re-
turn for quite some time.”
Gronblom focuses on
companies with network ef-
fects that can create “natu-
ral monopolies.” He also
holds PayPal, Alibaba and
Facebook, which has the
strongest network effects
“of any big company on the
planet,” he said.
Zeroing in on just 12
stocks is the “sweet spot”
for Gronblom, giving
enough diversification to
keep volatility in check yet
concentrated enough to
give the full benefits of
stock picking, he said.
Bloomberg‘Match’
made in
hedgie
heaven
Tesla has another new
plan to revive its founder-
ing solar division: rentals.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based
company is now offering no-
contract solar-panel pack-
ages as part of a relaunch an-
nounced in a series of tweets
early Sunday by Chief Exec-
utive Elon Musk.
“With the new lower Tesla
pricing, it’s like having amoney printer on your roof,”
Musk said in a tweet to pro-
spective customers who live
in states with high electric-
ity costs. “Still better to buy,
but the rental option makes
the economics obvious.”
The relaunch comes less
than a month after Tesla re-
ported its third consecutive
quarterly decline in solar
installations, and less thanthree years after it bought
longtime rooftop king So-
larCity for $2.6 billion. The
automaker deployed just 29
megawatts in the second
quarter— its fewest yet in a
single period. At its height,
SolarCity installed more
than 200 megawatts over
three months.
“It seems clear that Tesla
is now trying to reboundtheir growth volumes having
hit record lows by reverting
back to a ‘no-money’ down
type of model,” Michelle Da-
vis, senior solar analyst at
Wood Mackenzie Power &
Renewables, said in a direct
message on Twitter.
“Tesla will need to prove
they can manage their finan-
cials successfully this time
around.” BloombergTesla sees the light: solar panel rentals
ELON MUSK
New business slant.