Yes, AMC didn’t love the unlimited option from the previous version. Spikes, who classified the discussions with the “very open-minded” execs at both Cinemark and Regal as “great,” doesn’t understand the AMC issue. An AMC Entertainment spokesperson declined to comment on this story. At the time of our interview, he had received no response. And then an email (which, via read receipt, Spikes says he saw was opened). “I had conversations with Cinemark, I had conversations with Regal, and Adam didn’t call me back.” “When I bought MoviePass back, in November, I reached out to all three (of the big theater chains),” he told IndieWire. Spikes is still trying to mend that fence. In a press release explaining the move, AMC noted “it is not yet known how to turn lead into gold… In AMC’s view, that price level is unsustainable and only sets up consumers for ultimate disappointment.” Back in August 2017, AMC Entertainment pulled itself out of MoviePass’ game. “Before, you never saw the math behind the scenes.”Īll theaters will be in the new MoviePass interface - yes, even AMC, whether CEO Adam Aron likes it or not. “It’s much more of a marketplace,” Spikes said during our Friday phone call. The number of credits required to see a movie on the same time on the same day can vary by theater. It’s variable pricing, but not based on seat selection or by film. Theaters can toggle peak and off-peak designations. This MoviePass, with tiers of $10, $20, and $30, will grant consumers a certain number of monthly credits per month that can be applied toward peak and off-peak screenings. Liang Yang and Henry Cavill in “Mission Impossible – Fallout” Chiabella James “I had been fired and was sitting at home going, ‘This is so bad.'” “Why would you make enemies of your theater partners and your customers? That makes no sense,” Spikes said. It wasn’t the only mistake there were also the blackout dates that removed certain theaters and movies. In Spikes’ estimation, for the unlimited plan to scale, the cash loss from MoviePass subscriptions would climb into the billions. “That was part of why they fired me and forced me out of the company because I kept saying, ‘This can’t work.'” “There’s no way that a $10 price point would work on any planet,” Spikes said. When HMNY installed a $9.95-per-month unlimited plan, it seemed too good to be true - or at least, to make money. The biggest issue for MoviePass 1.0 was its clearly unsustainable price point. (He’s also quick to point out they weren’t his sins.) Spikes, who reacquired the company last November, vows to not repeat the sins of the past. The next year, MoviePass shut down it filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Founded in 2011, Spikes sold a majority stake of MoviePass to Helios and Matheson (HMNY) in 2017, which then fired Spikes in 2018. ‘Lucky Hank’ Review: Bob Odenkirk Hits a Mid-Life Crisis in AMC’s Light-Cringe Academia Drama The 2.0 plan, as he put it, is to “open certain markets, test out the new system, make sure we’ve got happy people - then continue to open it wider and wider.” Spikes said he has “no idea” how many people that will be - not while his head is still spinning from demand - but he’s vowed to slow-play MoviePass this time. A week later, an indeterminate number of those who signed up will be converted to actual users of MoviePass 2.0 (as Spikes is calling his vision’s resurrection). “It’s a good problem to have,” he said of the mad rush. Spikes estimated perhaps 50,000 or 100,000 Day-1 signups, so he isn’t sweating the server meltdown. ![]() “Holy moly!” is how Spikes put it to IndieWire. this morning, the reconnected waitlist had 463,000 signups. By 9:05, 30,000 people signed up, crashing the website for nearly three hours. The new MoviePass waitlist opened yesterday at 9 a.m. MoviePass 2.0 owner (and original co-founder) Stacy Spikes is feeling as overwhelmed as his servers were on Thursday morning.
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