Over the weekend, MoviePass appeared to be going out of business. The subscription movie ticket service was experiencing widespread outages, fixed only after they secured an additional $5 million, which they quickly burned through despite recently blocking admission to Mission: Impossible — Fallout on opening weekend. The CEO held an all-hands meeting on Tuesday, hinting that major movies will possibly be blocked. Later in the day, MoviePass raised their monthly subscription price from $9.95 to $14.95 and officially limited first-run movie admissions (the first two weeks for anything opening on more than 1,000 screens).
The presumed impending end of MoviePass has led many to roast the company on Twitter. But you won’t be seeing us celebrate its demise. We come not to bury MoviePass, but to praise it. MoviePass, you took money from venture capitalists and gave discounted tickets to people who were primarily not venture capitalists. Or, as The Atlantic‘s Derek Thompson put it earlier this year, “MoviePass isn’t a business so much as a late-capitalist welfare program that redistributes hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capital to subsidize American leisure.”
Your grift was noble, MoviePass, but it seems your grift may be nearing its end. You lived your life like a, well, not a candle in the wind. More like a tremendous pile of money set alight in a puddle of gasoline. But money can only burn so bright for so long. You were too good for this one-legged edificeering, Tom Cruise ankle breaking, ABBA jukebox musical watching world. You will be missed. Or you’ll get another round of funding and we’ll meet again in a few months for another joke eulogy. If that’s the case, we promise we’ll act surprised. It’s the least we can do for a dear friend.
As the MoviePass death watch enters another day, we collect some more of our favorite Twitter jokes (previous jokes here).
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) July 31, 2018
MoviePass is now saying that for just 23 extra bucks of surge pricing, i can catch a showing of Mission Impossible 6 tomorrow at 3:24 AM in a Rite Aid parking lot on the CEO's cracked iPad
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) July 30, 2018
RIP to MoviePass, a great socialist scheme accidentally implemented by very confused capitalists
— Zach Schonfeld (@zzzzaaaacccchhh) July 30, 2018
MoviePass: We sell $10 bills for $8!
Everyone: How will you make money
MoviePass: VOLUME
— Adam Conover (@adamconover) July 31, 2018
pic.twitter.com/xUevXXw9ck
— Nick Wiger (@nickwiger) July 30, 2018
will MoviePass have an end credits scene
— Carrie Wittmer (@carriesnotscary) July 31, 2018
let’s all put on a big variety act and save MoviePass
— very professional (@rachelmillman) July 31, 2018
[checks in at MoviePass headquarters] pic.twitter.com/ICzNvQclKf
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 30, 2018
a live look at the moviepass offices pic.twitter.com/Ib08nNd9S1
— shaye (@shayedavis) July 30, 2018
live look at moviepass headquarters pic.twitter.com/FVZMvhMSxj
— Mike Ross (@MCRossIsNotAPun) July 31, 2018
Live look-in at the Movie Pass stock pic.twitter.com/d4JoA8Co9d
— Mark Ellis (@markellislive) July 30, 2018
I got MoviePass for Christmas, and I've seen about $150 of movies on it, so the gift was worthwhile, but the amount of entertainment I've gotten following their insane and terrible business model – essentially "let's lose a fortune for no reason" – is priceless.
— Kaleb Horton (@kalebhorton) July 30, 2018
Let this be said about MoviePass: a bunch of people got to see movies for practically nothing because somebody successfully ripped off a bunch of venture capitalist paypigs. That's kind of beautiful.
— Kaleb Horton (@kalebhorton) July 30, 2018
im late to eulogize but moviepass was good because it was so plainly a bad idea and the people who ultimately got fucked over the worst by it are the investors/owners of the faceless big data co that owns it. to a normal person, using moviepass was the ultimate victimless grift.
— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) July 31, 2018
me trying to see as many movies as i can before moviepass dies pic.twitter.com/P2lnm7xCU2
— skinny little bitch (@ladybtrd) July 31, 2018
RIP MoviePass. pic.twitter.com/J5jPOosXhN
— Jenna Amatulli (@ohheyjenna) July 31, 2018
MoviePass revealed the truth, the economic model that worked for access to gyms may not work for access to sitting still in cool darkness.
— Caitlin Gill (@ROBOTCAITLIN) July 31, 2018
For $15.95 a month, MoviePass will let you watch all the VHS tapes your parents still own
— Shawn Reynolds (@ShawnReynolds_) August 1, 2018
MoviePass Announces New Card-less, App-less, Fee-free, "Pay-as-You-Go" Model: With membership seamlessly integrated into their wallets, moviegoers will be charged only the ticket price of the film they want to see, in person, onto their existing credit cards. No need to check in!
— Eric Allen Hatch (@ericallenhatch) July 31, 2018
If you were never unemployed with movie pass, you haven’t lived
— lina abascal (@linalovesit) July 31, 2018
i cant wait to tell other people's grandchildren about how i made moviepass go bankrupt by seeing Paddington 2 and I, Tonya a collective 10 times in theatres
— crissy (@crissymilazzo) July 31, 2018
I hope they make a movie about the rise and fall of MoviePass and none of us can go see it
— Samantha Ruddy (@samlymatters) July 31, 2018