{"id":23767,"date":"2024-05-23T22:53:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T02:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=23767"},"modified":"2024-05-24T23:19:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T03:19:37","slug":"moviepass-moviecrash-a-film-that-sets-the-record-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=23767","title":{"rendered":"\u2018MoviePass, MovieCrash,\u2019 A Film That Sets The Record Straight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The HBO Original documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash \u2014 <\/i><\/b>directed by award-winning filmmaker Muta\u2019Ali \u2014 reveals how the prodigious subscription service for cinemagoers soared and suddenly faced bankruptcy.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the film brings to light way more than a failing business, it exposes how xenophobia is still engrained in the social fabric of the multicultural United States. How does it do that? By showing how two African-American entrepreneurs \u2014 Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt \u2014 founded the successful service over the course of a decade, and were then dismissed by a couple of WASPs \u2014 Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth \u2014 who made it collapse in less than a year. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

For those who don\u2019t live in the star-striped country or are too young to have experienced MoviePass, let\u2019s make a recap: this App was a movie lover\u2019s dream, offering access to film tickets at a discounted monthly rate. Subscribers, by paying $9.95 a month, were able to see as many films as they wanted. This was a revolution because it brought back people to cinemas, by making the fruition of culture economically sustainable.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Spikes and Watt had foreseen the potential of changing how consumers paid for their movies, they still did not have the capital to keep MoviePass financially afloat. For this reason, Chris Kelly, a white investor and later a board member of MoviePass, decided that the only way to save MoviePass was to bring in another investor and have that person become the new CEO: Mitch Lowe. Stacy Spikes was pushed to the role of COO, and Hamet Watt became a simple board member. Mitch Lowe transformed the entire trajectory of the company, ultimately leading it to its demise when he hired Ted Farnsworth \u2014 who ran a data analytics company called Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., under the stock symbol HMNY.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MoviePass,<\/p>\n

\u00a9Photos Courtesy of HBO<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt were set aside because they were losing $200,000 per month. But when Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth took over the business \u2014 with their expensive spending that went into private jets, influencers hired to promote the brand, and\u00a0 <\/span>other flashy initiatives \u2014 raised that loss to $30 million dollars per month. <\/span>Another player in the story was instrumental to the comedown: <\/span>Khalid Itum.\u00a0He was the one who handled the company when Lowe was going through a divorce and took a break from running MoviePass. More carefree choices were made under his leadership, which led to the company going into further debt. The mismanagement and shady dealings caused MoviePass to be put under the scrutiny of the FBI and FTC.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film ends before the investigation is brought to completion and just recently the news came out that Khalid Itum, was found guilty on Feburary 1<\/span>st<\/sup><\/span> 2024, of two counts of wire fraud\u00a0and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 29<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>, with a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count. The jury did, however, acquit Itum of two counts of money laundering.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

MoviePass, MovieCrash<\/i><\/b> made its premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival, and after airing on HBO will be available to stream on Max. The film\u2019s investigative approach is remarkable as it gathers the testimonies of all sides, through interviews with former employees, investors, subscribers, industry analysts. We also witness the accounts of MoviePass board member Chris Kelly, the journalists at\u00a0Business Insider (who originally reported on the rise and fall of the company),\u00a0Nathan McAlone and Jason Guerrasio, and former director at the Federal Trade Commission Daniel Kaufman. It\u2019s fascinating to juxtapose the interviews of Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, with the ones of Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth. The former express their idealistic vision, whilst the latter convey their wannabe flair that sabotaged MoviePass bringing it to a loss of over $150 million in 2017 alone. Lowe\u2019s and Farnsworth\u2019s display of smokes and mirrors revolved around expensive, lavish parties at the Sundance Film Festival, Coachella, and the Cannes Film Festival, that did not correspond to an efficient business model, causing the company to shutter abruptly in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

One one end, Stacy Spikes designed MoviePass to create an inclusive hub for cinephiles, after being inspired by the Urbanworld<\/span><\/a> Film Festival. On the other side, those who stepped in his place killed (figuratively) this project, driven by grandiose delusions. In hindsight it\u2019s ironically disquieting to see how Spikes cites Blade Runner<\/i><\/b> as the movie that changed his life in terms of aspiring to the futuristic, as opposed to Mitch Lowe who says that his passion for film began when he first saw Psycho<\/i><\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The documentary presents one of many stories in which entrepreneurs of colour have historically faced disparities<\/span><\/a>. The data on the matter is unsettling. For example, as of July 2021, Black female startup founders had only received 0.34% of the total venture capital spent in the U.S<\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/b>, and generally speaking Black entrepreneurs typically receive less than 2% of all Venture Capital dollars each year<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9Photos Courtesy of HBO<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

MoviePass, MovieCrash<\/i><\/b> is very ingenious in its storytelling, as it inserts some old footage that becomes a visual allusion to the theme of oppression. For a few seconds we see Betty Hutton in the 1947 feature film The Perils of Pauline<\/i><\/b>, who is tied to the rails as a train is approaching. This instant conveys how there seems to be no way out for the App\u2019s downfall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Muta\u2019Ali \u2014 besides providing very factual insight \u2014 depicts a modern fairytale, because at the end of the day justice is done for the ousted hero (Stacy Spikes), who is given the opportunity to reshape MoviePass as it was originally conceived. The service that began as a pop culture phenomenon and was swallowed by<\/span> corporate greed, gets a second chance. MoviePass, MovieCrash<\/i><\/b> attests how <\/span>the power of resilience gets rewarded, when there is conscientious entrepreneurship to back it up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Final Grade: B+<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out more of Chiara\u2019s articles<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n