MoviePass, MovieCrash

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 was just about to sign up for MoviePass in 2018 when it started to have "issues" and started changing its terms and conditions. And, then there were stories about regular users getting 'throttled' so they couldn't access the service.

Muta 'Ali's HBO Documentary takes a pretty standard approach with talking heads, clips etc.. What it does have in its favor is access to several of the key players in the saga including the two original founders, Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, and the man who aced them out of their own company, Mitch Lowe. Things came all crashing down when Lowe brought in Ted Farnsworth (he did not co-operate in this film).

While there is no doubt that having so many principals on the record (including investors, former employees and customers), it does seem as if Ali didn't press them enough. It takes almost 40 minutes for the filmmakers to clearly state the obvious flaw in the MoviePass model - how can you give away more in services (movie tickets) than you take in in subscriptions - and still make a profit? The other big ominous cloud in the story is the mysterious investment firm Hudson Bay. That angle,too, is pressed hard enough.

The documentary does the basics here, but little more. Co-founder Spikes bought the company back from bankruptcy and it's still hanging around today, but nowhere never the level it had at it's peak. The issue remains the same - large profits seem nearly impossible to attain unless either: A. A bunch of your subscribers DON'T use your service. Or, B. The movie theater chains give MoviePass discounted tickets (of course, the chains' decided to just start their own subscriber services).

A crisply edited, easy to follow documentary tracing the inception, initial years, popular explosion and subsequent implosion of an innovative business model within the film industry ecosystem. Candid interviews with almost all of the key personalities make for a very interesting story that tells the all-too-familiar saga of how a single business proposition can evolve in all manner of unexpected directions based on the individual goals and ideas of whoever is at the helm of a business at any given point in its evolution. Those interested in general business practices and/or movies in general are likely to be highly engaged.

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.

...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.