Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

MoviePass

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Area served
  
United States

CEO
  
Mitch Lowe (28 Jun 2016–)

Founder
  
Stacy Spikes

Type of business
  
Private

Key people
  
Mitch Lowe (CEO)

Headquarters
  
New York City

Founded
  
2011

MoviePass httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons99

Industry
  
Film, Entertainment, Technology

Website
  
http://www.moviepass.com

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How moviepass just killed their company


MoviePass is a subscription-based service for going to movie theaters available in the United States. The service gives members across the country the ability to see up to one 2D movie every 24 hours for a fixed monthly fee. Members may choose which theaters they wish to attend and there are no “blackout dates”. Prices vary by local market and start at $14 per month.

Contents

MoviePass was launched in February 2011 and is headquartered in New York City. It is backed by major investors including True Ventures, AOL Ventures, WME, NaLa Pictures, Lambert Media, Brian Lee, Diego Berdakin, MJ Eng, Ryan Steelberg, and Adam Lilling.

Moviepass review collider


History

MoviePass was founded in 2011 by technology and entertainment entrepreneurs Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt. The company launched in beta in June 2011 in San Francisco, but during initial trials the company received some resistance from movie theater chains and paused both the service and the introduction of new members until later in the year.

From September 2011 to September 2012 MoviePass operated on a voucher system where members could print a voucher on their home computer and redeem it in participating theaters for a movie ticket.

In October 2012, the company introduced a new proprietary location-based payment technology, and provides a secure and independent way for MoviePass members to purchase tickets.

In December 2014, AMC theaters piloted a partnership for a subscription movie service with MoviePass in select theaters in Boston and Denver.

In June 2016, MoviePass announced that Mitch Lowe, a founding team member at Netflix as well as the former President and COO of Redbox, has been named Chief Executive Officer. Lowe has been an advisor to the company since 2014.

In July 2016, the company unveiled new plans with prices starting at $15 a month In August 2016 MoviePass started raising prices for all of their current subscribers. As of December 2016 the service has 20,000 subscribers.

Service

MoviePass service works via a smartphone app (iPhone, Android) and a specially designed, reloadable debit card, which is mailed to new subscribers when they sign up.

Purchasing a ticket

Members browse theaters and showtimes on the MoviePass app and from it they can select a movie, a theater, and a showtime to attend. In order to purchase a ticket, members must be within 100 yards of the chosen theater. They check-in to the theater via the smartphone app and select their preferred movie and show-time. Once they check-in, their MoviePass debit card is automatically loaded with the exact price of a single ticket for that particular location. The card can then be used like any other form of credit or debit card to purchase a ticket at the theater kiosk or ticket counter.

Theaters Coverage

MoviePass is accepted at more than 3,700 theaters and more than 33,000 screens, accounting for 90% of theaters across the United States, making it among USA’s largest theater networks.

Restrictions

  • Number of movies that can be watched per month (depending on plan tier).
  • A Movie title can only be seen once.
  • Only 2D movies can be seen with majority of plans.
  • A 24-hour lock used to exist where the user will not be able to attend another movie, using MoviePass, until 24-hours have passed since the showtime of the last movie attended with MoviePass. This restriction has been lifted after August 2016 price increases.

    • Heavy-User Plans

    Amid changes occurring post naming Mitch Lowe MoviePass CEO and during the company's experimentation with new pricing plans, it was claimed that MoviePass has forced many high-use customers into alternate pricing plans. While this controversial move is said to impact only 10 - 15% of users, they are taking to social media en masse to protest the forced changes. The most common new offers include a $50 plan to see up to 6 movies per month and a $99 unlimited plan. During that time, the company continued to market $30 "unlimited" plans to new customers.

    Media coverage

    MoviePass has been featured in a wide range of publications including The New York Times, TechCrunch and Variety.

    MoviePass was also named as one of the 25 Most Disruptive Apps of 2012 and The Best of Everything in 2012 by Business Insider.

    References

    MoviePass Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA