When Moviepass announced that it would allow you to watch at least one theater film a day for just $10/month, the deal seemed too good to be true. And it was, though it wouldn’t be apparent till a couple years later after top executives Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth burned through the company’s funding and ultimately ran the company down to the ground. That’s one story MoviePass, MovieCrash tells, that of a business that bit too much than it could chew. But the documentary also brings to the fore the overlooked story of Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, the company’s Black co-founders who built something special and innovative, but who were shoved off in a frustrating move of greed and racial politics. That’s the more interesting part of the film, especially since Spikes eventually reclaims what’s his. It’s also what gives the documentary more heart than the usual tale of a business’s downfall.
Exploring the company founding and the implosion of the business by outside investors who took over the company, left it bankrupt and under investigation.
Chronicles the fast rise and even faster fall of Moviepass, the movie-theater subscription service that was.
The frustrating fact that the model would actually work and more people would be behind it now that streaming is trying to take over the movie industry.
If your gut tells you it’s too good to be true, it most likely is.
