MoviePass Founder Stacy Spikes Buys Company Out Of Bankruptcy and Prepares For Comeback

MoviePass, the revolutionary Black-owned subscription-based movie ticketing service, is making a grand comeback.

Insider reported that the relaunch of the popular service saw nearly 500,000 signups last week to its waitlist. The first 24 hours were especially exciting for the MoviePass founder and CEO, Stacy Spikes, who managed to buy the company out of bankruptcy last November.

“We’re thrilled to see this level of excitement and can’t wait to get back to the business of driving traffic to theaters,” Spikes told the outlet, adding that the server crashed for two and a half hours due to the 30,000 signups in the first five minutes.

Last Thursday, MoviePass opened up a waitlist for people to jump at the opportunity of receiving priority access to the service and 10 friend invites. The website urged, “space is limited don’t wait” because the waitlist will close when the timer reaches :00 on Monday August 29 at 11:59 pm ET, or while inventory lasts.

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The new MoviePass Beta App will be accessible by invite only. On Labor Day, Sep 5, people who signed up for the waitlist and invited friends will be able to begin purchasing tickets to the movies they want to see in theaters.

Founded in 2011, MoviePass amassed 3 million subscribers in less than a year due to its $10 offer to see one movie a day for an entire month during the summer of 2017, according to CNN Business. After burning through millions of dollars, MoviePass shut down in September 2019, and its parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), filed for bankruptcy in 2020.

The outlet, which describes the service as “one of the industry’s most notorious flops,” posed the question: “Will MoviePass, and its new leadership, finally achieve its Hollywood ending? Can it create a sustainable business that could change the movie landscape forever?”

The latest model offers monthly subscription prices at $10, $20, or $30. Each subscription option will give the user a certain number of credits to use toward movies.

While the theater industry tries to attract more guests, MoviePass is again in the spotlight.