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Reading Time: 3 minutesLike so many classic movie franchises, MoviePass is getting a reboot. After spending years on the cutting room floor, the service is being brought back to life by one of its original founders.
At it’s peak, MoviePass was charging subscribers roughly $10 a month to see unlimited movies in theaters. The service was revolutionary for its time, but the business model proved to be unsustainable. MoviePass struggled to earn enough money from subscriptions to pay for all the tickets their subscribers were purchasing. This ended in the service shutting down in 2019.
Now just a few years later, MoviePass is back and ready to take cinemas by storm once again. The company will be facing more competition than ever, as theater chains like AMC have started offering their own subscription services in the interim. With stiffer competition and more options to watch movies from home, MoviePass will have to reinvent itself to stay in the game.
Luckily Co-Founder Stacy Spike, who recently purchased the company, is making some big changes to the once-popular subscription service. We’re breaking down all the latest news about MoviePass, including what users can expect from the resurrected service.
What Is MoviePass, and When Is It Coming Back?
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MoviePass is a subscription service that allows users to go to a certain amount of movies per month for a flat monthly fee. While the service used to offer unlimited showings to its subscribers, MoviePass is in the process of reinventing itself into a more sustainable service.
The service is set to officially relaunch in the summer of 2022, according to an announcement from Spikes. In the relaunch announcement, it was revealed that past MoviePass subscribers may be recruited for a year-long beta test of the program free of charge. Many details of the service, including how much it will cost, are still a mystery, but we’ll be getting more information as we get closer to the launch date.
What New Features Is MoviePass Rolling Out?
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MoviePass is making some massive changes to its platform before it rolls out this summer, including an entirely new credit system that will allow users to trade credits for movie tickets. Users will now be able to both purchase credits and earn them by completing various tasks. These credits will be tradable and rollover from month to month, giving users some flexibility over how they spend their credits.
In the past MoviePass was an exclusively single-user experience, meaning subscribers were only allowed to purchase tickets for themselves. With the relaunch, MoviePass subscribers will now be able to spend credits on tickets for friends and families as well. This means that your friends don’t need to have MoviePass themselves for you to bring them along to a show, which was one of the biggest issues for subscribers before the service shut down.
MoviePass plans on implementing a tier system, with different subscription tiers offering different perks. This may include restrictions on peak showtime hours for certain subscribers. It’s unclear exactly what all the differences between the tiers will be, but the highest tier is expected to include a lifetime membership as well as opportunities to invest in the company itself.
Another new feature will also let subscribers watch ads in order to earn MoviePass credits. It’s unclear exactly what the conversion rate from ad views to credits will be, but it’s likely that you’ll have to watch multiple ads to earn any significant rewards. MoviePass is also planning on using technology from Spikes’ other platform, PreShow, to track users’ eyes to ensure they are actually paying attention to the ads.
How to Join the MoviePass Beta Program
One of the most exciting announcements relating to MoviePass is the beta program, which will be available to some of the most die-hard users of the service. As of this writing, it appears that there is no way to actively register for this beta program. Instead, MoviePass will be reaching out to users in the summer with invitations to the program.
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Eric Vega
Eric Vega is a Puerto Rican writer and filmmaker working out of Burbank, California. He has covered a plethora of topics in his writing including the looming threat of invasive species, the true spirit of the Juggalos, and why space travel will always be a carnival of nightmares.
