The HBO Original documentary Moviepass, Moviecrash, directed by award-winning filmmaker Muta’Ali (HBO’s “Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn”), is streaming now on Max. For Movie Geeks, it was the greatest thing to own and you could see your favorite films an unseemly amount of times. But there’s more to the story.
MoviePass was a movie lover’s dream, offering access to movie theater tickets at a discounted monthly subscription rate. In 2017, with a “too good to be true” promotional deal of $9.95 a month, subscriptions exploded, the company’s stock soared, and investors rushed to get in on the venture. However, the co-founders, who had built the pop culture phenomenon from scratch, were cast aside and forced to watch from the sidelines as new executives seized control.
In a span of eight years, MoviePass went from being the fastest growing subscription service since Spotify to total bankruptcy, losing over $150 million in 2017 alone.
MoviePass was a movie lover’s dream, offering access to movie theater tickets at a discounted monthly subscription rate. In 2017, with a “too good to be true” promotional deal of $9.95 a month, subscriptions exploded, the company’s stock soared, and investors rushed to get in on the venture. However, the co-founders, who had built the pop culture phenomenon from scratch, were cast aside and forced to watch from the sidelines as new executives seized control.
In a span of eight years, MoviePass went from being the fastest growing subscription service since Spotify to total bankruptcy, losing over $150 million in 2017 alone.
- 5/30/2024
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The rise and fall of theater subscription service MoviePass is captured in new HBO documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash.”
Dubbed “the Netflix of the movie theater” in the trailer, MoviePass was founded by Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt in 2011 before former CEOs Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth allegedly utilized fraudulent business tactics; the duo were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a 2022 lawsuit. The lawsuit additionally named ex-MoviePass Vice President Khalid Itum as a defendant, with Itum being accused of submitting false invoices for the company.
MoviePass filed for bankruptcy in 2020 after launching a $9.99 per month subscription in 2017 allowing people to see a movie a day. Upon moving to the $9.99 one movie per day model, subscriptions went from 20,000 to 100,000 users within two days, ultimately capping at more than 3 million subscribers in 2018. Yet the company still lost more than $150 million in 2017 alone. MoviePass filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
The company later...
Dubbed “the Netflix of the movie theater” in the trailer, MoviePass was founded by Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt in 2011 before former CEOs Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth allegedly utilized fraudulent business tactics; the duo were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a 2022 lawsuit. The lawsuit additionally named ex-MoviePass Vice President Khalid Itum as a defendant, with Itum being accused of submitting false invoices for the company.
MoviePass filed for bankruptcy in 2020 after launching a $9.99 per month subscription in 2017 allowing people to see a movie a day. Upon moving to the $9.99 one movie per day model, subscriptions went from 20,000 to 100,000 users within two days, ultimately capping at more than 3 million subscribers in 2018. Yet the company still lost more than $150 million in 2017 alone. MoviePass filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
The company later...
- 5/16/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
MoviePass has been dead for nearly two years. But the execs behind ill-fated company have only just reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that they misled customers and also failed to take reasonable steps to protect user data.
The principal executives of MoviePass — the theater-subscription company that shut down in September 2019 — reached a settlement with the FTC over the allegations, the agency announced Monday.
Under the proposed settlement with the FTC, MoviePass, Helios and Matheson Analytics, Mitch Lowe (former MoviePass CEO) and Ted Farnsworth (former Helios and Matheson CEO), will be “barred from misrepresenting their business and data security practices,” according to the agency. In addition, any businesses controlled by MoviePass, Helios or Lowe must “implement comprehensive information security programs.”
MoviePass in September 2019 notified remaining subscribers that it would be shutting down indefinitely, saying at the time that its “efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date.
The principal executives of MoviePass — the theater-subscription company that shut down in September 2019 — reached a settlement with the FTC over the allegations, the agency announced Monday.
Under the proposed settlement with the FTC, MoviePass, Helios and Matheson Analytics, Mitch Lowe (former MoviePass CEO) and Ted Farnsworth (former Helios and Matheson CEO), will be “barred from misrepresenting their business and data security practices,” according to the agency. In addition, any businesses controlled by MoviePass, Helios or Lowe must “implement comprehensive information security programs.”
MoviePass in September 2019 notified remaining subscribers that it would be shutting down indefinitely, saying at the time that its “efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date.
- 6/7/2021
- by Todd Spangler
- Variety Film + TV
Nick Redman, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, award-winning soundtrack producer and co-founder of the Twilight Time video label, died Thursday afternoon, Jan. 17, at a Santa Monica Hospital, after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 63.
He was nominated for an Academy Award as producer of the 1996 documentary “The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage,” a look back at Sam Peckinpah’s controversial film. He also produced and directed the 1998 “A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers,” about the making of the Western classic, a prizewinner at multiple film festivals.
In 2007 he produced and directed the feature documentary “Becoming John Ford,” which debuted at the Venice International Film Festival and detailed the long and complex relationship between the famous director and 20th Century-Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck.
He made numerous other short films including profiles of actress Stella Stevens and film composers Basil Poledouris and Jerry Fielding.
He was nominated for an Academy Award as producer of the 1996 documentary “The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage,” a look back at Sam Peckinpah’s controversial film. He also produced and directed the 1998 “A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers,” about the making of the Western classic, a prizewinner at multiple film festivals.
In 2007 he produced and directed the feature documentary “Becoming John Ford,” which debuted at the Venice International Film Festival and detailed the long and complex relationship between the famous director and 20th Century-Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck.
He made numerous other short films including profiles of actress Stella Stevens and film composers Basil Poledouris and Jerry Fielding.
- 1/18/2019
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
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