--- title: "Sigh… MoviePass Is Back From the Grave Yet Again" description: "The infamous MoviePass — best known for ripping off its own customers — returns next month as a beta app, and it we're not really sure why." date: "2022-08-23" modified: "2022-08-23" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/moviepass-is-back" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "apps" - "moviepass" - "movies" - "the digest" --- # Sigh… MoviePass Is Back From the Grave Yet Again ![The infamous MoviePass — best known for ripping off its own customers — returns next month as a beta app, and it we're not really sure why.]() *A hand coming out of a grave \Image: Getty Images\* ## Take Three The infamous MoviePass is making a return. Yes, the company best known for [ripping off]() its own customers and [imploding spectacularly]() just two years after its breakout in popularity is coming back. First [reported by *Insider*](), the move was soon confirmed on [MoviePass on Twitter]() — and not to much fanfare. Back in its 2017 heyday, MoviePass offered customers up to one movie ticket a day for just $9.95 a month. If that sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is. The service bought tickets from theaters at full price and then served them to subscribers at no extra cost, a model which, much like your local Planet Fitness, relies on most customers not actually showing up and taking advantage of the ludicrously cheap deal. Turns out people really like the moviegoing experience, though, and MoviePass started losing money out the wazoo when customers showed up in droves to theaters. Unsurprisingly, the company went belly up in 2019 — until now, like a villain in a horror movie, springing back from the grave. ## Block-busted This time around, after being [sold back]() to its co-founder Stacy Spikes last year, the much-maligned service offers subscription tiers of $10, $20, and $30 per month. Instead of a hard limit or quota to the amount of movies users can watch monthly, the subscription tiers give varying levels of points to customers who can then use them to see a movie. Right now, it’s unclear how those points will be allocated, and whether unused points will carryover month to month. But credit where credit’s due: with that kind of nebulous point system, MoviePass has somehow managed to be even more obnoxious than last time. We’re not really sure how MoviePass plans to survive in the current market. The biggest cinema chains, like AMC and Regal, already offer customers their own exclusive "unlimited" movie passes, and for the most part deliver on that premise. Why anyone would stop using those passes and switch to a service that was caught [locking out its customers]() by falsely claiming there was "suspicious activity" on their accounts to save money, is beyond us. MoviePass launches its "Beta App" on September 5, according to *Insider*, and a waitlist to sign up opens this Thursday — so one way or another, we'll find out. **More on MoviePass:** [*Cursed App Says You'll Earn Crypto If You Stare at Ads With Your Eyes Open Like in "A Clockwork Orange"*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()