HBO has launched a trailer for his or her documentary characteristic MoviePass, MovieCrash. The movie follows the meteoric rise and devastating implosion of the movie subscription service MoviePass.
Within the first take a look at the doc by director Muta’Ali Muhammad, insiders inform the untold story behind the corporate. “After they discuss MoviePass, you normally get an image of [former CEOs] Mitch [Lowe] and Ted [Farnsworth]. However that’s positively not the case,” one former worker says.
Whereas the corporate was based by Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, they finally discovered themselves forged apart, watching from the sidelines as the brand new executives seized management. “This can be a firm, not a household, and never all roles get to get together,” Lowe says within the trailer, which calls consideration to management’s lavish spending on events with celebrities like John Travolta and Huge Boi.
In a span of eight years, MoviePass went from being the quickest rising subscription service since Spotify to whole chapter, dropping over $150 million in 2017 alone.
MoviePass, MovieCrash chronicles the corporate’s beginnings as an progressive film ticketing mannequin beloved by cinemagoers, exploring the visionary mission of its entrepreneur co-founders, its early successes and its downfall brought on by mismanagement and company greed.
MoviePass supplied entry to movie show tickets at a reduced month-to-month subscription charge. In 2017, with a “too good to be true” promotional deal of $9.95 a month, subscriptions exploded, the corporate’s inventory soared and buyers rushed to get in on the enterprise. Nevertheless, below Lowe and Farnsworth’s management with a essentially unsustainable enterprise mannequin, the corporate shuttered abruptly in 2019.
In November 2022, Lowe and Farnsworth have been indicted on securities fraud expenses for allegedly deceiving buyers concerning the firm’s enterprise mannequin and sustainability.
One other former government, Khalid Itum, was discovered responsible in February 2024 of embezzling at the very least $260,000 from the subscription service and its mother or father firm, Helios & Matheson Analytics, to repay money owed incurred by producing a advertising occasion on the Coachella music pageant in 2018. MoviePass was revived in 2023 by Spikes, who now serves as CEO.
MoviePass, MovieCrash options unique interviews with MoviePass co-founders Spikes and Watt, MoviePass board member Chris Kelly, former MoviePass CEO Lowe, Enterprise Insider journalists Nathan McAlone and Jason Guerrasio, former FTC director Daniel Kaufman, in addition to monetary analysts, retail buyers and former MoviePass workers and subscribers.
Take a look at the trailer beneath, and watch MoviePass, MovieCrash when it debuts on Wednesday, Might 29, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and MAX.
