MoviePass has had a fair share of bad press since its creation, with the service being accused last year of reactivating cancelled accounts without informing users. However, a new report claims the service reportedly changed users' passwords prior to the releases of Avengers: Infinity War and Mission: Impossible - Fallout in order to prevent them from attending screenings.
According to Business Insider, former employees of MoviePass claimed company CEO Mitch Lowe told them to change the passwords of a small percentage of what they described as "power users." The move was made ahead of the release of Infinity War, a massive blockbuster, and the intent of stopping users from securing tickets for the film through MoviePass. The same practice is said to have occurred once again with Fallout. For that film, Lowe reportedly ordered staff to freeze customers "out the weekend of its release." The company later told users through social media that the issue was due to an technical error.
Business Insider's report also suggests MoviePass activated what was described as a "trip wire" to keep costs down. Said trip wire reportedly resulted in an automatic shutdown for all users that would only be "activated if MoviePass went past a certain amount balance. If money ever ran out, subscribers would see the following message on the app: 'There are no more screenings at this theater today.'”
A MoviePass spokesperson addressed the Fallout controversy, explaining to Business Insider, "The merchant processor that funds the MoviePass membership card stopped advancing funds for the purchase of movie tickets for our subscribers. As a result, the number of tickets we could purchase was greatly reduced.” In terms of Infinity War, that issue was said to be a result of an update designed to "curb abuse of the service."
As it stands, MoviePass is no longer accepting new subscribers for its service. The website for the service has been updated to tease big changes, stating, "For the past several months, MoviePass has been working hard to improve our groundbreaking subscription service to ensure it meets the vision that we have for it. We are temporarily not accepting new subscribers as we work on these improvements."
It's not clear at this time when -- or if -- MoviePass will re-open to new subscribers.
(via Gizmodo)
