MoviePass makes a comeback—inside its lifestyle brand approach

Subscription-based movie ticketing company MoviePass is launching its first national brand campaign and new community engagement features as part of a comeback following its tumultuous past, which included a bankruptcy filing in 2019. NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today MoviePass’ “Dream Bigger” campaign launches with a film (below) highlighting great cinematic directors. These include Pedro Almodóvar, Ryan Coogler, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, Spike Lee, John Waters, Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles. The spot also features a voiceover of the poem “A Splendid Torch” by Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw. Other campaign elements, developed with brand strategy agency P3RL and produced by Roam Editorial, include digital out-of-home ads in New York featuring images of great directors and the phrase “Made for movie people.” The messaging is an effort to target movie buffs and people who are truly invested in the art of moviemaking, Stacy Spikes, CEO of MoviePass, told Ad Age. It is an intentional shift away from the previous focus of simply offering an affordable way for anyone to watch movies. “Sixty percent of theaters have some replica of MoviePass now, their own subscription model,” Spikes said. “While ours is one you can use wherever you want, there’s still that choice for consumers. We realized we needed to take a step back and position ourselves differently. And one of the things we realized is that MoviePass is for movie people.” A comeback story Founded in 2011 by Spikes, an entertainment industry entrepreneur, MoviePass became known for offering unlimited movie theater tickets for a monthly subscription. It was acquired in 2017 by New York analytics and consulting company Helios & Matheson, which lowered the subscription price to just $9.95 a month, causing its user base to balloon—and its price point to become unsustainable. By September 2019, MoviePass filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The company has since been on a comeback journey. Spikes bought it back from Helios & Matheson in 2021, announcing it would relaunch its movie theater subscription with a new model in 2022. It officially relaunched its ticketing service in 2023, replacing the previous $9.95-a-month for unlimited movies with a more robust pricing model. (The new monthly model includes tiers that cover a certain number of movies. For example, $10 covers one to three movies; $20 covers two to four; and $30 covers four to five.) Now, the new campaign and community engagement efforts are intended to turn MoviePass into a place for movie lovers to connect with each other, making the service more than just transactional. In January, MoviePass will launch new in-app features that include community forums for discussing and reviewing films, access to trailers, a podcast featuring interviews with directors and talent and a live map that demonstrates how many other MoviePass members are in theaters watching the same movie. The efforts come as the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) reports seeing strong signs for moviegoing in 2025. Despite falling theater attendance in recent years, a report from NATO found that 76% of Americans ages 12-74 saw at least one movie in a theater in 2024—approximately 200 million Americans. Meanwhile, 85% said they plan on going to the movies as often or more often in 2025 than they did this year. Movie theaters continue to bring in more people annually than the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL combined, and movie going is a preferred activity among Gen Zers, according to the report. Theater owners are investing in the moviegoing experience, with the top eight owner groups expected to invest $2.2 billion over the next three years to improve projection, sound and screens, food and beverage options and more. Building a lifestyle brand MoviePass’ new “Dream Bigger” platform is aimed at consumers with richer relationships to film. “Movie people see the world differently,” said Derrick Goss, founder and CEO at P3RL. “Cinema opens us up to a bigger world, where we have a deeper understanding and a new perspective of things. So rather than just focus on movie-going, [we wanted to reach] people who see movie-going as a life-enhancing activity, not just entertainment.” The new spot, directed by Greg Brunkalla, thus opens with images of directors because it is meant to evoke the feeling of insider knowledge, added Spikes. Only movie people would recognize many of them without context. “If you know, you know,” he said. “We wanted to move from being a transactional company to a lifestyle brand, and so [in the film] we are first showing you that spirit of ‘Think different.’ [We’re showing] those creators that think outside of the box [and] are pushing us to see the world differently with extraordinary pieces of work that they all have made. “And then you see the filmmaking process and this little girl at the end, who is all of us, and she is the future of storytelling,” he continued. “Cinema reminds us of what’s possible,” added Goss. That idea is core to MoviePass’ strategy moving forward. The brand is working to position itself less as a facilitator for viewership and more as a vehicle for ownership of ideas and stories—from a way to save money to a way to find like-minded storytellers. MoviePass has the largest theater footprint of any membership program, featuring over 3,500 locations in all 50 states, representing more than 97% of the movie theater market. “Moviegoing is the largest out-of-home activity,” said Goss. “But part of the job is changing the behavior and frame of reference of the way we think about what movies can do for us on a mass scale. I think that’s what this campaign will be doing.” The “Dream Bigger” campaign will be featured as part of a national ad buy across digital media and movie theater advertising on screens in New York, as well as on broadcast and streaming platforms through early next year. Read Ad Age’s Best of 2024 stories here

MoviePass makes a comeback—inside its lifestyle brand approach

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