Bulletins

MoviePass is coming back under its original founder Stacy Spikes

Subscription moviegoing is here to stay, and MoviePass wants back in.

MoviePass is coming back under its original founder Stacy Spikes

MoviePass is back, or at least on its way.

Photo: MoviePass

A decade after MoviePass was founded, and a little over two years since it collapsed, the service appears to be on the comeback trail. Stacy Spikes, the company's original co-founder, was granted ownership of MoviePass by a New York City court, Insider reported. "We are thrilled to have it back," Spikes said in a statement, "and are exploring the possibility of relaunching soon." Spikes' bid for the company's assets was apparently less than $250,000.

For more on the future of MoviePass, read our story about how Spikes got the company back.

The funny thing about MoviePass is that its basic idea — a subscription service for movie theaters — was a good one. Regal, AMC, Alamo and other theaters have since created similar services, and as theatergoing rebounds in a post-pandemic world those companies are eager to incentivize people to the big screen any way they can. And, of course, subscriptions have become a key business model across practically every industry. MoviePass' problem was all in the execution: It tried to go around theaters instead of working with them, grew too fast, lost too much money and eventually fell apart before it ever found a stable model. Spikes said in 2019 that a failed deal with AMC, which went away when Adam Aron became the theater chain's CEO, doomed MoviePass for good.

Spikes left the company in 2018 and founded a company called PreShow that was developing new ways for companies to show pre-roll ads and product placement. He told Insider he hopes to relaunch MoviePass sometime next year. For now, it resides at iwantmoviepass.com. The company didn't respond to a request for comment.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Adam Aron's name. This story was updated on Nov. 12, 2021.

David Pierce

David Pierce ( @pierce) is Protocol's former editorial director. Prior to joining Protocol, he was a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a senior writer with Wired, and deputy editor at The Verge. He owns all the phones.

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