If you haven’t heard of MoviePass before today, don’t worry you’re not alone. But something tells me you will certainly have heard of it after their absurd announcement. For those of you who don’t know what MoviePass is, they aim to be the “Netflix of Movie Theaters.” MoviePass charges users a monthly fee to see unlimited movies in the theater at any location at any theater in the entire country. Sound too good to be true? Well, it is for its users.
Essentially what MoviePass does is buy tickets in bulk from movie theaters and bets that people won’t go to the movies often enough and they’ll make their money back. It’s kind of like the concept of a credit card. All credit card companies do business based on the fact that people don’t pay their bills on time and they make money on interest. MoviePass bets that you won’t be equaling the amount they spent on your tickets to the amount you spent on your subscription based on how many movies you go to. Basically if you go to less than 2 a month they would make their money back.
But today they just did something unheard of. They lowered their monthly subscription to $10. Yes, $10 a month and you get to go to the theater unlimited! In case you’re wondering, the average movie ticket is $8.67 in American. So how in the world does MoviePass expect to make money? By growing its user base a zillion fold and eventually selling the data of its users to advertisers, and other companies who seek out the demographic data MoviePass expects to be able to provide.
This is all crazy and I’m sure you’re trying to get on the site now, but of course its been down most of the day because of all the traffic. In case you’re wondering, the CEO of MoviePass is Mitch Lowe. In 2016, Lowe was brought in as CEO based on his history as a co-founder of Netflix and his stewardship of Redbox kiosk rentals. Bingo!
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