The much-heralded startup MoviePass, which sought to transform moviegoing in theaters—and sort of succeeded, in an oblique way—is back. It’s attempting the subscription concept after bankruptcy, an acquisition, and a pandemic that closed cinemas despite it.
How did the Former MoviePass Affect Things?
In case you’re unfamiliar, Movie Pass provided a basic movie theater subscription for several years. The business tried a variety of pricing structures, including $15 per month for a few movies and $40 to $50 per month for an infinite number of movies.
The business then made a daring, ridiculous move in 2018: subscribers could see one movie daily for $10 a month. That’s less than the cost of one movie ticket in many regions of the nation. Additionally, MoviePass paid cinemas their full fee for each ticket. Millions of people registered, and it made sense. It was practically free money for MoviePass.
Things went differently than planned. With time, MoviePass had to increase its costs, its customer service began to deteriorate, and its other revenue-generating initiatives failed. Even worse, movie theater chains began providing subscription services of their own.
These were more financially feasible since movie theaters pay studios less for tickets than MoviePass pays theaters. Additionally, theaters would still profit from higher concession sales even if they suffered a loss in ticket sales. At one point, MoviePass claimed it should receive a portion of the concession sales at cinemas to increase revenue.
How Can You Become a MoviePass Member?
The current version of MoviePass, known as MoviePass Beta, is being released gradually, most likely to help prevent a repeat of the rush-and-crash that its predecessor encountered. The firm launched a five-day waitlist on August 25, 2022.
If you join the waitlist within that period, you will receive an invitation to the new MoviePass. Once logged in, you can send your friends a cache of invites. Only after the summer of 2023, your best chance of finding someone with one of these invites is if you missed the waitlist period.
Only some markets will get access to MoviePass Beta at once. According to the corporation, it uses the number of people who sign up for the waitlist in a particular area to determine interest in various sections of the nation. The city you’re in will also impact prices, especially in New York and California.
There are three primary pricing tiers, with monthly costs of roughly $10, $20, and $30. These plans give you a specified number of credits instead of a certain number of movies. You can use these credits to purchase movie tickets; any extra you don’t use will carry over to the next month.
The New MoviePass: How Does It Operate?
Not much was known about the system when the business first unveiled its comeback plan in February 2022. Thankfully, we’ve entered the beta and are more familiar with its operation.
However, some limitations might only apply to certain theaters, as they accept e-ticketing. You will receive a certain amount of credits with your MoviePass subscription, and the ticket cost will vary based on the movie’s showtime. Matinees are generally ten credits, weekday evening films are 15 credits, and weekend screenings are 20 credits. Of course, Friday night also qualifies as the weekend.
As before, if the theater has a direct partnership with the firm, you can schedule a movie directly through the MoviePass app. When you purchase a movie ticket in person, you should be able to reserve a spot and even pick your seats. MoviePass reservations are only available for 2D movies, so throw away your 3D glasses.
Final Words
Once considered a disruptor and savior of the moviegoing experience, MoviePass eventually folded due to unsound business practices and financial difficulties. Ultimately, MoviePass’s difficulties demonstrate that bullying could be a better business strategy. Although its appealing price-to-value offer drew interest and customers at first, the long-term viability of the business could have been better.
