Max has released a trailer for his documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash, coming to the streaming service on May 29th. And honestly, it looks terrible. The trailer makes the film look like a gushing, hyperbolic TV news report of the worst kind, full of over-the-top voiceovers, staccato quips, and sensationalized quotes, all trying to inject sophisticated, lively energy into a story that doesn’t need it zhuzhing up. The actual document may not look like this; Trailers are notoriously unreliable when it comes to conveying what a film actually looks like. But either way I don’t care. I’m all in, and for one reason: I just want to see the faces of the people behind the story that I’ve watched for two years in utter disbelief: “Oh God, what?” Now?” Schadenfreude.
MoviePass existed for six years as a largely ignored, somewhat expensive movie ticket subscription service before analytics firm Helios and Matheson acquired it. In 2017, the revamped company introduced an unbeatable subscription service: Members could get unlimited movie tickets for about $10 a month. “How could this business model work?” industry observers asked at the time. The answer: It couldn’t. Helios and Matheson lost hundreds of millions of dollars on the project as they visibly, awkwardly, and very publicly struggled every few weeks to redefine the company’s intentions.
While this was all happening, I was film editor at The Verge and we were covering it every new beat in history How it happened because our readers loved to know what new nonsense MoviePass was up to. What made the story so fascinating and compelling was how absolutely clear it was that Helios and Matheson knew nothing about the industry they were trying to disrupt, and how quickly it kept changing the story about what MoviePass should do.
The company clearly assumed that its subscriber base would give it influence over the industry and was willing to accept huge losses while it tried to figure out what to do with that influence. It tried effectively for a week Blackmail theater chains entice him to give him discounts or risk MoviePass diverting its subscribers to other chains. It also tried Blackmailing studios into paying money for advertisingor risk the service blocking subscribers from purchasing tickets to those studios’ latest films.
At one point the company bragged about it the tracking data it collected about its subscribers with the intention of selling this data to investors; after a backlash, it I abruptly retracted that idea. Then suddenly MoviePass announced that it would become a film distributor. Meanwhile, prices and the services offered were changed too often, often without notice to subscribers who suddenly opted for new tariffs. even if they had already left the service. When the company hit rock bottom, it sent out a nice email claiming this was the case hired a dog as its new marketing manager, and apologized for the time subscribers spent on the service. The The company’s shareholders sued. The Subscribers did too.
I don’t have to watch MoviePass, MovieCrash To sum it all up: I experienced it, and not too long ago. I want to see the people behind the debacle. During the two-year barrage of frantic, nonstop news about MoviePass’ endless abrupt retooling, CEO Mitch Lowe has been the public face of each new debacle. But there were clearly many more people fighting for control behind the scenes, desperately trying to find a solution that would turn the ship around. All I want from a MoviePass documentary is to know what it was like for everyone who wasn’t Lowe, who wasn’t on camera trying to justify watching Helios and Matheson hemorrhage money investigated for fraudAnd watch the stock plummet 99 percent. I want to finally put a face to this wild, revealing catastrophe.
Here’s the official synopsis of the film from Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Original:
The HBO original documentary MOVIEPASS, MOVIECRASH, directed by award-winning filmmaker Muta’Ali (HBO’s “Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn”) premieres WEDNESDAY, MAY 29 at 9:00 PM ET/PT on HBO and is available to stream on Max . In eight years, MoviePass went from being the fastest-growing subscription service since Spotify to complete bankruptcy, losing over $150 million in 2017 alone. MOVIEPASS, MOVIECRASH chronicles the company’s beginnings as an innovative movie ticketing model popular with moviegoers and examines the visionary mission of its entrepreneurial co-founders, its impressive early successes, and its precipitous decline caused by mismanagement and corporate greed.
