MoviePass — the subscription service that at one point allowed people to see unlimited movies for about $10 per month — is coming back.
What’s happening: MoviePass announced Thursday that the service will relaunch this summer.
- Co-founder Stacy Spikes, who recently bought the company, held a launch event at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City to announce the decision to bring back Movie Pass.
- “We want to rebuild MoviePass as a company that’s built by its fanbase,” Spikes said, per Variety.
Details: The new MoviePass — which will be built by the original engineering team — will return in summer 2022, according to The Verge.
- MoviePass will have virtual credits that roll over every month.
- Subscribers can use their credits to bring friends to movies.
- There will also be a tiered payment system, but prices were not announced.
- Customers can also watch trade ads in order to earn credits that can be used to buy movie tickets, according to Insider.
Flashback: MoviePass blazed in popularity back in 2017 when it offered a subscription service plan where you could see unlimited movie theater showings for $9.95 per month, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- The company fell from grace, though, once customers weren’t allowed to see certain movies. There were a number of controversies surrounding the subscription service, including how people were left at the box office unable to pay for their movies.
- MoviePass’ parent company, Helios & Matheson Analytics, once promised to launch “MoviePass 2.0,” which would center around subscribers owning parts of MoviePass movies, which would be shared.
- Helios & Matheson Analytics relied on customer data, saying it was akin to gold or oil in the new world.