The Life, Death, and Potential Rebirth of MoviePass

MoviePass might be ready to capitalize on just how much movie lovers have missed going to a theater this past year. After shutting down the service in 2019, the company is teasing that a revival might be on the way within the next week. There’s currently a countdown on the company’s website that says, “The movie is about to start,” with no other details. Now that movie theaters are starting to reopen, MoviePass could be preparing to join in on the fun. 

The subscription-based movie ticket service experienced financial issues due to its business model. The idea was that the company would buy tickets in bulk at full price and offer them for free to users in exchange for a flat monthly fee. MoviePass shook up the theater industry in 2017 when it announced that its subscribers could go to the movies every day for less than $10 a month. To help with revenue, the company later tried removing signature features, created price tiers, and added surge pricing to no avail. The appealing offer helped them reach two million subscribers, but the company still couldn’t shake reports of “negative cash flows” and that they were hemorrhaging money. 

MoviePass was supposed to be the future of movie-watching and would inspire more people to go to the cinema instead of staying home with Netflix. Paying $9.95 a month for a movie a day seemed like the dream deal for movie lovers, but it wasn’t a profitable enough venture to keep the company afloat. Stacy Spikes, one of the service’s original co-founders, successfully bought back the company out of bankruptcy in November 20211, with plans to relaunch it. If you’re not familiar with the rise and fall of MoviePass or if you need a refresher, we’ve put together some significant moments in the company’s history ahead of its possible return.