A MoviePass Eulogy

It happened in an instant. One day it was here, the next... gone. You never really know or appreciate when you've got a good thing going until it's left you... unless of course that good thing... was MoviePass.

Just a little over a year ago, MoviePass upped the theater-going ante by offering all moviegoers a ticketing subscription that allowed the user to see one movie per day for only $9.95 a month. At first glance the deal seemed too good to be true. I'd heard of MoviePass a year or two beforehand. It offered cheaper option subscription plans to moviegoers based on their location. Me living in the LA area where the average ticket price is around $14 was offered a plan of one movie per day for $39.99/month. And while, if I sat down and did the figures, it probably would've saved me money overall, but it wasn't exactly feasible. In December when three or four quality movies per week were released, this would've be a great deal. However, in months like January or February which are notorious Hollywood movie dumping grounds - I'd be hard pressed to get my money's worth. So I didn't take advantage of the plan. But, MoviePass decided to go for it on 4th and long.

After announcing their $9.95 subscription plan I wanted to jump at the opportunity, but I'd been burned by "deals" before. So I waited. I waited to see if it was legit. After hearing success from MoviePass subscribers, I bit. Sure, it took nearly a month for me to actually receive my card, but for a deal that good, I was willing to wait. When I got my card, I went to a movie that day... just to see if it was all that I'd built it up to be. There was nothing of any merit worth seeing, but I was determined to use my card anyway. I ended up sheepishly purchasing a ticket to the abysmal Happy Death Day and sat through this awful movie with an enormous smile plastered across my idiot face. From there, the floodgates opened. Whenever a movie was released that looked even semi-decent to me, I was in the front of the marquee with my MoviePass card in hand.

Overall, I got to see 75 movies for "free" over the past year and a month. At $14/movie that would've run me $1050. But with MoviePass all I had to pay was $130. I saw all kinds of movies, and before they pulled the plug on not being able to see the same movie twice, I took full advantage of seeing movies more than once. I watched Star Wars three times. I saw It, Coco, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Black Panther, A Quiet Place and Avengers: Infinity War twice. I saw all varieties of movies with my card from the great (Lady Bird, The Shape of Water, Isle of Dogs, Hereditary, Hearts Beat Loud, Sorry to Bother You, A Star is Born, and Bad Times at the El Royale), to the mediocre (Suburbicon, Annihilation, Ready Player One, Blockers, Super Troopers 2, Ocean's 8, Tag, Skyscraper, The Spy Who Dumped Me, and The Predator), to the terrible (Geostorm, The Snowman, Jigsaw, Father Figures, Solo, Action Point, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Happytime Murders, Slenderman and The Nun). No matter the quality of the movie, they all seemed just a little bit sweeter because in my head, they were essentially free.

About three months ago, MoviePass finally lost its steam. They were hemorrhaging money and had no choice but to make significant changes to the plan. The "unlimited" plan that allowed users to see one movie per day was now cut down to three movies per month. To the average moviegoer, this wasn't exactly something that was that detrimental to the subscription. Most moviegoers only make it out to the theater once or twice a month. And with inflated ticket prices, even one movie a month with MoviePass saves you money. But the dagger in the heart of the plan was that MoviePass decided to cut back on the movies offered each day to only one or two options. THIS was enough to kill most avid subscribers. It's one thing to be able to see only three movies in a month, but it's another if the only movies offered that month are movies that aren't new releases or in any way attractive to the subscriber. However, as much as I could understand why MoviePass card-wielders were angry and cancelling left and right - this change didn't affect e-ticketing theaters. E-ticketing theaters were unaffected by this change and there was the added bonus that you could reserve your ticket in advance AND pick your seat (a service not offered at any other standard movie theater). There weren't many theaters that had the e-ticketing feature, but luckily for me, there was one only fifteen minutes away in Monrovia - the illustrious Studio Movie Grill.

So, while I wasn't chastising anyone upset with MoviePass's changes, I also wasn't planning on cancelling any time soon. But today - a day that will live in infamy - MoviePass, clinging to life, lost the majority of their e-ticketing partners, which just so happened to include Studio Movie Grill. Without the ability to see any movie and only getting to see movies MoviePass deemed randomly worthy on any given day - I had to finally say goodbye to a subscription to a service that allowed me to do one of my favorite things in the world for nearly $1000 cheaper than it normally would've cost me. As most subscribers, both current and past, I do want to personally thank MoviePass for allowing me such experiences over the past year. I think what they did was bold enough to get people back into the theater and stick it, ever so slightly, to the theaters who fail to realize it's ticket prices that are resulting in the lack of attendance. I do think what they did was extraordinary and it was a beautiful thing while it lasted. On the other hand, I do have to give the ol' wag of the finger to the way MoviePass handled certain situations. They essentially lied to subscribers that nothing was wrong, when they were juggling a deficit in the millions. They put on a smile and told everyone it would be alright just before making radical changes to the plan that would affect a lot of users. They TRULY screwed over those who bought yearly subscription plans (this is something I never considered because I had a feeling the too-good-to-be-true would truly be too-good-to-be-true). But when MoviePass was good... it was REALLY good.

And now I move on. I have to say farewell my friend. I haven't decided what I will do with my card once my month is over. I may burn it and toss the ashes out to sea. I may have a private burial in my backyard. I may leave it in my wallet for months forgetting that it's there until one day I realize I've been carrying around a deactivated card and just casually toss it in a dumpster. The possibilities are endless. Farewell, MoviePass. You changed lives. One movie per day at a time.