Failed theater subscription service MoviePass says it's coming back with a tiered payment system this Labor Day. Cheddar News speaks with Joan Solsman, Senior Media Reporter at  CNET, about how the new version is different from the previous service and how consumers can get the best bang for their buck. 

Closing Bell

What You Need to Know About MoviePass 2.0

Okay, well, switching gears here, cinema subscription service, Movie Pass coming back the company saying on its website, it's launching beta featuring three pricing tiers, that'll be $10.20 dollars and $30 with each level, getting a certain number of credits toward movies every month. Movie pass, you will call shutdown and service back in september of 2019 and a few months later it's parent filed for chapter seven bankruptcy, seizing all business operations. Well, joining me now, how is Joan Solsman, senior media reporter at Cnet. Joan thanks so much for coming on the show. So you know, movie past at its height had as many as three million paying subscribers. It was great for consumers, but it did lose money on virtually every subscriber because people took advantage of the service, they went to the movies and of course it was a low price back then. So what is different this time around about the business model that might actually allow the company to stay afloat. The biggest difference this time around is that his leadership Stacy spikes, which was the founder of Movie Pass but was ousted by the executives who essentially took over operations, kicked him out and then sort of drove the company off a cliff, Stacy spikes his back and he's known as being not only an appreciator of film exhibition of these huge movie fan, but he's also much more pragmatic executive than the executives who took over took movie pass to those atmospheric heights and then had that gigantic flameout that everyone sort of associates the company with. So the biggest changes leadership and I think with spikes returning, there's also going to be a return to much more of a sustainable and hopefully symbiotic relation with the exhibition industry so that hopefully both those industries will be passed and exhibition and work together to thrive. What does this mean for consumers joan do you think that they'll still continue to get a deal on this pricing plan? Well They're not gonna get the movie a day. $10 deal that everybody loves so much that also cost the company billions and billions and billions of dollars and also led to some light if not outright fraud. Um, but there are, it's very hazy what the specifics are going to be for this plan. But the idea is that consumers, as you said, there are different tiers of service that will unlock a certain number of credits for movie admissions and then there may be other ways to earn credits like by watching advertising Stacy spikes launched a service. Um also sort of in beta in between. It's his after he was out of that lets you watch advertising to unlock other things. He wants to sort of integrate that business called pre show into movie past that will mean that you get deals um, how they compare to all these new sort of movie past s services that are being offered by chains. Now after movie past failed there are some puts and takes some differences between what you get with movie pass and what you could get if you sign up as a loyalty member with a cinema chain. Now, what about participating theaters do we have any insight joan as to which theaters will be on board and whether or not it will be more or less or the same options basically for customers. Right. Well there's a distinction between theatre chains that are on board with movie past 2.0 and where you can go as a consumer with a movie pass subscription. Similar to before. One of the things that one of the things that continues from the strategy before the proposition before is that you can essentially go to any theater that accepts mastercard. It still will have this sort of credit card based system rather than a solely partnership based system with chains. So you won't be locked out of any theaters. Which is a big difference from any of these loyalty programs with chains where you are locked in to a specific theater chain if you want to go to one of those limited or multiple movies a week sort of subscription programs. I guess one of the things major things that's changed is there are way more streaming options. A pandemic happens since this company filed for bankruptcy months before the pandemic? And just overall habits have changed. Right so is there an appetite joan that you find among people to actually go back to movie theaters to actually take advantage of this service. We're certainly seeing growth in movie going, it's for this year example, we've already passed the level where domestic box office grosses all of 2021 box office gross. We've already passed that level about a month ago. And so we know that each year since we've had the most dire time of movie exhibition every year is getting better. The question is, are people still interested in going to theaters as enthusiastically with the movie pass when they aren't basically sort of getting movies for free. Um, as they did at the first or the most popular iteration of it. And that question raised we see, but we do know that, you know, granted it wasn't a sustainable model, But when movie pass was at its height in that summer, you know, the summer before there had been In a 25 year low in movie attendance and the next summer there was a rebound movie past wasn't the only factor had to do with what movies were being released. Some gigantic boss busters came out that summer, but experts agree that movie past and the enthusiasm it generated around going to the movies helped get off of those lows. And if there's one thing that people need right now, it's enthusiasm to go to the movies with all these streaming, sit on your couch, all you gotta do is click a couple buttons, you get to watch a movie, all those options available to you. So I think it is worth noting. Um And I wish we could go longer joan. But my last question is in a world whether or not that might portend anything its own recent bankruptcy of course based in the U. K. Filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy bringing down shares of AMC we've seen of late. Does that portend anything for the revival of movie past two point? Oh all right. Well one of the benefits of the disaster of movie past one point. Oh is that it's already gone through the pain of bankruptcy So it doesn't have its shed all of those liabilities that although they're not the same kind of problems that A. M. C. And the world are dealing with, you know, AMC and in the world they're dealing with gigantic debt loads and they're also dealing with this slower than hoped rebounds and movie going attendance. Those aren't issues necessarily. You know, movie past doesn't have to worry about the liability of a bunch of real estate lease holdings. It doesn't have to worry about paying people to scoop popcorn. So they're different business models. And for a N. On movie passes side it does have the fact that it's already gone through all the pain and suffering of a bankruptcy too. In a way somewhat start start a new now. What about how this compares for consumers? Here's what I'm interested in, joan to AMC stubs list. That's a new loyalty program that AMC has formed kind of in the wake of movie past one point, Oh, it's actual downfall. Do you think this movie past two point Oh, can be competitive with that? And what's the deal? What's the better deal for consumers? It's hard to be able to compare directly because we don't know. We don't know what exactly you're gonna pay for with movie pass and what you get for what you pay for them. Perhaps they haven't, they haven't even said exactly what, you know, markets, they're going to be launching it, they're not going to be launching nationwide at first. They're going to start with certain markets and roll out to others later, but generally not knowing, you know, price comparisons, we can know that with those chain based movie. I'm sorry, those chain based subscription services, like a list like AMC stubs a list, you get a certain number of movies a week. You also get perks on, like you can book online without any ticket fees, you get upgrades on your popcorn and a free refill. Those chain based loyalty programs can reward you like a loyal customer Movie pass can't really reward you with those in theater perks necessarily until it has partnerships with, say AMC the biggest chain in the country, but it can award you for different kinds of loyalty. It can reward, it says they're going to reward people who were previous, like the past one point Oh, members, I'm not exactly sure how that's gonna work because buying it in and out of the bankruptcy, I don't think they got the customer information, but we'll see. We'll see. The main idea is that with Movie Pass, you'll have more freedom. You won't have be rewarded quite as much for brand loyalty. All right, Joan Solsman, senior tech and media reporter at Cnet, Joan, thanks so much.