MoviePass announced it’s ready for the limelight, again. The resurrected company that was most-known for its epic-scale blowout and collapse just a few years ago is once again back and ready to cause trouble with a subscription service promising cheaper movies, though this time it’s promising to act far more tame than its last attempt.
The company announced Thursday it was opening up its subscription service nationwide just in time for the Memorial Day weekend. Subscription plans start at $10 a month, giving users 34 credits which could equal one to three movies per month, depending on the participating theater. The Standard and Premium tiers cost $20 and $30 a month, respectively for 72 and 113 credits. The top-tier “Pro” plan grants users 640 credits a month, worth close to 30 movies depending on the theater.
Though sorry for New York City dwellers and those living in Southern California, as you’ll have to pay $10 to $20 extra for the same services, depending on the plan. Though there is an app, MoviePass said it will supply users with a MoviePass card within 10 to 15 days of activating an account. That card is required for participating theaters. It’s a far cry from MoviePass’ old, completely unsustainable model of unlimited movies for $10 a month.
MoviePass claims it’s partnered with 4,000 theaters across the U.S., and the service lists every single one on a hard-to-parse page that could really use a map widget. Though users should note that what credits are worth changes depending on the date of the ticket. A credit is worth far less during a film’s opening weekend than during a weekday matinee. Credits do roll over from month-to-month, though users can only have a maximum of two months of unused credits in their account.
MoviePass CEO Stacy Spikes said in a release this app would support the movie theater industry “by helping drive traffic to all theaters during the critical summer season.” Spikes was one of the original founders of the company but was ousted before things got really crazy. He later bought the company back from bankruptcy and promised MoviePass would operate on a Web3 model. Fortunately for users, it seems the service has abandoned any blockchain buffoonery.
The service came back to life last year with a limited beta rollout and a new points system. Spikes claimed the new service would be out by summer and promised access to all users who were still stuck on the waitlist. The MoviePass CEO also reminded users that the old $10, unlimited movies model would “never happen again.”
The old MoviePass broke down after financial failure and public scandals. Reports showed the former service would manipulate people’s profiles to keep them from ordering so many tickets for movies. Former MoviePass execs Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth are facing multiple lawsuits for their old, unsustainable model. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a massive suit last year claiming the execs artificially tried to limit users’ ability to buy obscene numbers of tickets at such a low price. The execs both disagreed with the SEC’s characterization of the events, and claimed they were both unfairly targeted.