As promised, MoviePass returns. Following last year’s Labor Day beta/waitlist launch, the theatrical subscription service is open to everyone in the US just ahead of the Memorial Day holiday. After years of rocky history, the company promised to return to normal with a more measured approach to accessing new movies after MoviePass 1.0, which was free for everyone.
“By opening up MoviePass to movie lovers across the country, we are expanding our support of the cinema industry by helping drive traffic to all theaters during the critical summer season,” said Stacy Spikes, co-founder and 2.0 CEO of 1.0, in a prepared statement. “Our revamped service gives our members more choice and flexibility in how they use their monthly credit, while continuing to encourage them to watch movies at the cinema.”
The service is rolling out across the US in four tiers, starting at $10 per month — practically priced like a streaming service. With this basic level you get one to three films per month. If you really love new movies and have a lot of free time, a $40 Pro account will get you 30 movies a month — roughly one movie a day, depending on the month. The company says the $20 tier is the most popular of the bunch, with three to seven per month.
Things are a bit complicated when it comes to how many movies you can actually watch per playthrough, since the tiers are actually based on “credits”. The number of credits per film depends on when you watch it. Tuesdays are the least used, followed by midweek matinees, midweek nights, weekend nights and opening weekends in first place.
The good news, however, is that the credits will roll over if you don’t use them up completely within a month. The company says: “You can have unused funds in your account at any time for up to a maximum of two months. For example, if your plan is 34 credits per month, you can have up to 68 credits in your account. ”
Given everything that happened to the original version of the service, some consumers might – understandably – be a bit wary. Certainly opening up for Memorial Day is a great way to increase the strength of the service.
