Without setting location access to "always", this shouldn't be possible, right? He might only be talking about the customers who have it enabled. So yeah, will wait for the clarification.
Maybe it's just that Google won't feature you or something. But it should be against Play Store rules if it isn't already.
Edit: according to old posts on a support forum, it might ask for a photo of your ticket stub. That doesn't explain why it wants access to your own photos, which is a different permission on Android from getting access to your camera.
Maybe image recognition to see the kinds of things you're eating/considering buying before/after going to the movies?
This seems pretty reasonable to me. I consider it a fair trade for the monetary discount they're offering on their services.
I don't want to spend $10-$15 whenever I want to go to the movies. But I'm more than happy to provide access to my data and photos which I have no way to easily convert to monetary value.
If I didn't feel this way, I just wouldn't use their service.
No, the reason for accessing your Photos is to get the location and timestamp off of every one and build a nice little trail of where you are and where you go.
I cannot wait until the US gets a privacy law like the new EU one. Then they would have to absolutely justify why they're collecting that.
MoviePass is not a messaging service though.
If they ask permission for your photos and you give it, you live with the consequences. Or you value your privacy more than MoviePass and choose to not use the service.