The secret, as Muta’Ali’s documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash” reveals, is that they didn’t. And the reasons for such a bizarre business model (and the hardworking, idealistic employees they hurt along the way) are stranger than you might think.
Credit to Muta’Ali for finding an interesting angle on the material, which, ultimately, is about the rise and fall of a scrappy startup business—hardly the most cinematic of subjects, even if movies lie at the core of its business model. See, while we’re used to stories of venture capital ghouls and unchecked capitalist greed taking down even the most well-intentioned businesses, “MoviePass” recognizes its uniquely tragic nature as a cautionary tale for entrepreneurial racism: The story of two idealistic Black founders, their sensible idea for a buzzworthy company, and the greedy, old, white investors who stole it from them and spent it into the ground within a year.
If there are any heroes in this story, they are Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt, two Black entrepreneurs who leapt wide-eyed into an idea to help save movie theaters by incentivizing participation through a subscription-based platform. Spikes, in particular, cuts an especially earnest figure, a shy, unassuming guy with glasses and a sensible head on his shoulders; we hear of his early days as a VP of marketing for Miramax, the creator of Urbanworld Film Festival, and more. Together with Watt, the pair endeavored to do what few Black entrepreneurs could do in the wide white world of business: create something that made a difference.
The trouble came when it came time for actual financing and the old, pale faces who could give it to them. This led them into the crosshairs of Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth, who’d quickly maneuver themselves from financiers and advisors to replacing Spikes and Watt on the board and in the CEO chair in 2016. It’s here that MoviePass’s sensible, if unworkable, business model would rise beyond sustainability: it was they that suggested the too-good-to-be-true $10/mo offer, which would finally push the company’s subscriber base beyond the 20,000 plateau, and the parent company’s stock to new heights. In dueling interviews, Muta’Ali positions MoviePass’s ultimate fate as the tug of war between quieter, more sensible Black businessmen and the loud, greedy white vultures who steal their idea and suck the marrow from its bones until there’s nothing left.