MoviePass and Mastercard have signed a multi-year deal on a discount subscription plan for seeing movies in theaters
- MoviePass has partnered with Mastercard to offer cardholders a 50% discount on the first two months of a Standard or Premium subscription.
- The deal is part of Mastercard's enhancement of its cardholder benefits in health & wellness, travel, and lifestyle.
MoviePass has partnered with Mastercard in the app's efforts to get more people to the movies.
The movie-theater-subscription service that provides members with monthly credits to see any movie at any theater has locked a deal with the credit card giant to become the newest benefit for its cardholders.
Any Mastercard holder will receive a 50% discount off the first two months of a Standard or Premium MoviePass subscription when signing up with their card.
The MoviePass Standard plan costs $20 a month (for 72 credits), and Premium costs $30 a month (for 113 credits). Plans cost $10 more in New York City and Southern California (and give 140 credits for Standard and 200 credits for Premium).
"Mastercard is a champion of the movie industry, and the ultimate partner in delivering rich, interactive experiences that allow movie fans to immerse themselves in the world of film," MoviePass CEO and cofounder Stacy Spikes told Business Insider in a statement. "Our goal with this initiative is to encourage greater movie fandom through activities that could include film promotions, the development of branded content, or in-person activations. At the same time, we are proud supporters of independent theaters and want to develop campaigns that will help them grow and thrive."
The multi-year deal with Mastercard is part of the card's enhancement of "health & wellness, travel, and lifestyle" for its cardholders. Along with MoviePass, there are also new card benefits for Booking.com, Lyft, and ResortPass.
"From savvy shoppers to ambitious entrepreneurs, Mastercard provides a full complement of valuable benefits to help cardholders simplify their daily routines, fuel their passions, and enhance their lifestyles," Seema Chibber, executive vice president of North America Product and Engineering at Mastercard, said in a statement.
MoviePass became a pop-culture sensation in the summer of 2017 when it dropped its monthly price to $10 a month to see a movie a day. It led to millions of subscribers but a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars under the leadership of former HMNY CEO Ted Farnsworth and then-MoviePass-CEO Mitch Lowe (both of whom are awaiting trial on charges of securities fraud).
Spikes, who was fired from his company in 2018, bought back MoviePass in 2021 after the startup went bankrupt in 2020.
Since then, MoviePass has surpassed 1 million movies seen in theaters through the app, according to the company. MoviePass said its new credits model has resulted in subscribers saving 35% on the cost of going to the movies (versus paying the retail price at the theater) since the beta launch, and has increased midweek attendance at movie theaters by 50% among its subscribers.
The company ran a profit for the first time in its history in 2023, Spikes revealed to BI in February.
Business Insider's award-winning reporting on MoviePass is the basis of the upcoming HBO documentary "MoviePass, MovieCrash," which had its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival and will be airing in late May.