Centives

Netflix revolutionized watching movies at home. MoviePass is trying to do the same for watching movies in the theater:

• MoviePass users pay a monthly fee to watch as many movies as they want at the theater (though they’re limited to one movie a day for the cheapest package).
• MoviePass sends them a credit card which they use to pay for the movie tickets.
• The company operated for six years and managed to get 20,000 subscribers to its service.
• Then it cut prices from $14.95 a month to $9.95 a month and the resulting media blitz increased the number of subscribers to 150,000.
• MoviePass may be losing money if the new subscribers are frequent moviegoers. But over the long run it hopes to negotiate deals with the industry to reduce theater prices and boost attendance – especially for non-blockbusters.
• Movie theaters, for their part, aren’t thrilled at the prospect of MoviePass getting a lot of subscribers and then using its bargaining power to force them to accept lower prices.

Read more on Deadline.

The French are selling oysters in vending machine wrote The Guardian:

• Oyster vending machines are an evolution of the manned stalls that oyster farmers used to have on the roads along France’s coast.
• For oyster connoisseurs the ability to satisfy an oyster craving at all hours is a tantalizing prospect.
• It is especially appealing to a younger generation familiar with buying things on the internet, without a shopkeeper guiding them.
• For sellers it’s a way to cut out the middle man – like a grocery store – and boost margins.
• The machines are a triumph of food safety laws. Live oysters that aren’t stored the right way could lead to food poisoning – something few are concerned about.

Read more on The Guardian.

Abigail Cain wrote about the blues:

• Across countries and genders surveys show that blue is the world’s favourite colour.
• This seems to be because there are few negative things that are blue. Even bruises are more purple than blue.
• Meanwhile the positive things associated with blue – sky and water – are globally appreciated and experienced.
• This also explains why dark yellows are typically the least popular– they remind us mostly of unpleasant things.
• Yet colour preferences have been found to change with time. The striking hues of autumn lead to a greater appreciation of shades of maroon.
• On election day Republicans express a preference for red – the colour associated with their party – even though most of the year they like the democrats’ blue.

Read more on Artsy.

Via: Marginal Revolution

The Economist delved into airport revenues:

• In 2015 airports across the world made 40% of their revenue from “non-aeronautical” services like duty free shopping.
• In America about 20% of airport revenue comes from parking and rental car fees.
• The rise of Uber has meant that fewer people are using these services blowing a hole in airport budgets.
• Some airports have tried to ban Uber but travelers just opt to get dropped off close to the airport to circumvent the ban.
• Airports could try to increase revenues from airport malls but a more frugal demographic has taken to the sky in recent years.
• Travelers from China used to be lavish spenders but a crackdown on corruption has limited spending on expensive gift shopping.
• And anyway, an extended security process leaves precious little time for passengers to spend at airport malls.

Read more on The Economist.

In a series on 50 things that made the modern economy Tim Harford wrote about barbed wire:

• When barbed wire was patented in 1874 it was marketed as “the greatest discovery of the age” and “lighter than air, stronger than whiskey, cheaper than dust”.
• Just six years after it was patented 423,000 kilometers of it – enough to circle the world ten times over – was produced.
• Farmers had long tried to stake out claims to their property. But wood was too expensive, smooth wire was quickly trampled over by cattle, and thorn bush hedges took too long to grow.
• Barbed wire allowed them to mark their territory – much to the consternation of the Native Americans – who called it the devil’s rope – and whose lands would sometimes be fenced off.
• Cowboys who were used to cattle being able to graze freely across the landscape weren’t too happy either.
• Rival farmers had disagreement and masked gangs took to cutting up fences and leaving threatening notes telling their owners not to rebuild them. People died.
• Some would argue that the establishment of property rights created an incentive for farmers to invest in the land and help grow America into the largest economy in the world.

Read more on the BBC.

Brad Sulberg examined the proclivity of the rich for endurance sports:

• The median triathlete has a white-collar job and earns $126,000 a year.
• 65% of runners make more than $75,000 a year and have an undergraduate degree.
• The rich have an affinity for endurance sports because they can afford the time and money it requires.
• An hour a day training adds up more than half a month over the course of the year – time difficult to sacrifice for those struggling to make ends meet.
• The rich also have access to better gyms, courts, and other facilities.
• The rich put it in different terms. They like endurance sports because the results are clear and measurable – something that modern knowledge economy workers rarely see in their careers.
• Some also talk about enjoying pain – which, ironically, many of the poor hope to escape by becoming rich.

Read more on Outside Online.

Instead of buying $50,000 watches you can rent them wrote Cam Wolf:

• Services like Eleven James allow people to rent out premium luxury watches for a membership fee ranging from $170  to $900 with a minimum six month commitment.
• Watches are good for this kind of business since they don’t depreciate, are durable, and have high margins.
• That said luxury watches are typically bought for their sentimental value – buyers think about passing them onto their grandchildren.
• Perhaps this is why the services let you pay to keep the watch if you like it – an option that’s used often as clients form emotional connections with their accessories after, for example, a successful first date.
• The rental companies position themselves as embodying a particular lifestyle. Subscribers to the service can make reservations at pricey bars, meet watchmakers, and network in private jet hangers.
• One subscriber was upgraded to first class on a plane after a flight attendant noticed the timepiece.

Read many more fascinating details at GQ.

Government policy had made the impact of Hurricane Harvey worse wrote Michael Grunwald:

• The American government offers a heavily subsidized flood insurance program.
• The subsidies inadvertently encourage Americans to build homes in flood prone areas.
• One home valued at about $100,000 is known to have flooded 16 times in 18 years, and generated claims worth $800,000.
• In 1998 just 2% of insured properties were estimated to be responsible for 40% of claims.
• In Houston the program has helped encourage homeowners to spread to former wetlands, helping to explain why it has seen three “500 year floods” in the past three years.
• Climate change makes the problem worse but isn’t thought to be the primary culprit.
• An attempt at reform through increased premiums was passed by Congress in 2012, but after opposition from coast and river communities the bill was dropped.

Read more on Politico.

The Economist checked in on the 2017 market for football players:

• Manchester City, an English club, has spent €179 million on defenders – this is more than the defense budget of 47 countries.
• Clubs and their egomaniac billionaire owners would like to spend even more, but in a bid to curb runaway inflation leagues have “financial fair play” rules which require them to limit their losses.
• One French team paid €222 million on Neymar, a forward – over double the previous record for the price of a player.
• He’s a good player – betting markets estimate that he single handedly boosted the chances of his team winning the Champions League from 5.5% to 9%.
• But prize money and ticket sales from winning the trophy don’t justify a hundred-million-dollar investment.
• Part of Neymar’s appeal is his brand. He has more Instagram followers than Nike, the supplier of kit for the team. When the time comes to renegotiate the deal, the club will have the upper hand against Nike.
• The club is owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and the investment is a signal that the troubled country remains rich and confident.

Read more on The Economist.