MoviePass Is Why We Have “Inflation” - by Jonathan V. Last
The company is a relic of the Trump era and its trajectory explains part of why people are so sour about the economy in 2024. It’s a story about Silicon Valley and venture capital and fraud, all of which are very sexy. It’s also a story about interest rates, which are not sexy.
But when you roll it all together, it’s a story about why people look around today and think everything is terrible. Because while the real economy is doing great, the MoviePass economy is dead.
Back in 2017, MoviePass offered consumers an amazing product. You paid $9.95 a month and in return MoviePass would buy you a ticket to see one movie a day, every day, with no exclusions.
So if you subscribed to MoviePass and saw two movies a month, the company lost roughly 200 percent of the gross revenue they extracted from you. Many subscribers saw more than two movies per month.
In a rational world, MoviePass should have been trying desperately to prevent people from subscribing—because every new subscriber increased their losses.
