MoviePass, MovieCrash

This is probably one of the most infamous company downfalls in recent history, and it's a great story to tell; yet I wanted more.

There are a lot of talking heads with different perspectives, including most of the former board members; yet I feel I didn't see the whole picture.

We are told how the original team came to be and the rise of what would've been considered the standard for movie going experiences. A proper subscription service where you can see any film, any theater anytime. Ideal and I think it would've been a good thing to continue. ESP with cinemas becoming less valued these days.

We saw the back and forth between AMC, investors.

We then switch once the newer CEO's come in Remove the founders and begin a campaign that would eventually crush themselves under their own weight.

While I was engaged and enjoyed the breezy feel of this doc I felt like there was things left unsaid. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what Maybe they had NDA's they couldn't break at the moment.

Mitch Lowe comes across as a man who simply made mistakes, far from it. Pure slime along with Ted Farnsworth.

The ultimate revelation comes in when it's revealed that this was a fraud scheme from the get go.

And how they let the system go down while embezzling funds from the venture capital group.

But by the time we get to the meat of what went wrong, it's over.

Maybe it really was a, what you see is what you get.

I don't know. I feel that they stretched it out more than what was needed. And more could've been said on what the core of movie pass was. How the software worked and why they didn't hire more staff.

Worth a watch, but don't expect a huge revelation from it. More of a cliff notes of history.

As "MoviePass MovieCrash" (2024 release; 91 min.) opens, we are introduced to various key players of the original MoviePass project. It is 2016, 5 years after the start of MoviePass, and the company is making a bold move in order to grow its subscriber bas: unlimited movies, anytime, anywhere, for $9.95/mth. At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from director Muta'Ali ("Cassius X: Becoming Ali"). Here he brings two stories in one: the rise and fall of MoviePass, a story known by many; and then there is this: did you know that MoviePass was in fact founded by two African-American guys? I didn't. And what happened to these guys? We get the full picture in this revealing documentary. This documentary reminds us of two correlating points: if something sounds too god to be true, it probably is; and corporate greed is alive and well. Mark Walhberg is credited as a co-producer.

"MoviePass, MovieCrash" premiered at this year's SXSW festival, to immediate critical acclaim. The documentary is now airing on HBO and its streaming platform Max, where I saw it the other day. It is currently rated 88% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason. If you are in the mood for a documentary that goes well beyond the rise and fall of MoviePass, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I had a membership to moviepass in 2017? I think. I remember thinking it was the greatest thing. I belonged to it for like 3 months and only saw 1 or 2 movies. They got my money! Lol

This ran a little long. It was over an hour and a half and could've been shortened to an hour and still kept the important details in it. Most documentaries are like that though.

I had to roll my eyes when they discussed the two founding members being black and that that was a reason for them being fired. I understand having that thrown in because this was made during the early 2020's and that's when race and gender was all anyone talked about. It wasn't necessary for the overall message of the documentary.

...in how outsiders can wreck a company.

Interesting documentary of how MoviePass came about, was taken over, and then driven into bankruptcy.

Synopsis: a major investor in the start-up created by two African-American entrepreneurs brings in two outsiders, one a liar who falsely claims to have invented Netflix, another a shady financier from Wall Street. Soon these creeps oust the black founders and go down a path of wild spending and self promotion with the business news outlets and Hollywood partying and conning new investors and bankrupt the company. Laws were broken.

Though the particulars are different and usually it is done legally this is a great example of hedge funds or private equity firms or mega corporations buying companies, then looting and or mismanaging them. These then end in bankruptcy or selling the dimished concerns at a great loss.

Don't believe me? Google any of the following: Friendly's restaurants, DirectTV, Time Warner, GeoCities, ManorCare nursing homes, Great Western wines, or Samsonite. This is just a tiny fraction of all the examples out there.

So as I said, business school students should be made aware of this dark side of American Capitalism. Not to battle this uniquely American economic system, but perhaps to improve it.

Classic before-and-after tale of a company's glory days under the founders before corporate egos come in and drive it into the ground. MoviePass, MovieCrash concerns the ill-fated MP subscription service that allowed members to attend multiple screenings for a flat monthly fee. Kind of like the Netflix formula, but for actual theatergoers.

In this case glory days is relative since the business model was not sustainable to begin with. The founders seem indifferent to having lost 'only' a few $100K per month when compared to the $30Mil burn rate of their hedge fund-backed successors, but to me that almost misses the point. Yes one was embarrassing while the other was downright absurd, but neither was poised for success. After all, the concept of all-you-can-eat should be used as a temporary bridge rather than a long-term plan, and any company whose survival relies on users NOT taking advantage of why they signed up is doomed no matter who's at the helm- be it the charming founders, the greedy businessmen or any of their acolytes. In hindsight the blame game appears even more trivial given that MoviePass went bankrupt in January 2020; would the pandemic not have wiped them out regardless?

I would have been ok had the filmmakers left it there, but they do favor one side over the other (you can guess which one) and romanticize their journey as they prepare for a re-launch today. So it could be worth your time to see how persuasively that argument is made. Otherwise I'd just lump MoviePass in with all the other victims of streaming (there've been too many) and this film as one long commercial for what they plan to do next. I do hope they make it because I still treasure going out to the movies, but I doubt I'd go for this one.