MoviePass To Make A Comeback With Ad System That Tracks Your Eyeballs
In its former life, MoviePass ran on a business model that the public really liked. For a flat price of US$10 a month, subscribers would be able to catch unlimited films in theaters nationwide—a deal that was so attractive it drew millions of users in no time. Unfortunately, the company struggled to turn a profit with this scheme, and filed for bankruptcy before shuttering operations in 2019, three years after launching.
Now, MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes has confirmed that the platform will return under a new strategy. The ticketing service will have a tiered model and run as sort of a “co-op” where users will contribute in some way to keep the business afloat.
How’s that going to happen, you ask? Well, MoviePass 2.0 will now assign credits to movies, determined by their popularity and duration. You earn those credits by watching targeted advertisements via your smartphone.
And MoviePass makes sure you really watch them by tracking your eye movements.
The credit-earning system pauses when you put down your phone or look away. No honey (AKA your sweet, undivided attention), no money.
MoviePass says it was on to testers who walked away from their devices in an earlier version of the reboot.
The feature was made possible after Spikes raised US$56,000 from a Kickstarter campaign for ‘PreShow’, the name of the eye-tracking program.
Spikes, who made the announcement of MoviePass’ resurrection at New York City’s Lincoln Center last week, likens this addition to the moviegoing experience of watching commercials before films at theaters. Only this time, the advertisements will be personalized to your interests, and you watch them from a camera-enabled phone.
Spikes said ‘PreShow’ would allow subscribers to watch movies for free in exchange for their attention.
As of now, MoviePass has not disclosed pricing details for the reborn subscription program, which will launch in the summer.
[via CBS News and PopCulture.com, images via various sources]
