Moviepass Is Back (And Is Already A Hot Mess)

In what will no doubt be remembered as the most famous resurrection in human history (we assume) friggin’ Moviepass is back. Fans of sitting motionless in the dark were able to sign-up for a waitlist for the revived company’s beta service last week, but unfortunately, a lot of them just got an error message, because this company is the Lucy holding a football to movie lovers' Charlie Brown …

Yeah, apparently Moviepass’ server crashed, which … doesn’t seem like a great sign. Now the waitlist is seemingly closed, unless you snagged an invitation from a friend. We also learned that the beta phase will target three cities; Dallas, Chicago, and Kansas City.  And sure, there are some reasons to be more optimistic about this incarnation of Moviepass compared with the previous, woefully-doomed (and occasionally sketchy) version  – namely, because Moviepass was reclaimed by co-founder Stacy Spikes, who was literally fired from the company for pointing out the unsustainability of their business model 

But there are also some reasons to be skeptical; for one thing, Spikes’ credit-based system involves earning the ability to obtain further credits by watching commercials with eyeball-tracking tech, which ensures that you won’t look away from your device and miss, say, Tom Selleck trying to con you into ruining your finances. And we just got a look at the price categories for the new program, which include a range of benefits per level. Like for $10, you get 1 to 3 movies each month.

So does that mean that you only get one guaranteed movie, and to get more you have to watch stare intently at, say, Aaron Paul daring you to get into sports betting? The service is set to begin on September 5th, so presumably we’ll know more in the coming days.

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter! 

Thumbnail: Moviepass