MoviePass may be coming back to life.
What’s going on?
The MoviePass website recently added a new countdown clock with the phrase “The movie is about to start” above it.
- The clock, which appears next to the phrase, is counting down to Monday, March 22, according to ComicBook.com.
- Specifically, the clock counts down to Monday, March 22, at 10 a.m. MT.
Context
Helios and Matheson (HMNY), the parent company of MoviePass, announced in September 2019 that the movie theater subscription service — which, at its peak, offered customers unlimited movie tickets for $10 per month — would no longer be in service, according to CNN. There was no return date announced.
- “The Company is unable to predict if or when the MoviePass service will continue,” Helios and Matheson said in a statement at the time, as I wrote for the Deseret News. “The company is continuing its efforts to seek financing to fund its operations. There can be no assurance that any such financing will be obtained or available on terms acceptable to the committee.”
MoviePass had a viral moment back in summer 2017 with its $9.99 per month subscription service, which gave people access to unlimited movies in theaters.
Eventually, the subscription service collapsed. “Technical issues limited which movies people could see. Complaints flooded social media. People unsubscribed from the platform,” which I wrote for the Deseret News.
- The company tried to reinvent itself by raising prices, lowering prices, raising prices again and creating new plans for customers.
It wasn’t long before AMC and Cinemark launched their own plans that rivaled MoviePass, giving people rewards and free movies for seeing movies in theaters. And all of this was before the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down movie theaters for awhile before limited capacity reopenings.
It’s unclear what the new MoviePass countdown means. But it looks like the subscription service company might be attempting a comeback — something it has clearly done before.
I’ve reached out to MoviePass. I am still waiting to hear back.