MoviePass was not a good service.

I say this as a former subscriber who was lured by the tempting offer of unlimited movies for only $8.95 a month. Ticket prices in New York City, where I lived at the time, were $16 a pop. MoviePass was too good a deal to pass up. The freedom to walk into a movie theater, swipe my debit card, and get a ticket to the latest movie without having to spend my own money (subscription fees aside) was very attractive.

Until it wasn't. As predicted from the beginning, MoviePass was too good to be true: Business Insider reported that the service shut down on September 13, 2020, and the service finally declared bankruptcy today (January 29). Don't worry, MoviePass is not coming back like a horror movie villain. Instead of filing for Chapter 11, it declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Helios and Matheson Analytics, the parent company of MoviePass, found itself running out of money faster than expected in the first few months of service. Not surprisingly, the service was quite popular, and MoviePass had to pay the full amount of tickets purchased through the service to the movie theater chains. The company therefore introduced a peak pricing model that restricted the movies that could be seen and the days on which they could be seen, and charged an additional fee for popular movies during busy times of the day.

In the two years since MoviePass stunned moviegoers with its incredible deal, it has raised prices, lowered prices, and changed subscription plans numerous times. It's no surprise that subscribers fed up with the service's endless shenanigans have jumped ship; according to CNBC, the number of MoviePass customers dropped from nearly 3 million at the height of its popularity to 225,000 in April. I myself quit early because I had to pay a peak pricing fee for the same movie ticket my husband (also a MoviePass subscriber) had, and because he didn't have to pay the fee. I was disgusted.

But even though MoviePass was a lousy company with no viable business model, it gave the movie theater chains an eventual competitive edge; companies like AMC and Alamo Drafthouse were not as generous as the $8.95/month unlimited movie subscription, but not far behind introduced their own subscription plans, which are not as generous as the $8.95/month unlimited movie plan, but not far behind. AMC's "Stubs" program, for example, offers three tiers, including a $25/month "A-List" program that allows subscribers to watch three movies a week. A good deal for avid moviegoers, Alamo Drafthouse's season pass is still in beta, but early testers can see one movie per day for $20 per month and reserve seats in advance.

We're used to paying for subscriptions to use the services we love, whether it's streaming Netflix, working out on Peloton, or free shipping on Amazon Prime; MoviePass applies that to moviegoing as well, and movie theater chains to take note. The company looked like a dumpster, but the idea was sound.

When Alamo Drafthouse expands its Season Pass program, I'm set. And I will be (partially) grateful for MoviePass.