When MoviePass introduced its $9.95 unlimited plan back in 2017, allowing you to watch one movie a day, it sounded too good to be true. That's exactly what it turned out to be, but not before millions of people signed up. However, the unlimited plan looks set to make a comeback.
As Variety reports, next week MoviePass is expected to reintroduce an unlimited plan in some form. That's been confirmed by Khalid Itum, executive VP of MoviePass. The new plan would remove the limit on movie watching, but there's no detail on how much it will cost or if there will be any restrictions on the 2D and 3D movies available to view.
The economics of allowing someone to watch a movie every day for $10 simply didn't add up, and it ultimately failed. Last year we saw MoviePass try to limit the fallout by introducing ticket verifications, then the pricing was changed, how many movies you could watch got a hard limited, and money was borrowed to pay the bills.
MoviePass in 2019 is different. Pricing depends on which zip code you live in and which subscription tier you choose (Select, All Access, or Red Carpet). Select gets you three 2D movies per month from a restricted list. All Access keeps the three movie limit but allows all 2D movies to be viewed. Then there's Red Carpet, which adds one IMAX 2D, IMAX 3D, or REALD 3D movie per month. Pricing varies between $9.95 and $24.95 depending on your location.
On the pricing front for a new unlimited plan, we can speculate a bit. If Red Carpet costs $24.95, then an unlimited plan will most certainly cost significantly more than that. $40-$50 perhaps? Price may not be the biggest hurdle to overcome, though. Many consumers understandably don't trust MoviePass after what happened last time, so why would they take the same risk again and for a much higher subscription charge this time? Your money is going to be better spent on a new TV and a streaming service subscription.