MoviePass
MoviePass, Inc. is an American subscription-based movie ticketing service owned by co-founder Stacy Spikes.
The service was launched in 2011 and allowed subscribers to purchase up to a movie ticket a day for a monthly fee. The service utilized a mobile app, where users check in to a theater and choose a movie and showtime, which resulted in the cost of the ticket being loaded to a prepaid debit card, which was used to purchase the ticket from the movie theater.
In 2017, the service was acquired by Helios and Matheson Analytics and the subscription cost was significantly lowered to $9.95 per month. Membership ballooned to over three million subscribers by June 2018, but the service began to suffer from financial issues, which ultimately caused the service to shut down in September 2019. On January 28, 2020, MoviePass' parent company HMNY filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and announced that it had ceased all business operations.
On November 10, 2021, MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes was approved ownership of the company by a New York bankruptcy court judge. Spikes—who was fired from the company in 2018, shortly after it was acquired by HMNY—announced a relaunch of the service in 2022.
History
Original service
MoviePass was founded in 2011 by technology and entertainment entrepreneurs Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt. It was backed by major investors including True Ventures, AOL Ventures, Lambert Media, Moxie Pictures and other investors.The company launched in beta in June 2011 in San Francisco. During initial trials, it encountered resistance from movie theater chains, resulting in the company going on a "temporary hiatus". At first, MoviePass operated with a voucher system. Members printed a voucher on their home computers and redeemed them for movie tickets at participating cinemas. In August 2011, the company partnered with Hollywood Movie Money to conduct its service through its preexisting voucher program and cinema network.
The voucher system was replaced after users complained it was cumbersome. In October 2012, following a national beta test, the service switched to a mobile app and electronically preloaded prepaid card. While MoviePass claimed the card could be used at all cinemas that accepted major credit cards, there was still some hostility from the industry, including AMC Theatres, who publicly disassociated itself from the service.
In June 2016, MoviePass named Mitch Lowe, a former executive of Netflix and Redbox, as its new CEO. Lowe had been an advisor to the company since 2014. Under Lowe, the service began to experiment with different pricing models; Lowe stated that his eventual goal was to have a low-end service at around $20 per month, ranging up towards a high-end service at around $100 with unlimited movies and availability of 3D screenings. In some regions, the service tried offering different subscription plans to users, such as a $50 plan for six movies per month, or $99 for unlimited—both allowing users to purchase tickets to 3D screenings. The new plans were criticized by those who felt that they were designed to gouge "unprofitable" frequent users of the service.
In July 2016, MoviePass unveiled a new plan structure effective in September, with tiers based on two, three, or unlimited movies per month. Prices vary by region, with the two-movie-per-month plan costing from $15 in small markets to $21 in larger ones. The unlimited plans were also modified to remove the previous restriction of one film every 24 hours, with prices ranging from $40 to $50 per month. Lowe argued that the new plans were designed to appeal to those who did not go to movies often. In December 2016, the service had 20,000 subscribers.
Studio Movie Grill purchased a stake in the company in December 2016. MoviePass and Studio Movie Grill were also partnering on testing food features through the MoviePass app including OpenTable and Explore More.
Helios and Matheson subsidiary
In August 2017, a majority stake in MoviePass was sold to the analytics firm Helios and Matheson. At the same time, the company announced that it would lower its price for an unlimited plan allowing one film per-day, to $9.95 per month. Lowe explained that "after years of studying and analysis we found that people want to go to the movies more often, but the pricing keeps going up, and that prevents them from going more. We're making it more affordable for people." Helios and Matheson's CEO Ted Farnsworth stated the service wanted to increase the size of its userbase in order to analyze viewing habits for targeted advertising. Farnsworth compared the model to those of Facebook and Google, whose free services are subsidized by the collection of personal information for advertising. After announcing their new pricing, the company's website went down due to the increase in traffic. By September 2017, the number of subscribers had increased to 400,000, to 600,000 in mid-October, to one million in December, and two million in February 2018. In June 2018, the company announced in a press release that it had more than three million paying subscribers.Helios advanced MoviePass $55 million from December to February 20, 2018. MoviePass then converted the advances from debt to capital. Helios ownership stake thus increased from 62.4 percent to 81.2 percent. Another $35 million in advances converted to capital put Helios to 91.8 percent allowing for a merger unilaterally initiated by the Helios board. On January 19, 2018, at the Sundance Film Festival, MoviePass announced the new subsidiary MoviePass Ventures, which would co-acquire films with traditional distributors.
