MoviePass, MovieCrash

I was just about to sign up for MoviePass in 2018 when it started to have "issues" and started changing its terms and conditions. And, then there were stories about regular users getting 'throttled' so they couldn't access the service.

Muta 'Ali's HBO Documentary takes a pretty standard approach with talking heads, clips etc.. What it does have in its favor is access to several of the key players in the saga including the two original founders, Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, and the man who aced them out of their own company, Mitch Lowe. Things came all crashing down when Lowe brought in Ted Farnsworth (he did not co-operate in this film).

While there is no doubt that having so many principals on the record (including investors, former employees and customers), it does seem as if Ali didn't press them enough. It takes almost 40 minutes for the filmmakers to clearly state the obvious flaw in the MoviePass model - how can you give away more in services (movie tickets) than you take in in subscriptions - and still make a profit? The other big ominous cloud in the story is the mysterious investment firm Hudson Bay. That angle,too, is pressed hard enough.

The documentary does the basics here, but little more. Co-founder Spikes bought the company back from bankruptcy and it's still hanging around today, but nowhere never the level it had at it's peak. The issue remains the same - large profits seem nearly impossible to attain unless either: A. A bunch of your subscribers DON'T use your service. Or, B. The movie theater chains give MoviePass discounted tickets (of course, the chains' decided to just start their own subscriber services).

A crisply edited, easy to follow documentary tracing the inception, initial years, popular explosion and subsequent implosion of an innovative business model within the film industry ecosystem. Candid interviews with almost all of the key personalities make for a very interesting story that tells the all-too-familiar saga of how a single business proposition can evolve in all manner of unexpected directions based on the individual goals and ideas of whoever is at the helm of a business at any given point in its evolution. Those interested in general business practices and/or movies in general are likely to be highly engaged.

As "MoviePass MovieCrash" (2024 release; 91 min.) opens, we are introduced to various key players of the original MoviePass project. It is 2016, 5 years after the start of MoviePass, and the company is making a bold move in order to grow its subscriber bas: unlimited movies, anytime, anywhere, for $9.95/mth. At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from director Muta'Ali ("Cassius X: Becoming Ali"). Here he brings two stories in one: the rise and fall of MoviePass, a story known by many; and then there is this: did you know that MoviePass was in fact founded by two African-American guys? I didn't. And what happened to these guys? We get the full picture in this revealing documentary. This documentary reminds us of two correlating points: if something sounds too god to be true, it probably is; and corporate greed is alive and well. Mark Walhberg is credited as a co-producer.

"MoviePass, MovieCrash" premiered at this year's SXSW festival, to immediate critical acclaim. The documentary is now airing on HBO and its streaming platform Max, where I saw it the other day. It is currently rated 88% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason. If you are in the mood for a documentary that goes well beyond the rise and fall of MoviePass, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

...in how outsiders can wreck a company.

Interesting documentary of how MoviePass came about, was taken over, and then driven into bankruptcy.

Synopsis: a major investor in the start-up created by two African-American entrepreneurs brings in two outsiders, one a liar who falsely claims to have invented Netflix, another a shady financier from Wall Street. Soon these creeps oust the black founders and go down a path of wild spending and self promotion with the business news outlets and Hollywood partying and conning new investors and bankrupt the company. Laws were broken.

Though the particulars are different and usually it is done legally this is a great example of hedge funds or private equity firms or mega corporations buying companies, then looting and or mismanaging them. These then end in bankruptcy or selling the dimished concerns at a great loss.

Don't believe me? Google any of the following: Friendly's restaurants, DirectTV, Time Warner, GeoCities, ManorCare nursing homes, Great Western wines, or Samsonite. This is just a tiny fraction of all the examples out there.

So as I said, business school students should be made aware of this dark side of American Capitalism. Not to battle this uniquely American economic system, but perhaps to improve it.

Classic before-and-after tale of a company's glory days under the founders before corporate egos come in and drive it into the ground. MoviePass, MovieCrash concerns the ill-fated MP subscription service that allowed members to attend multiple screenings for a flat monthly fee. Kind of like the Netflix formula, but for actual theatergoers.

In this case glory days is relative since the business model was not sustainable to begin with. The founders seem indifferent to having lost 'only' a few $100K per month when compared to the $30Mil burn rate of their hedge fund-backed successors, but to me that almost misses the point. Yes one was embarrassing while the other was downright absurd, but neither was poised for success. After all, the concept of all-you-can-eat should be used as a temporary bridge rather than a long-term plan, and any company whose survival relies on users NOT taking advantage of why they signed up is doomed no matter who's at the helm- be it the charming founders, the greedy businessmen or any of their acolytes. In hindsight the blame game appears even more trivial given that MoviePass went bankrupt in January 2020; would the pandemic not have wiped them out regardless?

I would have been ok had the filmmakers left it there, but they do favor one side over the other (you can guess which one) and romanticize their journey as they prepare for a re-launch today. So it could be worth your time to see how persuasively that argument is made. Otherwise I'd just lump MoviePass in with all the other victims of streaming (there've been too many) and this film as one long commercial for what they plan to do next. I do hope they make it because I still treasure going out to the movies, but I doubt I'd go for this one.