The biggest question around MoviePass and its $10-per-month unlimited subscription has never been whether it’s a good deal. It's whether—or how long—it can possibly last. But there’s another monthly moviegoing plan that has largely dodged those existential doubts. In fact, in some parts of the world, it even makes money. Imagine that.

That company is Sinemia, an awkwardly named subscription plan that launched in Istanbul in 2014, spread to the UK not long after, and touched down in the US just a few months ago. In broad strokes, it’s the same idea as MoviePass: Pay a monthly rate, get movie tickets. But the differences between the two matter, both for your own wallet and the future of moviegoing.

On the Cheap

MoviePass, as you likely know by now, lets you purchase one movie ticket, every day, for $10 per month. (It also now offers a plan with an iHeartRadio trial bundled in, but the action’s at the all-you-can-watch buffet.) For that same $10, Sinemia offers you … two movie tickets.

It admittedly doesn’t seem like a fair fight. But again, look a little closer. MoviePass limits you to 2-D showings, and doesn’t include fancy features like seat selection. Your Sinemia subscription covers 3-D, 4-D, IMAX, whatever you want. To buy a ticket through MoviePass, you have to be at the actual theater. With Sinemia, you can purchase up to 30 days in advance, and choose your seats then too.

'I'm an engineer. I live by the numbers.' Rifat Oguz, Sinemia CEO

Sinemia also offers more options, including a $5 per month model that covers one 2-D ticket every month, or two 2-D tickets per month for $7. If you know you’re not going to binge, you can wind up paying way less than you would for MoviePass. Consider that, according to the Motion Picture Association of America’s own numbers, only 12 percent of people in the US and Canada go to a movie at least once a month, and a pretty clear argument starts to form that a cheaper Sinemia plan makes more sense for a whole lot of people.

It also may make more sense for the industry. While major theater chains like AMC have decried MoviePass as ill-fated and reckless, Sinemia CEO Rifat Oguz says that his company became sustainable this year, thanks to deliberate pricing, and forging the kind of partnerships in Europe that have so eluded MoviePass stateside.

"In Europe we have almost all the movie theaters partner with us, and almost all the studios," says Oguz. Overseas, Sinemia has partnerships that include shared concession revenue, deals with local restaurants, and so on. "They partner with us because we actually help them gain more."

MoviePass helps theater chains gain as well; it pays full price on every ticket its subscribers purchase, and currently accounts for between five and six percent of the US box office. But the partnerships have been slow-forming because those gains come at a significant perceived cost: driving the incremental value of a ticket down to practically zero.

And if after all that, MoviePass goes away? You’ll have a hard time getting anyone to cough up $10 for a single ticket, much less a month's worth.

Limited Appeal

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe insists his company will make it through this year and beyond. And if his vision comes to fruition, it could well rescue the movie industrial complex from its steady decline.

But that if seemingly grows bigger by the week. In April, an independent auditor of MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson said there was "substantial doubt" MoviePass could operate as "a going concern." On Tuesday, Helios and Matheson disclosed that its cash on hand had dwindled $15.5 million.

Sinemia’s financial situation is more opaque, but Oguz says last year it saw a positive gross margin, and this year it has seen positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, an important indicator of a company’s financial health. He’s hoping to replicate the model that has worked so well in Europe around the world.