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.