MoviePass is a dream of a cinephile. Throughout 2010, the company allowed users to pay a monthly fee to watch a movie one day in theaters. In 2018, it costs $ 9.95 for a subscription. That is less than what some theaters will charge one film screening, let 30, and the company Went to the bottom One year later.
Now, MoviePass is back, and it has touted a crypto-powered rebrand. On Thursday, the firm opened the “Mogul,” allowing users to fill the rosters and guess what movies prepared to win big at the box office and what actors would pull the most awards. The product, available to US players, uses an in-game currency and built on the SUI blockchain.
MoviePass CEO Stacy Spike emphasized Fate That in-game currency is like “monopoly money” and they have never decided if “it has become real”. The only information the platform puts in the blockchain is data associated with the game, such as a player's performance, he added.
The CEO has thought about fashioning mogul like a crypto -powered market market, or a local where Bettors can gamble money on who they think will win an election and other real world events. However, he and his team eventually decided against it, he said.
“When [you] Talk to the laity and you say 'crypto,' it means you're doing a memecoin, you're doing something Trump does, you're doing a Dogecoin … That's not what it is, “he said, in reference to Mogul.
The losses in crypto
When he talked Fate On Tuesday, the spike attended a crypto conference in Dubai, where he visited a vast movie theater in a mammoth mall. He chose to watch Ben Affleck Blockbuster The accountant 2. “Every time I put boots on the ground in a city,” he said, “I go to the movies.”
More than a decade ago, spikes raised $ 1 million to launch MoviePass, first Said Users around $ 30 a month. In 2017, Helios and Matheson, a company that exchanged public analytics data, gained a predominantly starting stake and led the $ 9.95-every-month promotion that pushed the company eventually sinking. Spikes were immediately pushed from the board and “knew he was no longer needed,” according to Time.
Less than two years later, MoviePass came out of business and the public that the parent company exchanged had expressed losses. In 2022, the spikes bought the company for $ 140,000. “I know I can build something again,” he said shortly Re -arrangement. (In January, one of the Helios and Matheson executives Please guilty of security fraud.)
As he worked with MoviePass 2.0 for the past three years, spikes have been looking for new funds and found the voluntary investor – in Crypto.
Animoca brands, a long crypto powerhouse with focus on NFTS, which led to a $ 5 million Seed hole In MoviePass in 2023, and the Mysten Labs, the main company behind the SUI Blockchain, led to a $ 15 million spin in a while. The same increase is for the equity and token warrants, or the promises of an irreversible cryptocurrency, Spike said.
“There are two types of businesses that get traction right now,” he said Fate. “Either you are an AI play, or you are a blockchain or crypto play.”
Spikes decided on the blockchain. He owns an expensive anime-inspired NFT, holding Bitcoin and Ethereum, and traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Denver attending crypto conferences. “I think blockchain and virtual reality will be an amazing force together,” he announced.
However, playing a MoviePass blockchain is just one part of its business. Funs can still pay for a monthly pass, but it doesn't steal at $ 9.95 a month for a movie a day. Instead, a “premium” that passes costs $ 40 to five films a month. That could mean fewer customers, but at least, the spike said, MoviePass is now profitable.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
