MoviePass — yes, that MoviePass — is offering a free trial to its subscription service if you sign up through December 31, 2023.
With the two-week free trial, customers can try out the movie-ticketing service’s system, which assigns credit values to movies depending on showtimes. A weekday afternoon is 15 credits while a weekend night is 30 credits, for example. But your movie theater has to be in the company’s network.
After the trial period, you can subscribe to one of three plans. The basic plan is $10 a month for 34 credits, which is good for about two movies a month, according to MoviePass. The standard plan is $20 a month (72 credits and up to four movies a month), and the premium plan is $30 a month (113 credits and up to six movies a month.)
The credits, which rollover, can be found on your in-app MoviePass card, which the company debuted last month.
Given the MoviePass’ tumultuous history — and that it once gave away tickets for free — the odds of the company regaining the subscriber base or popularity it once had are slim.
MoviePass launched in 2011 with the goal of becoming the “Netflix of movie theaters.” The company proposed letting users see a movie a day for a flat monthly fee but was met with resistance from the theaters themselves. At one point, AMC said MoviePass users weren’t welcome at its theaters.
By 2018, the sustainability of MoviePass’ was in question, and in 2020, Helios and Matheson Analytics, MoviePass’ parent company, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2022, MoviePass relaunched its services, but it would look quite different from what customers had once experienced.
The company’s credit subscription sounds cumbersome in comparison to simply choosing a movie on a streaming service, buying a movie ticket online, or even buying a movie ticket in person.
It remains to be seen how MoviePass’ relaunch will pan out in the long run, but the environment the company seeks to compete in is far different from the one it once knew before 2018.