In February 2018, the price further dropped to $7.95 per month for new customers if they paid annually. In March, they lowered it to $6.95. In April 2018, Helios and Matheson acquired the movie listings website Moviefone from Verizon Communications's digital media subsidiary Oath Inc., with Verizon taking a stake in MoviePass stock.
Also in April 2018, MoviePass quietly removed the unlimited plan for new customers, and replaced it with a new plan limited to three movies per-month, bundled with a complimentary three-month trial of iHeartRadio All-Access. Lowe stated that he was not sure if the previous plan would be reinstated, explaining that "We just always try different things. Every time we try a new promotion, we never put a deadline on it." There was also a change that prohibited MoviePass customers from buying multiple tickets to "select" movies. The unlimited plan was reinstated two weeks later, with the limited plan maintained as a cheaper option at the $7.95 price point; Lowe stated that the company was "absolutely committed" to keeping the unlimited option.
Financial issues
In May 2018, MoviePass' cash expenses exceeded its revenues by $40 million and the company announced that it expected to run a deficit of $45 million in the month of June. In late June 2018, Forbes reported that MoviePass was responding to the creation of the competitor AMC Stubs A-List by announcing new fees for its service, with surge fees added to popular films and prime timeslots. The peak pricing rolled out was $2 to $6 extra during peak times. In the summer of 2018 the company launched a $164 million bond sale. MoviePass said subscribers could waive one peak fee per month. At the end of the month, MoviePass announced it would begin selling merchandise.On July 2, Helios and Matheson Analytics filed to raise $1.2 billion to keep MoviePass solvent. They filed to sell debt and securities. Following a "service interruption" on July 26, the firm announced that it was forced to borrow $5 million in order to continue its operations; auditors doubted whether the company would be able to remain in business. The weekend following this disruption, there were reports that screenings of Mission: Impossible – Fallout had been blacked out from the service. The following Monday, the company announced it would not be offering its services for upcoming major releases, such as The Meg, but would continue operating for smaller films, albeit with the continued peak pricing.
On August 6, 2018, MoviePass backtracked on plans to raise its monthly fee from $9.95 to $14.95, but announced that it would instead limit these subscribers to three free tickets per-month, with any further screening offering a $5 discount on the ticket price instead. MoviePass stated that this measure was intended to "protect the longevity of our company and prevent abuse of the service." On August 16, 2018, MoviePass announced that it would also limit the service's film options to "up to six films to choose from daily, including a selection of major studio first-run films and independent releases".
By early August 2018, Helios and Matheson completed the acquisition of Emmett Furla Oasis Films assets for the MoviePass subsidiary, MoviePass Films. On August 24, 2018, MoviePass announced that it had ceased providing its previous annual unlimited plan, with all subscribers transitioned to the monthly limited plan. Subscribers who do not wish to have this plan were instructed to cancel their subscriptions by August 31, 2018, to receive a pro-rated refund. By October, reportedly over a million subscribers had cancelled the service, and by April 2019, paying subscribers had fallen over 90% from its peak, to 225,000.
In November 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed in San Francisco for not following through on its promises by blacking out various popular movies. On February 2, 2019, another class action suit was filed in New York state court against MoviePass for using bait-and-switch tactics.
The company announced its closure on September 14, 2019, because "efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date." On September 17, 2019, Ted Farnsworth resigned as MoviePass CEO and chairman while placing an offer for MoviePass assets and related businesses: Moviefone, MoviePass Films production company, MoviePass Ventures film co-acquisition unit.
On November 10, 2021, a bankruptcy judge allowed the sale of the company back to one of the original founders, Stacy Spikes. Spikes has announced that the company is exploring a relaunch.