All you can watch ticket service MoviePass is back, but will it work?

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Remember that time there was that company, MoviePass, that was all like, “We can totally get you tickets for all the movies you can watch in one month for just $50!” but then the movie theaters were all like, “Uhhhh no you can’t because we refuse to honor your tickets because it’s basically ripping us off,” even though over 30,000 people signed up for the service? (If not, here’s a brief refresher course.) Well MoviePass is back! And now they claim they’re reborn legit!

MoviePass thought they had a good thing going back in June and got some decent press out of the deal but theater chains like AMC and Regal refused to cooperate. Now they claim that they have an established ticket service that will be accepted at nearly every indoor venue in the US. How’d they do it?

MoviePass has partnered with Hollywood Movie Money, a company that specializes in vouchers for movies. If you’ve ever cut out the back of a cereal box to trade in UPC codes for a free ticket, it’s some from these guys. Now, MoviePass subscribers would just print the vouchers at home and the company will reimburse theater owners the full amount.

So how exactly do they plan on making money offering up unlimited tickets but still having to pay the theater owners back at full price? Well, they’re hoping you don’t really use the service as much as you think you would. The big hook in their business model is that you pay $50 for unlimited movies but probably only see 3-4 movies a month. That would still allow them to clear around $10/month.

Call me crazy, but I’m still skeptical. I don’t know that theaters will ever be totally happy with a nationwide service that is allowing a third-party company to set ticket prices. And MoviePass burned potential customers once, what’s to say it won’t happen again. As they say, caveat emptor.