MoviePass is back, and it starts at $10 / month

It’s official: MoviePass is back. Under the company’s new points-based system, you can pay $10 per month to watch one to three movies at any of the 4,000 participating theaters throughout the US.

In addition to the $10 / month Basic plan, MoviePass offers three more expensive subscription options: a $20 / month Standard plan for three to seven movies per month, a $30 / month Premium plan for five to 11 movies per month, and a $40 / month Pro for up to 30 movies per month. There’s a separate, more expensive subscription for customers in Southern California and the New York metro area.

The reason why each tier includes a range of movies you can watch has to do with the way MoviePass’ new credits system works. Every tier offers a different number of credits that you can redeem on movies each month, with Basic having the least number of credits and the Pro plan having the most.

According to MoviePass, a film’s credit value can fluctuate depending on a number of factors, including the time of day and day of the week you want to watch it. Based on tweets from customers who tested the service, credit costs have changed without warning and can vary significantly across showings.

If you don’t use up all your credits, MoviePass says it will roll them over to the next month, allowing you to have a maximum of two months’ worth of unused credits in your account to use at a later date. Once you sign up for the service, you’ll receive a MoviePass card within 10 to 15 business days that you’ll need to use at supported theaters.

After originally launching in 2011, MoviePass lowered its price drastically in 2017, allowing customers to watch an “unlimited” number of movies with a $9.95 per month subscription. That too-good-to-be-true pricing eventually catapulted the company into bankruptcy two years later. It also led to a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over accusations that the service lied about the profitability of its business model.

MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes — who was fired from the company in 2018 for questioning the sustainability of its business model — decided to bring the service back in February of 2022. The company has been gradually adding users to its waitlist since last year. MoviePass is currently accepted at most major movie theater chains, including AMC, Cinemark, and Regency, along with several local options.

“By opening up MoviePass to film lovers nationwide, we are expanding our support of the movie theater industry by helping drive traffic to all theaters during the critical summer season,” said Spikes says in a statement. “Our newly designed service offers our members greater choice and flexibility for how they use their monthly credits, while continuing to encourage them to watch movies in theaters.”

When compared to other movie theater subscription plans, like the $19.95 / month AMC Stubs A-List subscription or the $18.99 / month Regal Unlimited plan, MoviePass stands out in that it starts at a cheaper price and is available at a wider variety of theaters. Unlike these two subscriptions, however, MoviePass doesn’t come with additional perks like free popcorn and other discounts on concessions.