MoviePass Never Left My Heart
The cinematic highs and lows of being a cardholder.
During my hiatus, I stumbled upon something I thought I’d lost a long time ago: my MoviePass. Finding that little cherry-red debit card hit me with a rush of nostalgia. And I found myself longing for that magical time, back in 2018, when I saw multiple movies a week (sans mask) all around New York City, tossing my MoviePass down with the vigor of an 80’s Wall Street banker.
Back then, cardholders like me could see unlimited movies for only $10 a month. If you’re good at math, you might be wondering how this was a sustainable business model. Answer: it wasn’t.
To me, the rise and fall of MoviePass feels cinematic itself. In just a few weeks, it gained millions of users. Inevitably, things went wrong, and MoviePass was doomed to bankruptcy and memeification. But I’ve always rooted for an underdog.
I first learned of MoviePass just a few months after graduating from college in 2017. Like most recent grads, I was severly underemployed. I woke up every morning at 5am to get to my unpaid internship. From there, I would dash to my minimum wage job. I lived with relatives and had deferred student loan debt and most of my money, I’m embarrassed to say, went to improv classes. I loved living in New York, but rarely could afford to do anything that cost American dollars.
Then, in the dark control room of my unpaid internship, my mole-men coworkers described MoviePass to me. It sounded too good to be true. It was FREE MONEY!
My friends and I signed up immediately.
Of course, we all knew MoviePass could never last with its bonkers business model, but those who gleefully warned us ‘Passers that it would all come crumbling down missed the point. It didn’t matter that the moment was fleeting. It was the moment that mattered
Those first few months were a dream. We saw everything. And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING. From I Feel Pretty to Phantom Thread to Green Book to The Nun. We marched into theaters like we owned them. One benefit of my weird work schedule was the ability to see movies alone at 2:15pm on a Tuesday, just me and New York’s retired community. It was thrilling and empowering.
I even credit MoviePass for helping me find love. Nopher1 and I met at work, and for many months coexisted in the hazy, undefined space between work friends and friends friends. The first time we hung out outside of work, it was to see the documentary RBG with our MoviePasses. MoviePass made it not weird to see a movie together.
But the greatest high of MoviePass was the time I was feeling heartbroken over some 23-year-old drama and seeing Mama Mia: Here We Go Again in a theater packed with fellow MoviePass holders was the only thing that cheered me up.
The end came, to quote The Fault in our Stars, slowly, then all at once.
My MoviePass stopped working most the time. Every ticket purchase became a gamble. I felt so much affection (Stockholm Syndrome?) for movie theater staff who, in addition to the jobs they were actually paid to do, became de facto MoviePass customer service experts as well.2 I even developed a crush on the manager of the Union Square Regal. He was just so helpful!
Finally, MoviePass shut down its mobile ticketing service and filed for bankruptcy in 2019. It was truly the end of an era. For me, it was the era I moved into adulthood. Like MoviePass, my growth wasn’t always pretty, but boy did I make memories.
I’ll never forget where I was when I heard MoviePass is coming back, like a phoenix from the ashes. I was, well, where I’d been for a while. Stuck at home.
Of course, people are already scoffing at MoviePass 2, and making panicky posts about how the new MoviePass will track your eyeballs to make sure you’re watching the ads. I get that sounds scary but… I mean… they can have my eyes.
That’s right, I will be signing up for the new MoviePass. Because, after washing my groceries for a year, I’m craving a little mess.3
You might be wondering, “what does any of this MoviePass business have to do with Topher Grace?”
First of all, don’t use that tone with me. And second of all, it’s because the very last movie I was able to see with MoviePass4 was Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018), in which Topher plays the late David Duke.5
Aaaaand we’re back!
Who is regrettably still not Topher but is awesomely now my fiancé!
The official MoviePass customer service team was always unreachable - an ominous sign.
I swear MoviePass is not paying me to say this. They couldn’t afford it.
Those who used MoviePass in NYC will remember when the only theater you could use it at anymore was the Chelsea Cinepolis. That’s where I saw BlacKkKlansman, alone in the middle of the day.
That dude’s dead by now, right?