Download the MoviePass app

News broke yesterday that MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes purchased ownership of the beleaguered brand for an undisclosed sum. The transaction follows one of the more spectacular tech flameouts in recent memory. All of this still sounds very much up in the air. With an industry struggling to bring back audiences after a seemingly endless global pandemic, is it possible that this is the right moment for a more thoughtful return of movie ticket subscriptions?

TC: You had experience in the music industry that may have prepped you for the changes the movie industry has undergone over the past several years. It was a canary in the coal mine for a major part of the entertainment industry essentially imploding. Netflix was on the back end of a lot of those music subscription plays getting up and on their feet and making its digital transition out of DVDs and into digital. That was where digital really took hold first, and you saw it transforming the landscape.

When you had the idea for MoviePass, was there a sense that someone needed to disrupt theaters the way these services disrupted music? Being one of the few executives of color, I started Urban World Film Festival, to try and help filmmakers of color have a place. All this talent came up out of Urban World. Our initial thought was, their films were having a tough time getting into mainstream theaters and getting traction. What I was going to do is create a circuit that they would play 10 markets, we had a subscriber group, we would four-wall the theaters, and it would make the circuit.

We were trying to figure out what technology we would use. Who's a member? How do you get to the theater? How do you just walk in? How different was your view of what MoviePass would be from the model that Helios and Matheson ultimately put in place? We were A-B testing these things all day long. What you are trying to do is find the vector point between what's a profitable business price and what's too expensive for people and you cut out the ability to grow, and what's too cheap that you never, you're never going to make money.

There was no way. I think the big difference was we already knew that. When they came in with the idea that they know better, they fired me. At the end of the day as a business, that price wasn't sustainable. That's a simple truth.

There was the technical aspect of it, too. Shutdowns and other things were extremely frustrating for users. It functioned. Peopled loved the ease of service. I can go wherever I want, I can walk up to any theater. We had a larger footprint than Fandango and Movie Tickets combined. In any theater, probably except for drive-ins or cash-only, you could use MoviePass. So that ease of use and simplicity was perfect. We worked a lot of years to get that that right. Everything that transpired after that was intentional.

Those weren't technical issues. Them deciding to pull AMC Theaters, or your app not working fully were not technical issues. You mentioned AMC. Do you think you will try to court some of these larger theater chains? When you open the MoviePass app and tap on Theaters, you'll see every nearby theater that accepts your MoviePass card.

In cities such as New York, there are a ton of theaters. Even chains that require you to pick a seat in advance work with MoviePass, including my personal fave, Alamo Drafthouse.

Those theaters are a little tricker to book — more on that later. If you change your mind or a ticket agent tells you there are no more seats available, you can cancel your reservation or change your check-in and pick a different movie. That way, you avoid missing out on using your one-movie-a-day privilege.

Unfortunately, no. Every MoviePass subscriber must have their own membership, and you can't use one person's account to purchase more than one ticket. Hopefully, this won't be the case forever.

MoviePass says the theaters it works with are subject to change, so there's no guarantee that your favorite theater will always be included. To verify if an independently owned theater in your city supports MoviePass, contact the theater directly or check the MoviePass app. MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe made statements at a media conference in February that made it sound like his company tracks your location before you open the app and after you close it.

That would mean it has a robust profile on where you go before and after you see a movie. He later said he was joking. These include when a member requests to search for theaters nearby and when a member requests to check in to a theater.

Both events require both the app to be open and for the member to request the action. MoviePass does not track and has never tracked or collected data on the location of our members at any point when the app is not active. In our recent update with Apple, we removed the the background-tracking capabilities. MoviePass does not use and has never used this feature. To verify that the app is not tracking your location in the background on iOS, open your Settings app, select Privacy, tap on Location Services, and then choose MoviePass.

Make sure that the app is seeing your location only when you are actively using the app, not when it's open in the background. Like on-demand car services such as Uber and Lyft, MoviePass increases prices — or, in this case, charges an extra fee — to see a popular movie at prime times. Google Play. The Best Black Friday deals. Bill Gates' favorite books of Biden OKs release of oil from strategic reserves.

Resident Evil review. What your name means in Urban Dictionary. Windows Windows. Most Popular. New Releases. Desktop Enhancements. Networking Software. Trending from CNET.

Developer's Description By MoviePass. Full Specifications. What's new in version 3. Release November 13,