The future of moviegoing… today?
It’s been two years since MoviePass, the subscription service that let moviegoers attend as many theatrical films as they wanted for a (financially unsustainable) monthly fee, finally and completely shut down. The company announced its $10 a month for up to 30 movies a month in theaters (one per day) back in the summer of 2017, and the deal proved so impossibly great, that millions of people signed up, and MoviePass began losing money faster than a movie about Mars needing moms. The company tried all sorts of changes and gimmicks — surge pricing, offering only certain movies each day, charging customers different prices based on where they live — but in the end, nothing solved the core problem of the impossibility of trying to turn a profit on a business where you offer people the equivalent of $300+ worth of movie tickets for $10 a month.
Nevertheless, MoviePass is back, with plans to relaunch this coming summer. The company’s executive, Stacy Spikes, made the announcement during a presentation in New York City today. Spikes conceded that MoviePass’ initial run did not go well, even showing an image of the Hindenburg disaster onscreen during his pitch for the revamped company.
According to NBC News, Spikes did not give any specifics about what the new service would cost, and “spoke in general terms about plans to organize the new app around virtual currency, tiered pricing plans and video ads that track eyeball movements.” As pitched, the service will let you earn credits good toward free movies — but if you look away from the app, you don’t earn the credits.
Frankly, after all that happened in the past, I’m not sure I would trust MoviePass with my valuable eyeball data. But I guess we’ll see if things are truly different this time around. The basic idea of a subscription service for movie theaters still remains a good one — and in fact, since MoviePass’ rise and fall, many individual theater chains like AMC and the Alamo Drafthouse have offered customers their own private versions of a subscription service. You might even want to try one of those out while you wait to see what happens with “MoviePass 2.0.”
If you could watch in theaters If you want to watch the full MoviePass relaunch announcement, it’s below.
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