Local Recaps: The Rise and Fall of MoviePass

Good night, sweet prince.

MoviePass, the monthly $10 subscription service that enabled me to see Baywatch in theaters guilt-free, is no more. Less than a month ago, it was a thriving, totally economically unsustainable way of taking money directly from brain-addled venture capitalists and putting it towards your third viewing of The Last Jedi. Now, all that remains is a sad and empty husk, a shell of its former self. MoviePass is dead. Long live MoviePass.

In its early days, MoviePass allowed users to see unlimited movies at participating theaters for prices that ranged as high as $100 and as low as $35 a month. At that point, it was still a niche service, catering largely to cinephile audiences in cities like New York, where ticket prices can creep above the $20 mark.

But the service wasn’t growing, so MoviePass CEO and Netflix co-founder Mitch Lowe decided to take drastic measures: Namely, dousing the company in gasoline and driving it off the edge of the Grand Canyon with a lit cigarette in his mouth.

Last summer, MoviePass dropped its unlimited plan to $10, and suddenly everyone’s mom was wearing a turtleneck sweater and talking about the deeper meaning of Hereditary. For a brief and exhilarating window, the deluded millionaires behind MoviePass democratized moviegoing.

There’s a big studio myth that audiences aren’t going to the movies because there are too many other options, because Netflix and Amazon and the Golden Age of TV are drawing people away from movie theaters. It’s a myth that MoviePass punctured. People still want to see movies; the issue is that going to the movies is just too prohibitively expensive to justify.

But alas, as we all knew, that first beautiful year of MoviePass was a dream too beautiful to last. MoviePass crumbled in August and downgraded to a $10, three-movie-a-month plan. Instead of being able to see anything, you’re given a predetermined list of films to pick from on any given day (although savvy MoviePass cheaters will know ways of getting around that system).

The service has grown more and more unreliable in recent months, with screenings outright disappearing and a total lack of customer service. I would argue that — especially in New York, where a ticket to see a 2D movie costs around $17 — it’s still technically worth it. If you can scrape your way into just one movie this month, you’re still saving money with MoviePass. But it seems increasingly likely that its days as a functioning company are numbered.

If you’re in the market for a replacement, there are several options. Sinemia offers the same $10, three-movies plan as MoviePass, with the added bonus of being able to purchase tickets in advance. And AMC A-List is probably your best bet if you’re angling to just see big releases; the theater chain’s subscription service will get you three movies a week, including IMAX and 3D, for only $20 a month. One IMAX screening of Venom and you’ll already be in the black, even though you’ll also have to watch Venom.

But all that being said, if you’re really in the market for entertainment — if you really want that old MoviePass rush back — you should join this MoviePass stockholders Facebook page that I found. It’s going full Lord of the Flies and I love it.