On January 28, 2020, MoviePass' parent company HMNY filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and announced that it had ceased all business operations.

[6][7] On November 10, 2021, MoviePass co-founder Stacy Spikes was approved ownership of the company by a New York bankruptcy court judge.

In August 2011, the company partnered with Hollywood Movie Money to conduct its service through its preexisting voucher program and cinema network.

In October 2012, following a national beta test, the service switched to a mobile app and electronically preloaded prepaid card.

[16][17] In July 2016, MoviePass unveiled a new plan structure effective in September, with tiers based on two, three, or unlimited movies per month.

Lowe explained that "after years of studying and analysis we found that people want to go to the movies more often, but the pricing keeps going up, and that prevents them from going more.

Helios and Matheson's CEO Ted Farnsworth stated the service wanted to increase the size of its userbase in order to analyze viewing habits for targeted advertising.

Farnsworth compared the model to those of Facebook and Google, whose free services are subsidized by the collection of personal information for advertising.

[42] Following a "service interruption" on July 26, the firm announced that it was forced to borrow $5 million in order to continue its operations; auditors doubted whether the company would be able to remain in business.

[50][51] In November 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed in San Francisco for not following through on its promises by blacking out various popular movies.

On February 2, 2019, another class action suit was filed in New York state court against MoviePass for using bait-and-switch tactics.

[56][57][58][59][60] In September 2022, Insider reported that the Moviepass' beta relaunch will kick off in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City starting on Labor Day, adding that the subscribers can watch up to five movies in a month.

MoviePass said it plans to use the new funding to accelerate the beta relaunch of its movie theatre subscription service, and to develop and implement the company's Web3 strategy, which includes virtual reality cinema experiences and using technology to drive traffic to theaters.

[63][64] The 2017 change in business model was successful in attracting customers; the service reported having 2 million subscribers in February 2018.

One regional dine-in chain, Studio Movie Grill, made an investment in MoviePass, and partnered to pilot features such as food ordering from within the app.

[69] The change in business model came with the acquisition of a majority stake in the company by an analytics firm, which sought to widen the service's reach so it could collect more information on customer viewing habits.

Stacy Spikes explained to Deadline Hollywood that he "imagine[d] a day where studio executives can see real-time decisions that subscribers are making from their phones and devices.

"[10] Following the announcement of MoviePass' new pricing model in August 2017, AMC stated that it was "actively working now to determine whether it may be feasible to opt out and not participate in this shaky and unsustainable program", as "by definition and absent some other form of other compensation, MoviePass will be losing money on every subscriber seeing two movies or more in a month", and that lowering its prices in response to the service would harm the customer experience.

[74] In an effort to limit costs during the height of the service's popularity, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe directed the product team to implement three programs that were designed to artificially throttle users' benefits.

[75] Second, they implemented a "random" audit process where some users would be required to take a photograph of their ticket stub to verify that they had actually watched the movie.

In truth, these audits targeted the 450,000 most active users and the verification process was prone to errors, sometimes leading to closure of the account.

[75] Third, they added a hidden "trip wire" for users who saw more than three movies in a month which prevented them from using the service at all when this undisclosed limit was reached.

[75][78] Other executives who were aware of the programs feared consumer backlash and a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation if they were ever discovered.

[75] The FTC filed a legal complaint against MoviePass over these deceptive business practices, who chose to settle the case in 2021.

Lowe explained that the company wanted to "bring great films to the big screen across the country for our subscribers", and that "given the successes we have demonstrated for our distributor partners in ensuring strong box office in the theatrical window, it's only natural for us to double down and want to play alongside them – and share in the upside.

[81] The MoviePass Venture operation was questioned by some in the industry, with one independent studio head telling Deadline Hollywood: "It used to be in distribution, we'd all gossip whether a studio was buying tickets to their own movie to goose their opening, but in the case of MoviePass, there's no secret: They're literally buying the tickets to their own movie".

[82] According to MoviePass' own reports, the service made up 25–35% of American Animals' opening weekend ticket sales, and around 40% of Gotti's.