Holy Shit MoviePass Might Come Back
The cofounder has bought back the ridiculous company and is planning a relaunch.
The summer of MoviePass — do you remember it? The erstwhile company allowed its users to purchase complete access to movies in essentially any theater for the cost of an at-home streaming service ($9.95 a month). In most places, it took only one movie ticket to get your money’s worth. After that, movies were free. If you were like me, you used your MoviePass-issued credit card to get tickets to all the movies you wanted to see, and every movie you would never have paid to see otherwise. It was incredible. It was, obviously, not profitable. MoviePass flamed out in a spectacular way.
And now it might be coming back.
On Wednesday, according to Insider, MoviePass cofounder Stacy Spikes was granted ownership of the company by a Southern District of New York bankruptcy court judge, after placing an undisclosed bid to the trustee handling the bankruptcy of MoviePass’s parent company. Spikes gave a statement about the purchase to Insider:
"I can confirm that we acquired MoviePass out of bankruptcy on Wednesday. We are thrilled to have it back and are exploring the possibility of relaunching soon. Our pursuit to reclaim the brand was encouraged by the continued interest from the moviegoing community. We believe, if done properly, theatrical subscription can play an instrumental role in lifting moviegoing attendance to new heights."
Spikes reportedly hopes to relaunch the company sometime next year. If the existence of a website might help you believe that is true, be my guest: www.iwantmoviepass.com.
It’s better to burn out than fade away. That much we know for sure. But if you can burn out, come back, and do the exact same ridiculous scheme that lets everybody see a bunch of movies for pretty much free for a couple months before you burn out again? Well. That sounds even better.
