Remember MoviePass? It is back for a second act and this time it is profitable

MoviePass, founded in 2011 by Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, revolutionized the movie-going experience with its subscription-based ticketing service. The company’s journey began with a beta launch in San Francisco, initially using a voucher system that was later replaced by a mobile app and preloaded prepaid card in October 2012.

In its early years, MoviePass experimented with various pricing models, ranging from $15 to $50 per month for unlimited movies. The service gained significant traction in 2017 when Helios and Matheson Analytics acquired it and dramatically lowered the subscription cost to $9.95 per month

The next chapter was painful for investors. The company’s business model proved unsustainable, as it was essentially subsidizing moviegoers by paying full price for tickets while charging subscribers a fraction of that cost. This led to severe financial strain, and MoviePass began implementing restrictions to curb usage, such as limiting users to seeing each movie only once and introducing surge pricing for popular show times.

Despite those efforts, MoviePass continued to struggle financially. The company experienced a major system outage in July 2018 due to insufficient funds, and began blocking access to certain blockbuster films.

MoviePass ultimately shut down in September 2019, and its parent company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January 2020. However, in a twist ending, co-founder Stacy Spikes reacquired the company in November 2021 and announced plans to relaunch the service.

The second act

MoviePass 2.0 lets users choose from three membership tiers, each of which comes with a certain number of credits that can be redeemed for movie tickets. In 2023, MoviePass achieved profitability for the first time in its history to mark a major turnaround. The company also reported that its members collectively viewed over one million movies through the app, and users have enjoyed an average savings of 35% compared to standard theater prices.

MoviePass secured an investment from Comcast’s (CMCSA) Forecast Labs earlier in the year. Arjun Kapur, managing partner at Forecast Labs, said in a statement that the venture firm sees “tremendous value” in the new MoviePass and is confident in its ability to enhance the brand.

MoviePass also just announced a new national brand campaign aimed at highlighting the company’s connection to storytelling and the movie going community. As of now, MoviePass operates across more than 3,500 theaters nationwide, covering all 50 states.

The evolution of MoviePass may be of interest to AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC), Cinemark Holdings (NYSE:CNK), Cineplex (OTCPK:CPXGF) (CGX:CA), National CineMedia (NCMI), IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX), Marcus Corporation (MCS), and Reading International (RDI).