MoviePass is the Jason Voorhees of movie subscription services, rising from the seemingly dead year after year, against all odds and against the wishes of everyone who ever encountered it.
The latest news is that Stacy Spikes, one of the original co-founders of MoviePass, has bought the company out of bankruptcy and is hoping to relaunch the service sometime next year.
“I can confirm that we acquired MoviePass out of bankruptcy on Wednesday,” Spikes said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have it back and are exploring the possibility of relaunching soon. Our pursuit to reclaim the brand was encouraged by the continued interest from the moviegoing community. We believe, if done properly, theatrical subscription can play an instrumental role in lifting moviegoing attendance to new heights.”
MoviePass famously and quite spectacularly imploded after dropping its unlimited movie subscription price to $10. Upon building a massive user base, the company hoped to turn profitable by negotiating favorable deals with theaters, gaining a cut of things like ticket sales or concessions. Neither came to pass and MoviePass collapsed in 2019, bringing down its parent company in the process.
I myself was a massive beneficiary of the business model. For the first fiscal year of MoviePass’ $10 subscription, I saw something like 80 movies for a total of $120. Pretty great for myself, obviously, but not so much for the folks paying the bills.
There was a silver lining to it all, however. After MoviePass’ rise to prominence, most other theater chains launched their own subscription models to great fanfare. Heck, Metaflix even made a video essay about the phenomenon. Check it out below.
