By CultureBanx Team
- Stacy Spikes revives MoviePass with “Pre-Show” plans to track audiences eyeballs
- The U.S. movie theater sector includes about 4,600 establishments with combined annual revenue of about $18B
MoviePass’ original co-founder Stacy Spikes is reviving his beleaguered company and wants to track your eyeballs in the process. Long gone are the days of MoviePass’ unlimited movies, instead customers will buy credits that they can then redeem for movie showings as a part of its new subscription service. Spikes “Pre-Show” feature on the platform is the other way movie-goers will be able to earn credits by watching ads and having their eyeballs tracked.
Why This Matters: Spikes explained the “pre-show” feature as an extension of product placement in movies. “What it does is it basically creates a transaction between you and the brand,” Spikes said at a press event in Midtown Manhattan. With subscription movie-going here to stay, resurrecting MoviePass with its “Pre-Show” feature in a sector that includes about 4,600 establishments with combined annual revenue of about $18 billion, seems like a good idea.
The goal of MoviePass’ credit system is to help movies fill theaters on slower days. For example, in-demand movies at prime times will require more credits, whereas matinees of less popular films won’t need as many.
Spikes was granted ownership of MoviePass assets by a New York City court back in November 2021 for $14,000. This is shocking considering Reuters reported the company had once taken in investments led by a former Netflix (NFLX +2.22%) executive of $27 million.
As theatergoing rebounds in a post-pandemic world, companies like Regal, AMC (AMC -0.77%), Alamo and other theaters that have since created similar services to MoviePass, stand to greatly benefit. Spikes said in 2019 that a failed deal with AMC, which went away when Adam Aron became the theater chain’s CEO, doomed MoviePass for good.
Once heralded as a darling of innovation in the stagnated movie theater industry, MoviePass’s rise and fall is worthy of a big screen viewing. For a company that many people thought was too good to be true, with its unlimited movie $10 monthly pricing, they were right. In January 2018, Spikes was ousted from the organization.
A fall from the subscription movie mountain top quickly ensued, when the service saw its users base plummet from more than 3 million members to about 225,000 as of April 2019, according to Variety.
What’s Next: MoviePass did not say how much credits will cost or provide details on differences between the “tiered plans.” The subscription movie ticket service is relaunching in summer 2022, will your eyeballs be ready?
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