MoviePass’ planned return will officially just miss the summer holiday rush. Interested parties will be able to sign up for the service’s waiting list this Thursday. The move, which was noted by Business Insider, is reflected in a giant countdown clock currently posted on MoviePass’ site.
Specifically, the time is counting down to the opening of the service’s beta. It’s a first-come, first-served deal. Those who make it will be notified on Labor Day, when they can choose from one of three pricing tiers at $10, $20 or $30 a month, MoviePass confirmed with TechCrunch.
There is, understandably, no unlimited option this time out. That was one in a long list of bad decisions that led to the brand’s decline the first time around. Founder and new owner Stacy Spikes promised to learn from the mistakes of MoviePass’ previous owners in a bid to get people going back to theaters after two extremely rough years.
“A lot of people lost money, a lot of people lost trust,” he said during a press conference late last year. “There were a lot of people who were hurt and disappointed, and I was one of those people.”
The platform outlined at that event revolves around a kind of “credit system.” Different films will run different numbers of credits, and those figures will further fluctuate based on the day and time the movie is viewed. Credits also can be rolled over and transferred to friends. It’s a more complex version than MoviePass 1.0 and one designed to prevent the sorts of log jams its predecessor created.
This version of the service will likely be more cautious and conservative than the one that filed for bankruptcy a couple of months prior to the beginning of the pandemic.